Morning all. I’m in a pessimistic mood. Approximately 20 years ago, on the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings, Memoir '44 was released to the world. It retains a large following of enthusiastic supporters and even a regular competitive scene, especially in Europe.
I’m puzzled as to why the game is not currently available in the shops, especially considering the big anniversary coming up in June. There was a reprint about four years ago of some of the main expansions, but the stock ran out very quickly. So there is still demand. What needs to be done to raise the profile of the game even more? Is there a reason Days of Wonder is inactive?
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Its never been better in the USA, after six months or more of the base game being hard to find, it is back at retailers and all of the expansion inventory remains in stock; they’ve done multiple print runs in the last two years or at least it seems so. If you’re thinking about this game its probably snooze or lose time on the expansions.
D-Day Landings only had one printing about ten years ago and they’re fools not to do another since it would be a huge driver for people buying more of the expansions given its requirements. It is hard to keep a great game down. 
Allegedly they are supposed to be having something come soon for the anniversary, but just getting the website and scenario editor fully back seems to have Asmodumb technically overwhelmed.
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Well, that’s good to hear. I live in Japan, and there has never been an official release here because of language issues, but there is a small community. The current rate of Yen and the issues created by the Russia/Ukraine thing among other things, have created a situation where it is much more difficult to import things at a reasonable cost. Consequently, while it used to be comparatively easy to get regular deliveries of various goodies, it is now a bit of a chore.
I think there are a number of issues for board games that are in and out of print. Memoir has a number of different types of component media- card, plastic, etc., and so it means coordinating different places to get things made. Board game companies tend to be quite conservative in how many copies they produce because there is a risk of a lot of stock not being bought. I’m glad to hear that the situation in the US seems to be good. I’m just disappointed that what seems to be a golden opportunity in the big anniversary seems to be missed. June is really not far away!
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Here in France availability is also very good, both online and in shops. Sorry to hear it is difficult in your region, but it is certainly not a universal situation. It does seem a bit of a wasted opportunity not to have something big announced for the anniversary. It is the kind of publicity that does not come along very often. A lot of my fellow countrymen celebrate liberation around the same time too so you cannot move for references to it.
Regarding the D-Day expansion, I would have thought that some sort of a pre-order programme would have shown up, especially since the contents largely avoid the problem you mentioned of different types of components. There are a lot of people out there who have never been able to get hold of it without selling a kidney or two.
And, of course, there are the always elusive Campaign Books.
The scattergun approach of DoW to a game which is still astoundingly popular after all these years has been much discussed here, so we shall just have to wait and see.
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