Destiny is a fun game! It follows the Collectible Model that has made games like Pokémon and Magic the Gathering highly successful. It’s got the thrill of opening boosters! Well, if you can actually GET any!
The main problem is that they have no stock! Awakenings was the first set and was sold out almost everywhere the first day. In many cases, the it was sold out within the first ten minutes. It looked to be heading in the direction of “Pre-Order or Bust”. I went from being very excited about the game to ranking it much lower in my priorities, due to the lack of availability. Sure, I pre-ordered a few boxes… but there were so few people to play against, and many times when I did find an opponent they had such a small selection of cards available that it didn’t seem fair.
But all that was going to change with Spirit of the Rebellion! At the GAMA Trade show, FFG made a huge deal about how now they understood the demand and were going to have enough product! Fans of the games cheered, while skeptics raised an eyebrow. I was of the mindset “We’ll see how this next release goes”. And it’s off to a terrible start.
The Spirit of Rebellion launch event, which takes place April 1st and 2nd, is already going south. One major retailer told me that they are only getting enough boosters for 24 people, and only getting enough promos for 8 people! FFG announced that everyone who came would have the ability to earn 3 promos each (There are 3 different promos, so you’ll need all 3 if you want the full set). But it seems they have given distributors1/3rd the quantity of promos to go along with the cards available. And the cards were also slashed. These stores were supposed to be able to accommodate more than 24 people as well. Everything they order is getting slashed by a small inventory.
This leaves retailers with the dilemma of giving everyone just ONE promo (When FFG promised them 3 each), or giving the first 8 people each a full set, (Which leaves everyone else with nothing). And this is the LAUNCH EVENT for the expansion that is supposed to FIX EVERYTHING! I don’t want to say it looks bad… but it looks really bad.
I don’t know if I’ll be playing this game for much longer. Shame too, because it’s quite fun.