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.

 

[Morrus]

Interesting. There's no hint what their source it, but if it's true, that'll be a blow.

 

[vpuigdoller]

Interesting. There's no hint what their source it, but if it's true, that'll be a blow.

Indeed. I hope someone finds another source that either confirms or contradict it.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Pity... I'm not a big fan of their systems, but I am a fan of Star Wars and don't like seeing that license orphaned for too long. It probably won't be out of circulation for awhile- somebody will probably pick it up- but you never know...

 

[Morrus]

Star Wars would get picked up (though it's an EXPENSIVE license). L5R will be interesting. Not sure about Genesys.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Not surprising given the earlier news. Margins on board games are much better and consistent, no surprise they want to focus efforts there.

I don't expect the Star Wars license to remain fallow for long, even though I hear it's very expensive and a huge pain with approvals etc.

L5R? Yeah, I expect that to sit around for a good long while with nothing happening. AEG and FFG likely kept these lines going as long as they did since they were also making the card games. I'm not so sure it's very appealing on its own. The barrier for entry on that line is higher than most. In addition to learning a new game system you also have to learn a whole new set of customs.

 

[James Wallis]

I noticed yesterday that the webpage for The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen 3e (which I wrote, and which was published by the FFG RPG division) has been taken down, as has its listing on the Asmodee store, and all the ebook versions of the game. I have not received any official notice that the game is being discontinued.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Helped bring this to EN World's attention time to level up!

 

[Morrus]

Last I heard on the SW license - and this was years ago - was that it was in the region of a $100K advance on royalties. That was all through the rumour-milll though. If that's the case, not many RPG companies could do it -- who's had a big Kickstarter in the last couple of years? Or, if all else is lost, Modiphius only has 7,942,274 licenses right now!

 

[billd91]

Pity... I'm not a big fan of their systems, but I am a fan of Star Wars and don't like seeing that license orphaned for too long. It probably won't be out of circulation for awhile- somebody will probably pick it up- but you never know...

But if someone does pick it up, it will probably be, yet again, another new rule system. All because some equity capital investment company could strip it (or more accurately Asmodee) in an effort to boost its apparent value and eventually sell it off for a profit. Hey, no matter that people lost their jobs - some investor has money to make based on the value those unemployed people built up.