Fantasy Flight Games Discontinuing RPGs?

Back in January, it emerged that FFG was laying off a lot of staff, including RPG staff. Now, GM Chris over at d20 Radio is reporting that the company is discontinuing all RPG development, including Star Wars, Legend of the Five Rings, and its relatively newer Genesys universal system.

He says that all currently announced products will be produced, but in the long-term the RPG production is ending. There's some speculation regarding sales of companies to each other (FFG's owner is Asmodee, which is owned by PAI Partners who bought it from Eurazeo), but it's only conjecture. More info at the link below!

Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development - d20 Radio

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020. We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed [...]

www.d20radio.com

FFG's Katrina Ostrander appears to have confirmed the news:


Back in January, FFG laid off over 14 staff, and shut down Fantasy Flight Interactive. Reports were that the tabletop RPG department had been "shuttered" -- reduced to a couple of full timers. It sounds now like the cut is more severe even than that.

 

[Umbran]

We’re talking about the license, not how much it costs to play the game.

I know. I'm just noting, in the middle of that, the FFG's game design is going to disappear. Someone else will get the license, and design a new system

Paizo could afford it, and maybe Modiohius.

And WotC/Hasbro, though Hasbro's relationship with Lucasfilm/Disney is reportedly a bit strained at the moment, so I wouldn't expect them to do that. But they do have a game already designed, leaving development cost absurdly low...

 

[DruidsGrove]

And no one is surprised at all. Let's look at the facts. The moment Disney bought Star Wars, they lost ALL the old EU material. If you haven't noticed, Disney isn't pumping out new material constantly. I have a feeling all their Star Wars lines will start to take hits. L5R is more of a niche market, and may not have been selling as well as they hoped. Then there is Genesys, which has a very generic fantasy setting, and alright Cyberpunk setting, and coming up Keyforge. Add to that Runewars Miniatures was a complete flop, and Star Wars Destiny is toast, as well as losing Netrunner. I think FFG is starting to feel the hurt of years of things not selling as well as they hoped (Realms of Terrinoth, Final Hour, etc.), and their owners are trimming the fat.

 

[Count_Zero]

Basically Marvel doesn't understand why they make so little money in RPG licensing. They don't understand the size of the market and what is considered a good amount of money to be worth their time. It's not impossible to to imagine a future where a $100,000 RPG license that's valid for 5 or 10 years plus royalties isn't worth their time. Not when you're a giant multi-billion dollar entity and can find other, better more profitable things to have your licensing teams spend their time on.

I remember Marvel killing the Marvel Diceless RPG because it wasn't selling as well as D&D 3rd Edition (which was pretty new at the time) - though that may have been smoke and mirrors to cover the project being killed because it was launched under Bill Jemas' regime.

 

[Stan Shinn]

I predict Fandom will pick up the license and do a Star Wars RPG using the Cortex RPG system they recently acquired. They would include D&D Beyond-style digital support with DRM content. I also predict it will be awesome!

 

[Jon Stachon]

I've been playing Star Wars RPGs since 1993 (sorry, I'm old). I kept playing, and still do, after West End Games lost the IP. I will still support it if people want to play. As far as IPs go with FFG, I kind of feel that they (FFG) doesn't look too long term. Ergo, Warhammer 40K: Conquest. That LCG was doing well and just as they got all the factions out it folded.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You have to remember Disney and Mattel broke (and now Hasbro is selling Disney's toys) because Mattel created "Ever After Hight", a potential rival franchise for its princesses.

Paizo will want to keep working with its Starfinder, and Hasbro has noticed the best way to sell more toys is the movie blockbusters. If they can't produce a new d20 Star Wars then WotC will publish a remake of d20 Future or another sci-fi videogame adaptation. A d20 game set in the modern or future needs more playtesting and feedback. A remote-control drone with canons works more like a trap than a monster, or a vehicle could be used to kill an enemy, or a horde of enemies. In the first movie of Alien one xenomorph was enough to kill amost all the Nostrome crew but in the second movie dozens, maybe hundreds, were killed from other room using sentinel turrets. In "Cobra" Bridiggt Nielsen's character couldn't face the "night stalker" but hide and run away as in a survival horror, but Sylvester Stallone as a one-man-army could kill all the cult of the New Dawn. You could use a nPC and give an exosuit (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare), a powered armor (Fallout 76) or a mecha (Titanfall) and he becomes too powerful to share the same Challenging Rating or XPs reward. Do you understand? A d20 version of Star Wars, Transformers, Gi.Joe or Marvel Superheroes needs a lot of playtesting to find the right balance of power with and without weapons and military technology.

If FFG can't make more money then I am afair it will be sold to another company, maybe Hasbro buys some "pieces" (for example L5R) but not all, and somebody will be got by others.

 

[billd91]

And no one is surprised at all. Let's look at the facts. The moment Disney bought Star Wars, they lost ALL the old EU material. If you haven't noticed, Disney isn't pumping out new material constantly. I have a feeling all their Star Wars lines will start to take hits.

I doubt it. They're just rethinking their strategy. They decided to not go with the EU so they could tell the post-original trilogy stories they wanted to tell, not try to fit them into a bunch of stories they had no relationship with. That was a decision I endorse since the Yuuzhan Vong sucked.

But as far as their Star Wars lines taking hits? The success of their new theme park sections and The Mandalorian suggest the market is still pretty strong. They're just feeling out all the right avenues for them to pursue.

 

[Reynard]

Is it possible to find out whether FFG has the overall tabletop license or both board game and RPG licenses? That answer would go a long way toward getting an idea of whether we're likely to see a new SW RPG in the near-ish term. Also, do we have any idea how long FFG's Star Wars license has remaining?

 

[Blacksad]

Interesting given that Asmodee recently became partner with GF9 for the french translation of D&D instead of BBE (they already do the Spanish translation through Edge), and obtained the translation rights for Call of Cthulhu (Edge again)

Edge was also doing the translation of FFG products. So it might make more sense to focus on translation (and supplements for CoC, sadly there is no local products with D&D), instead of FFG's products (it seems dubious, the market in Europe is small). We need a rpg journalist who'll ask Asmodee what are they up to.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Interesting given that Asmodee recently became partner with GF9 for the french translation of D&D instead of BBE (they already do the Spanish translation through Edge), and obtained the translation rights for Call of Cthulhu (Edge again)

Edge was also doing the translation of FFG products. So it might make more sense to focus on translation (and supplements for CoC, sadly there is no local products with D&D), instead of FFG's products (it seems dubious, the market in Europe is small). We need a rpg journalist who'll ask Asmodee what are they up to.

From a business perspective, it is a lot easier to back localization for an already extremely popular RPG then to continue support for a middling one.

Is it possible to find out whether FFG has the overall tabletop license or both board game and RPG licenses? That answer would go a long way toward getting an idea of whether we're likely to see a new SW RPG in the near-ish term. Also, do we have any idea how long FFG's Star Wars license has remaining?

I'm fairly positive that it is an overall tabletop games license. Part of the reason FFG could never release PDFs for the Star Wars RPG was because PDFs were considered digital and thus were under EA's purview.