Just a quick check-in, because I keep seeing the phrase "the Lance Packs didn't sell well." The word "well" needs a bit of qualification.
My understanding, and based on past comments from management elsewhere, is that against a very large initial print run they didn't sell
fast enough. I've beaten this drum of sales velocity a couple times in the past, but it's a big part of understanding why things do and don't happen.
Money is invested up front to produce a product, which then needs to sell briskly to get the maximum amount of profit back into the company coffers to go make more stuff. The longer it sits in the warehouse, the longer your investment is a sunk cost--and worse, that warehouse space ain't free, and that cost scales to the
amount of product you have sitting in it.
With a large initial order, the pressure on fast sales is that much greater--you've put that much more money in upfront, and have that much more stuff sitting. My sense is that the Lance Packs sold about on par with other BattleTech product in terms of speed. And they sold through, finally, but it took
years. I don't see numbers and neither do you, but draw your own conclusions on the impact that had on the initial investment.
Would some different choices in the composition of the product have aided its sales velocity, like the ideas being thrown around here? Maybe, maybe not. But within that discussion, I don't want it to be lost that speed vs. initial order size is an important factor, possibly more important even than product contents.
I'd be wary of hoping for 4x'Mechs for $20, the reason being that the starter box costs that but has only 2x'Mechs. Yes, it contains other stuff as well, but still...
Don't underestimate the production costs of that "other stuff." You may see it as just a bunch of throw-in paper, but the factory isn't throwing it in there for free. All of those costs have to be factored into the final MSRP of the product. The Lance Packs don't have those elements, so their composition and costs were different.