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.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I start to worry because Asmodee is the owner of Edge Enternaiment, the Spanish publisher who is translating D&D (Xanathar Guide should be on the stores this Friday 21st).

I don't worry about the end of the SW RPG because I am not interested in its new game system. What about Legend of the Five Rings. It is too famous to fall in the oblivion. If FFG stops the production it could be sold to other company, WotC, Onyx Path/White Wolf or Chaosium. But I am sorry for players who after buying the books have to learn a new system in the next edition.

* Somebody doesn't like the new SW titles because his opinion the changes haven't been in the right path.

* Disney could dare to buy some videogame studio and also a toy company to produce its own board games and action figures.

 

[Mournblade94]

Also -- wow do people around here HATE Star Wars.

I think they probably just don't like the ST era. That was pretty weak. But the rest of what DIsney has done I think is good.

 

[Mournblade94]

I start to worry because Asmodee is the owner of Edge Enternaiment, the Spanish publisher who is translating D&D (Xanathar Guide should be on the stores this Friday 21st).

I don't worry about the end of the SW RPG because I am not interested in its new game system. What about Legend of the Five Rings. It is too famous to fall in the oblivion. If FFG stops the production it could be sold to other company, WotC, Onyx Path/White Wolf or Chaosium. But I am sorry for players who after buying the books have to learn a new system in the next edition.

* Somebody doesn't like the new SW titles because his opinion the changes haven't been in the right path.

* Disney could dare to buy some videogame studio and also a toy company to produce its own board games and action figures.

DIsney shut down its gaming division and sold all of its video game assetts. They are not going to do video games. The investors meetings talked about that as well.

 

[Beleriphon]

Also -- wow do people around here HATE Star Wars.

I once read an article that one of the stipulations of Star Wars fandom is that you actually hate it.

 

[Undrave]

Also -- wow do people around here HATE Star Wars.

I'm pretty indifferent to Star Wars on the whole.

I'm mostly against brand stagnation in general. For all it's craziness and wankery, the EU was at least a place to see people be creative and crazy. I don't think a carefully controlled and curated Brand like Disney Star Wars is a good environment for a proper RPG.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The Expd Univ should be allowed in the TTRPG because here we have to be totally free to break the canon and create our own mash-up and other crazy ideas. For example a time-traveler kills Anakin Skywalker when he was a child, Palpatine was killed by Mace Windu, Trade Federation won the clone wars and lord Dooku becomes the supreme ruler, but then a new faction appears, a galactic empire from other timeline where Amidalia was killed by Palpatine to cause Darth Vaderr's rage and this killed him, falling in the Dark Side. DV created a clone of Amidali (really a robotic body with her brain and a organic womb to be mother...).

The TTRPG are like toys, to create your own stories without worring about what is canon or not.

* Maybe WotC talked with Disney about the SW RPG, with a better offert, but the rest of Asmodee/FFG still are nice.

* Really Disney's Planet of the Threasure was so bad? where was the failure?

 

[Nilbog]

I really like Star Wars, and I think that the Disney films get a lot of undue grief, the new films for me were never going to match the original trilogy, but then i had the blessing of youth, now I'm a cynical old man

Its really sad, if true, that FFG won't be be making the games anymore, firstly for the staff involved, losing your livelihood is a horrid experience, and i hope they find employment soon. Secondly, while the FFG wasn't a good fit for my gaming group, they were incredibly well produced books, and I got a lot of useful fluff for them, I thought I'd be keen to see a new Star Wars system, but reading about the complexity of licencing I can't imagine any company being able to pick it up

its a sad day when there is no active official Star Wars RPG

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You haven't lost SW RPG forever. If you want background you only have to see the fandom-wiki and if you want crunch you can recycle other tiles, for example Starfinder.

If WotC republishes SW then projects about d20 Future will be frozen for a time. (but at least could allow the alien PC races in the SRD). It would be strange a new d20 SW without previous playtesting when they know the feedback is very important.

Do you worry about the future of L5R? maybe it only needs a manga adaptation and later an anime serie.

 

[eyeheartawk]

You haven't lost SW RPG forever. If you want background you only have to see the fandom-wiki and if you want crunch you can recycle other tiles, for example Starfinder.

If WotC republishes SW then projects about d20 Future will be frozen for a time. (but at least could allow the alien PC races in the SRD). It would be strange a new d20 SW without previous playtesting when they know the feedback is very important.

Do you worry about the future of L5R? maybe it only needs a manga adaptation and later an anime serie.

Personally, I could live without another D20 Star Wars game. We already had three (D20, Revised and Saga).

As for L5R, speaking as somebody who plays it and enjoys the setting, I see this one gathering dust for awhile. It's a small, niche audience and it's not the easiest game to get into. The L5R RPG isn't going to keep anyone's lights on. As I understand it AEG basically shoved the L5R RPG rights at FFG for nothing, saying "here", when FFG was really only interested in the card game and board game rights. Only after the card game proved popular did they even bother starting production on the RPG. The fact that AEG was not interested in it by itself should underscore that fact.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

No RPG has an expiration date.

Just because any game or any edition of a game ceases publication doesn't mean it will never again be playable - just no longer supported. People will have to... USE their imaginations to come up with material to support OOP games...

I mean, I like FFG's SW system even if I think it's hardly the best system for Star Wars. But news that they may cease publication of it and all related RPG's for whatever reason... Sad, but that's the business. Once was a time in the late '90's I had largely lost hope of seeing D&D ever published again. I've always been all about D&D and was saddened by that idea, but was secure in the knowledge that at least all the D&D material I'd bought up to that point was still viable (if not slightly more valuable due to being in decreasing supply from then on) and that I and others would continue to create material compatible with various D&D editions and continue to play it - whether the game itself was in print or not.

Not all games succeed forever; not all companies succeed forever. Frankly, even if they didn't use it for the SW IP, I think companies would be foolish to not swarm all over acquiring that system to use for a generic substitute setting, or other settings and genres.