D&D: ‘Deck of Many Things’ Initial Release Plagued by Manufacturing Issues
WotC has halted shipping on the upcoming Deck of Many Things set after manufacturing defects emerged in early-release products.
November 14th is just around the corner. This makes it all the more sudden that WotC announced a delay to the useful Deck of Many Things set’s physical release, citing manufacturing issues. The digital release will still be on time because of course, it will, but if you were hoping to get your hands on the infamous cards themselves, you’ve got a while to wait.
In a statement to Polygon, WotC pledged to suspend the ship date until they could figure out what, exactly, occurred, and could re-manufacture defect-free replacements:
“The defect rate is too high. I cannot in good conscience ship this stock. We need to fully inspect it, understand exactly how many units are defective — all that.”
The defects aren’t the first quality-control issues WotC has faced in the last year. Here’s a look at the official announcement.
Deck of Many Things Delayed – Distorted Cards
Due to a manufacturing issue, the physical version of The Deck of Many Things. The digital release of The Book of Many Things will not be impacted by this delay and will still release on Tuesday, November 14. Purchases of the physical + digital bundle will still receive early access to The Book of Many Things on Tuesday, October 31.
The statement comes after early review copies began circulating among the usual D&D crowd. In certain YouTube unboxings, many cards appeared to be either concave or convex, not lying flat with each other. These issues and others were present in the copy WotC sent BoLS:
Others have found centering issues with the artwork on some of the cards. Hence WotC’s statement. Per the commentary to Polygon, WotC executives suspect some of the problems may relate to the switch to more sustainable, paper packaging:
“Obviously, we want to reduce plastic waste, and so we use paper packaging. We inspected very closely everything throughout the production process to make sure everything was going fine with that, and yet some of the problems that we are seeing here are specifically because of some of the paper packaging that we use.”
These defects are especially discouraging considering the $100+ price tag for the set. But WotC is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Though there is currently no release date scheduled for the physical product, it seems WotC is hopeful that folks who pre-ordered the product will still get decks to their halls by the end of the year.
Check back for more from the Deck of Many Things.
