No more WotC Star Wars - announcement

[Mournblade94]

With no movies or movie re-releases on the horizon (that I know about, anyway), I'm not sure the license would be that valuable a commodity for any but the largest game companies out there considering that it's probably wickedly expensive.

No movies...

But late 2010 will bring the KOTOR MMO by Bioware. That is a big deal that cannot be overlooked.

 

[Budalic]

No movies...

But late 2010 will bring the KOTOR MMO by Bioware. That is a big deal that cannot be overlooked.

I think it's 2011 now.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm not surprised. While Saga had its nice points, I think the development just never hit the right notes. As for the minis, there are really only so many stormtroopers you can sell.

We played the SW Saga adventure path while waiting for 4e to come out. While pretty fun, and very high production value for the books, i couldn't shake the feeling that something was not clicking with the system, particularly combat. I guess trying to model it after 6 movies is just asking for some inconsistencies. The miniatures line for SW has always been hit or miss, with more miss than hits. The D&D line is much better, even at its worst. So, i can't say i'm really sad to see it go bye-bye. I quit buying SW stuff a long while back except for the occasional cheapo miniatures on the secondary market (many of them double for great D&D monsters).

 

[Steel_Wind]

I would also suggest that if the biggest and most successful roleplaying game company in the industry finds the Star Wars license too expensive to be worthwhile, chances are that no other company would really be able to afford it.

Your vision of the "industry" is too small by half. And in the wider gaming industry - even a company like WotC is, in fact, a small-time player.

You are assuming that a company like EA/BioWare has no interest in turning a pnp game and setting development into a marketing and breeding ground for their own Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game.

Fit into the overall product mix of a successful MMO, a pnp RPG -- ANY pnp RPG - is chump change.

Such a game would serve as a breeding round for writers and the development of canon, setting, characters and RPG concepts and integration of settings and stories into their overall game development and marketing hype for their electronic game.

My point: initially, TSR saw electronic game licenses as a way to enhance their brand. That's ancient history now. The market has developed so strongly for electronic gaming, that the pnp side of the equation is now a mere adjunct to the collossus that electronic gaming has become.

I think such an arrangement, with the needs of the electronic brand calling the shots would be a strong possiblity for the direction of Star Wars -- and yes, D&D, too -- in the future.

I say it's not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Not so much interested in another SW RPG (the old D6 books still work fine for me) but if Fantasy Flight got a Star Wars license and started producing a super great series of SW boardgames (especially a spacefighter one) then I would really need to go get a second job because there is no way I could repel boardgame firepower of that magnitude....

DS

 

[Drkfathr1]

Not so much interested in another SW RPG (the old D6 books still work fine for me) but if Fantasy Flight got a Star Wars license and started producing a super great series of SW boardgames (especially a spacefighter one) then I would really need to go get a second job because there is no way I could repel boardgame firepower of that magnitude....

DS

Oh yes, please!

Disappointing to see the license go away, but I guess there's not much left to cover and the cost to carry it has to be high. I thought the SW minis were doing really well, but I guess that's subjective.

Oh well, hopefully someone will produce some nice self-contained games and maybe some kind of new miniature game, but as for RPG, I think its been covered well enough between d6, d20, and Saga edition.

 

[Pbartender]

Can we begin speculating on who will (or should) get the SW RPG license next?

My own secret little wish that will never happen:

Evil Hat Productions gets the rights to create a book called "Spirit of the Force".

 

[Animus]

My own secret little wish that will never happen:

Evil Hat Productions gets the rights to create a book called "Spirit of the Force".

While that would be nice, they're having a hard enough time getting the Dresden Files RPG out (the process started 2005(?), don't remember), and IMHO a FATE-based "official" Star Wars RPG would run into so many obstacles that it would take a longer time to get that going.

 

[pawsplay]

My own secret little wish that will never happen:

Evil Hat Productions gets the rights to create a book called "Spirit of the Force".

No, no... Spirit of the Galaxy!

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Negotiations can bring down that license fee.

Even leaving aside the fact that no-one's going to carve the tabletop roleplaying game rights out of the license Hasbro has from Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm has no reason to bring the license fee down. It's an expensive proposition for them because they really do have staff look everything over, and they don't need the piddling amount of money a tabletop roleplaying game brings in enough to lower their fee just for the sake of having a game out there.