Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop

[dan]

Might be old news for those in the know but I only came across it yesterday.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/9/9/a-new-path-forward/

Snap up all their GW games while you still can.

[Timf]

Yes, their licensing agreement expires soon, so anything on that needs to be bought asap.

[jokulhaup]

Interesting...GW bringing everything back in house I assume

[Timf]

Just not renewing the licence...though with epic at least on the way back it may indicate that they are going in house. There will be significant issues with games IP in FFGs hands though and since they never had a licence for minis games GWs IP and GW havent done board games for decades I suspect it is all more complicated than we know or coincidence....

[dan]

Maybe GW where charging too much so FF just said no?

[dheran]

Oct 28, 2016 5:43:28 GMT dan said:

Maybe GW where charging too much so FF just said no?

As far as I know it was GW that did not renew the license, FFG was happy with paying the price.
It seems exactly what Tim has said: GW re-opened board games department and they probably don't want to have competition.

[Timf]

Except so far they haven't reopened a board game department (unless there have been some announcements I have missed), they are reactivating Specialist games (particularly Epic).
Of those IPs - all were properties that FFG were not allowed to use directly or as miniatures games.
BloodBowl was the closest to an exception and only happened because a) they made it a management game and b) it was already licensed out for computer games so was leaky already.

[dheran]

Let me just quickly list the board game titles that came out from GW recently:
- The Horus Heresy: Burining of Prospero
- The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth
- Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower
- Deathwatch Overkill
- Assassinorum: Execution Force
- Lost Patrol
- Stormcloud Attack
Yes, they call the department Specialist Games. And everyone is happy that Epic might be coming back. All I see though are board games with the 40k/AoS models included. Terribly overpriced board games.

Edit: That might have came out a bit rude. What I meant to say is that I too was looking to Specialist Games being revived with good hopes. I would love to play Battlefleet Gothic. But looking at the content they produced so far I would say that all they are doing is either creating games that are there to increase the sales of their main products (40k, AoS), or selling poor selling models under disguise of a board game.
It seems therefore to me that ending license with FFG was a move from GW to reduce competition with their board games.

[Timf]

Ok i was aware of that set of games but thought they were core GW, under the relevant property (40k, warhammer) division not the specialist games or other new division recently opened. If its under a separate division for boardgames I have indeed missed that being founded in a new timespan to clash with FFG.
Also to note in the GW/FFG agreement boardgames excluded FFG making any game played with, for want of a better expression, proper miniatures....as GW considered them miniatures variants, so FFG couldnt do anything like SpaceHulk but could do things like Chaos in the Old World and GW could release minis games and ev n if they had board components (the space hulk rerelease being one othe and some of the recent ones fall in that group, so I was assuming GW classed them as minis games...thoughthat could be a legal fiction that changes the instant the agreement dies

[Katie]

"play Battlefleet Gothic."

The rules were made free (I've got a zip of them somewhere). All you need is spaceships...

[kaustic]

Speaking of FFG :

I have copy of 1st edition of Mansions of Madness. Liked the atmosphere and look of the game but set up was a chore.

I see the second edition is now App driven like the Xcom game. Would appear to solve the setting up problem. Thinking of splashing out but would like to hear what others think and see what interest there is.

Did the App system work well for Xcom ?

[Timf]

It works fine for Xcom but it is also a timer - does Mansions of Madness require that? The reason I raise its that it does mean that the app user needs to be moderately aware of the game for Xcom.

[kaustic]

Well I have downloaded the app to play around with. No timer involved, and you can integrate the tiles and pc's from the first edition.

[dheran]

So I was saying that the new Specialist Games so far has produced only games using existing set of models at high prices. And suddenly this appears:
www.bloodbowl.com/
New Blood Bowl with (correct me if I'm wrong) new models, decals and stuff.

[simonb]

I was listening to an old Meeples and Minatures podcast the other day and the reason they gave for GW revoking the license was that FFG have announced their own fantasy miniatures game. See episode 179 at:

meeples.wordpress.com/

and

meeples.wordpress.com/podcast/

I think the FFG game is RuneWars

www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/runewars-the-miniatures-game/

Simon