Outer Wilds: Design Works important update
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to explore the quality issues faced with the clamshell deluxe box and the book slipcase. As stated in our previous newsletter sent directly to customers, during inspection in our warehouse and with the advanced units sent out to LIC staff, visible bubbling was noted on the surface of both the clamshell box and the slipcase that resulted in us needing to complete further investigation.
We immediately conducted a full inspection of the remaining goods in our warehouse, and at that time, the majority of the boxes required to fulfil orders were found to be unaffected. As stated in our previous newsletter, we therefore hoped to ship these good units out to you this week.
Unfortunately, on further inspection, it was clear that the Outer Wilds clamshell deluxe box and the book slipcase that had been deemed as “good” the week before had been affected by the issue and was no longer acceptable. We are therefore delaying shipment of Deluxe Editions only to ensure 100% quality compliance and to prevent disappointment for you further down the line.
We are able to ship Standard Editions immediately.
For full transparency, here are just a few images of the issues Outer Wilds is facing. We personally do not deem these flaws to be acceptable, and hopefully by seeing you’ll understand this decision:
The unfortunate reality of this situation now is that we cannot hold any confidence in the product currently sitting in our warehouse, and we remain concerned that anything sent may be affected during transport or after storage in your homes.
This is an unprecedented issue that neither we nor the manufacturer of either of these components has seen before, and right now there is no clear root cause. We are therefore delaying shipment of Deluxe editions only to ensure 100% quality compliance and to prevent disappointment for you further down the line.
Now for some positive news. The management team also visited the nearby box manufacturer, where the issue is beginning to be rectified. The team was extremely pleased with the efforts being made there, and all the product they inspected looked fantastic and well-protected. We are monitoring examples of these fixed units in various environments to see how these hold up, and the plan is not to move any product to the warehouse until the day it ships to reduce the time it spends in warehouse conditions before being sent to you.
As for the Standard Editions, we are able to ship these immediately. There are no problems at all with the books themselves and they look fantastic. We typically always endeavour to send out the Deluxe orders first, but in this instance, we really feel that it would be best to send out the Standard editions now, whilst we work on a solution for the Deluxe editions.
Again, we would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.
We are truly sorry that this issue is occurring at such a late stage in the process. This is an unprecedented and anomalous problem, and without an immediately apparent root cause, we’re sorry that we’re not yet able to give you a confirmed new shipping date.
Rather than rushing any processes to send out these boxes and slipcases, which could potentially result in disappointment as the quality degrades, we want to make sure that the product you receive meets our quality standards, as well as the standards of Mobius Digital, who have been fully supportive of the steps being taken.
We appreciate you bearing with us as we work towards a solution, ensuring that quality remains a key focus and guiding principle of our output and to ensure that these books and all of their components reach your hands as intended.
Thank you, folks!
