A couple of years ago, John Wick's 7th Sea 2nd Edition smashed tabletop RPG Kickstarter records by raising a phenomenal $1.3M - a record which has only been surpassed once since, by Matt Colville's $2.1M Strongholds & Streaming. Unfortunately, it seems that the company is running into financial difficulties.
The company had some sad news to share in a Kickstarter update to backers yesterday. John Wick Presents has just laid off all of its employees. Wick himself says that this will not prevent the rest of the line being released, but that it will slow down. He's trying to bring on board other companies to help with printing, board game production, and fulfilling his 7th Sea obligations.
"After reviewing the company finances in August, I discovered JWP was not making enough to sustain its current work force. And so, in the ugliest and hardest day of my life, I had to lay off all the JWP employees.
What this means is the 7th Sea lines are going to slow down. I cannot maintain the release schedule we promised before GenCon. That doesn’t mean books aren’t going to happen, it just means they’re going to be slower than expected."
The campaign has delivered plenty of rewards already (I'm a backer myself and received my core rulebook long, long ago). The core rulebook released on time, and various stretch goals have been met, with updated production schedules announced monthly -- the latest production schedule was announced in August (the company posts one each month to keep backers updated), but Wick says that that schedule cannot be maintained now. So far 7 of 12 sourcebooks have been released.
A second Kickstarter, 7th Sea: Khitai was launched last year, which raised $200K. The latest update on that Kickstarter doesn't delve into any of the company's problems, but does say:
"I’ve been talking to various companies about partnering with JWP to continue printing 7th Sea as well as expanding it into territories JWP couldn’t. We tried doing board games (twice) and both times failed. Another company, with a stronger reputation for making board games, could make War of the Cross fly in a way I couldn’t. That’s why I’ve been talking to other publishers about partnering up to fulfill our 7th Sea obligations.For Khitai, I anticipate a May-June release. This may be sooner depending on a lot of factors. As soon as those projects are done, I can let you know where everything else stands. I'll have a better idea of the entire release schedule once negotiations are done with our potential publishing partners.
2018 has been an awful year for everyone, myself included. Let's hope for a better 2019."
The company cancelled its War of the Cross boardgame Kickstarter back in August.
John Wick Presents has done a good job of keeping backers updated. While unfortunate for the employees who were laid off, it only points to a slowed release schedule rather than a full stop.
It's not the first report of financial speedbumps at RPG companies recently. Last month, Evil Hat Productions announced a scaling back of the 2019 publication schedule, and some departing employees.
The company had some sad news to share in a Kickstarter update to backers yesterday. John Wick Presents has just laid off all of its employees. Wick himself says that this will not prevent the rest of the line being released, but that it will slow down. He's trying to bring on board other companies to help with printing, board game production, and fulfilling his 7th Sea obligations.
"After reviewing the company finances in August, I discovered JWP was not making enough to sustain its current work force. And so, in the ugliest and hardest day of my life, I had to lay off all the JWP employees.
What this means is the 7th Sea lines are going to slow down. I cannot maintain the release schedule we promised before GenCon. That doesn’t mean books aren’t going to happen, it just means they’re going to be slower than expected."
The campaign has delivered plenty of rewards already (I'm a backer myself and received my core rulebook long, long ago). The core rulebook released on time, and various stretch goals have been met, with updated production schedules announced monthly -- the latest production schedule was announced in August (the company posts one each month to keep backers updated), but Wick says that that schedule cannot be maintained now. So far 7 of 12 sourcebooks have been released.
A second Kickstarter, 7th Sea: Khitai was launched last year, which raised $200K. The latest update on that Kickstarter doesn't delve into any of the company's problems, but does say:
"I’ve been talking to various companies about partnering with JWP to continue printing 7th Sea as well as expanding it into territories JWP couldn’t. We tried doing board games (twice) and both times failed. Another company, with a stronger reputation for making board games, could make War of the Cross fly in a way I couldn’t. That’s why I’ve been talking to other publishers about partnering up to fulfill our 7th Sea obligations.For Khitai, I anticipate a May-June release. This may be sooner depending on a lot of factors. As soon as those projects are done, I can let you know where everything else stands. I'll have a better idea of the entire release schedule once negotiations are done with our potential publishing partners.
2018 has been an awful year for everyone, myself included. Let's hope for a better 2019."
The company cancelled its War of the Cross boardgame Kickstarter back in August.
John Wick Presents has done a good job of keeping backers updated. While unfortunate for the employees who were laid off, it only points to a slowed release schedule rather than a full stop.
It's not the first report of financial speedbumps at RPG companies recently. Last month, Evil Hat Productions announced a scaling back of the 2019 publication schedule, and some departing employees.
