We’ve been excitedly planning for the release of The Automata Initiative, the remastered editions of System Gateway and System Update 2021, and the expansion of our online shop to serve all 27 EU member states. Unfortunately, an obstacle has been brought to our attention: our EU printing partner will unfortunately be closed for their summer holidays between July 29 and August 15. Therefore, processing of all orders for the above products for EU customers, which was expected to begin July 31, will instead begin August 15, 2023.
Please note that this only affects customers in one of the EU member states, and not in any other region our online shop serves. It also does not affect any orders from our print-on-demand partners or any third-party resellers.
We are aware that some players from this region have already pre-ordered these sets. To apologize for the delay, we are offering a 10% discount code to use on a future purchase which will be sent to you by email, as well as the opportunity to cancel your preorder for a full refund. If you choose to cancel, you still get to keep the discount code.
If you would like to get access to the new cards as soon as possible, you will still be able to obtain them through our print-on-demand partners at MakePlayingCards or DriveThruCards. Purchase links for those services will be available on The Automata Initiative’s product page within a few days of release, depending on how quickly the pack is approved by those partners. Buying through one of those services will likely get the new cards to you sooner. However, it will result in a higher cost to you, both due to the shipping charges and due to any applicable VAT and customs charges, since not all MPC orders are produced in the EU.
Keeping your preorder through our online shop, on the other hand, will mean the cards get to you slower, but the quoted price includes free shipping, the cards are shipped from within the EU so no VAT or customs charges will apply, and they will come in a cardboard tuckbox.
Whichever option you choose, our free print-and-play PDFs will be available for you to download so you can start using the new cards immediately while physical copies make their way to you.
We realize that many of you, like us, were keen to get hold of The Automata Initiative and start playing with the new cards as soon as possible, and we are just as disappointed as you. We take full responsibility for scheduling our release without ensuring that our printer will be able to deliver in that time frame. The agreement we reached with them was being negotiated for a long time, and it was not anticipated that it would coincide with the release of three new products almost simultaneously. We hope you will choose to keep your preorders, and, if you don’t, that you will come back and use the discount code we offer some time in the future!
