New SW Products?

[wingsandsword]

They just put out another chapter of the Dark Force Saga web articles yesterday. I think if they just wanted to let it die and only use the minis game they wouldn't bother paying somebody to write up web articles entirely for the RPG and get them vetted by Lucas Licensing.

As I said before, I suspect there is a big disconnect between what WotC wants to do, and the financial and legal realities between WotC and Lucasfilm. I'll operate under the presumption that if they wanted to kill the line, they would have by now, and that there will be a Clone Wars/Rise of the Empire Sourcebook (what I really want personally) one day, either for d20 or another system, but I'll still use d20 no matter what happens (just like there are still people who play d6 SW).

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I think if they just wanted to let it die and only use the minis game they wouldn't bother paying somebody to write up web articles entirely for the RPG and get them vetted by Lucas Licensing.

I wonder if the miniatures aren’t part of the problem as Hasbro has their own very close to miniature game out also. I haven’t look at it except at a store so I could very much be wrong.

 

[HellHound]

Hasbro's minis game is called Heroscape.

We had the pleasure of talking to the designer for a few hours one morning last summer, and the point of Heroscape is to be a 'gateway game' to bring players into 'real' miniature gaming such as D&D Minis or Star Wars Minis. The designer wasn't initially going for that goal, but it's the goal he was given by Hasbro head office and the ethic behind the final design of the game. It's definitely not competition for the WotC minis games.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Hasbro also has Attacktix, which could be considered a miniatures game (in the broadest sense, anyway). It specifically has a Star Wars version, which may be what people are thinking of if they talk about Hasbro competing with the SW minis game.

That said, I seriously doubt it has any impact on SW mini or rpg sales.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

We had the pleasure of talking to the designer for a few hours one morning last summer, and the point of Heroscape is to be a 'gateway game' to bring players into 'real' miniature gaming such as D&D Minis or Star Wars Minis.

Awe interesting. As I said I've only seen it on the shelf... and that’s for putting 'real' in parentless. I would hate for people to get the idea that the D&D miniatures or SW miniatures where a real game of miniatures.

The designer wasn't initially going for that goal, but it's the goal he was given by Hasbro head office and the ethic behind the final design of the game. It's definitely not competition for the WotC minis games.

That might be their intentions but I think that even on a minor, minor, level they are hurting each other's sales.

That said, I seriously doubt it has any impact on SW mini or rpg sales.

and I have my doubts too.

Does anyone know why the SW miniatures don't come with the RPG stats like the D&D ones do? (Oh and yeah I think that could be hurting the sales of SWd20. )

 

[Dominic]

I think the SW minis game is taking resources away from anything new for the RPG line. SW minis seems to be making WotC a fair amount of money - I know I've purchased quite a few for my home SWRPG game - so that's where they are going to put the effort.

They have released many of the RPG stats for the minis, just on the website, and many of the others are in the rule books anyway.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I doubt that SW Minis is hurting the sales of the RPG line. Mostly for the fact that the line was pretty much dead by the time that the minis came out. Not a lot of product from the RPG line to compete with the minis.

Kane

 

[wingsandsword]

Does anyone know why the SW miniatures don't come with the RPG stats like the D&D ones do? (Oh and yeah I think that could be hurting the sales of SWd20. )

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I heard that apparently Lucasfilm insisted that one side of the card for each character have just the picture of the character, the back could be used for stats, so that the cards could look more like common trading cards.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I heard that apparently Lucasfilm insisted that one side of the card for each character have just the picture of the character, the back could be used for stats, so that the cards could look more like common trading cards.

I think there could be room on the back for both stats. I could be wrong it’s been awhile since I looked on them... Personally I think that stats are missing so WotC can say that the SWd20 is dead and get it at a discount. (My own belief I've not read this anywhere and it depends upon the condition that web support isn't considered a product.)

 

[Dominic]

I dont think that it is competeing for sales, just resources within WotC itself. Wotc has a finite amount of resources, and they are chosing minis over RPG, for whatever reason - LFL and licensing is my guess.