The Alderac Entertainment Group has outlined a program that will enable brick-and-mortar hobby retailers to obtain AEG’s L5R and deck-building games two weeks before they will be made available to online retailers.  AEG CEO John Zinser told ICv2: "We understand that brick-and-mortar stores are central to this business, and that it’s harder and harder to compete with online retailers.  So far the program has worked great.  No broken release dates and just enough time that players who must have their product early support their local brick-and-mortar store.  We plan to continue the program through this year on as many products as possible."

 

AEG now has two release dates.  The "brick-and-mortar-release date" comes first and marks the date that retailers can sell the product to anyone who comes to their store, but they cannot ship orders, all orders must be purchased on site.  The "standard release date" is the day for all kinds of sales, in person or by mail.

 

Zinser explained the difference between the two dates to ICv2: "We are trying for 2-3 weeks in advance for the date to ship to brick-and-mortar, but it depends upon when we get the product."