Fantasy Flight Games statement on Star Wars License

[TheAuldGrump]

GW + FFG seems like a likely combo

Great gods, above and below, I hope not. Those are possibly the folks I want least to get the license - the latest RPG releases from either one/both have been 'not at all good' (to be polite). WHFRP and Dragon Age are overpriced, incomplete, and not all that hot rules wise. FFGs miniatures games have been poor, overpriced, and scaled to be incompatible with other miniatures.

GW could do a decent job with the minis, and maybe even the miniatures rules, but GW and FFG together can turn gold into lead.

I would like to see what Green Ronin could do with it, but I doubt that they would have the wherewithal to acquire the license. *EDIT* As Coyote6 has pointed out, Green Ronin is guilty of the disappointing Dragon Age RPG, not FFG. I would like to see a True20 or Mutants & Masterminds version of Star Wars, but Green Ronin can throw out a piece of overpriced junk too. *EDIT*

The Auld Grump

 

[coyote6]

The thing is, they just got the license. They most likely don't have books or other product ready to go (who can afford to write & develop a whole game line before you have the license to make that game?), so it's likely to be quite some time before their products make it to market.

Since it's a license, everything has to go to Lucas Arts for approval -- and that can take some time. Especially if Lucas Arts is busy with something else -- a new TV series or an MMORPG, for example. And if the company tries to rush something out, and it's crap -- well, hopefully, Lucas Arts would kick it back. Getting it right takes some time.

So if the game company announces their license acquisition now, they then will probably have a long time before product comes out. The more time that goes by, the more the hype dies down. Worse, the more the "vaporware" rumors will start.

Compare Black Library's DC license vs. Green Ronin's. BL announced it, then nothing, nothing, nothing, BL is out of the RPG business. Pramas has said GR started negotiations for the DC license three years before the books came out -- and they announced the license 3 months before the books came out, so they kept quiet for a couple of years while they got the license, then wrote the game. Thus, they got the burst of hype, the book came out, and they kept rolling.

(Well, the supplements have taken longer than announced, I think. But it's still better than "we got the license! <months or years pass> Here's the game!")

 

[coyote6]

Great gods, above and below, I hope not. Those are possibly the folks I want least to get the license - the latest RPG releases from either one/both have been 'not at all good' (to be polite). WHFRP and Dragon Age are overpriced, incomplete, and not all that hot rules wise. FFGs miniatures games have been poor, overpriced, and scaled to be incompatible with other miniatures.

GW could do a decent job with the minis, and maybe even the miniatures rules, but GW and FFG together can turn gold into lead.

I would like to see what Green Ronin could do with it, but I doubt that they would have the wherewithal to acquire the license.

Green Ronin did Dragon Age, which you said was "overpriced, incomplete, and not all that hot rules wise".

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Green Ronin did Dragon Age, which you said was "overpriced, incomplete, and not all that hot rules wise".

Whoops - you are indeed correct, and I will repair my error... What I should have said is that I would have liked a True20/Mutants & Masterminds version. (Yeah, I still think that Dragon Age is a pretty poor excuse for such an expensive game, even if I do like other RPG releases from Green Ronin. It was indeed overpriced, incomplete, and the rules are not all that hot.)

For that matter, I have liked FFG's boardgame rereleases, Arkham Horror and Kill Doctor Lucky are not bad games at all. It is mostly WHFRP and Mutant Chronicles that bothered me, I have no reason (or excuse) for blaming Dragon Age on them. Sorry.

*EDIT* Oi! I am on a roll here... As Coyote points out KDL is Paizo... that's it! I'm going to bed and hiding under the covers until I actually wake up.... (I had a brief nap after work and a party, but it looks like my brain is still on the pillow....)

The Auld Grump

 

[Cergorach]

While I agree that WFRP 3E isn't all that great imho, Deathwatch, which is more recent is great imho. The WFRP + 40k RPGs are doing very well for FFG, wether we like them or not...

 

[pukunui]

I would like to see what Green Ronin could do with it, but I doubt that they would have the wherewithal to acquire the license.

GR have already denied having it ... quite bluntly too (Pramas' blog makes it clear that the SW license is more or less the last thing he'd want to acquire).

Since it's a license, everything has to go to Lucas Arts for approval -- and that can take some time. Especially if Lucas Arts is busy with something else -- a new TV series or an MMORPG, for example. And if the company tries to rush something out, and it's crap -- well, hopefully, Lucas Arts would kick it back. Getting it right takes some time.

It's actually LucasFilm Licensing. LucasArts is a separate entity that handles all the electronic media ... and that was the reason why we never got any electronic character generators and stuff for any of WotC's SW RPGs (because LucasArts didn't want anyone else treading on their turf).

 

[carmachu]

My personal opinion is that we aren't talking about an rpg here at all, but rather a war game like Warhammer, and my gut tells me that GW is getting the license.

GW isnt getting it. There's no information in that regard. In fact teh rumors that surround the star wars licesnse was a company getting it that had no miniature experience.

HIGHLY doubtful GW gets the license.

 

[El Mahdi]

...In fact teh rumors that surround the star wars licesnse was a company getting it that had no miniature experience...

Not quite true. The statement by Mongoose was "...the company concerned is not known for its miniatures lines..." Depending on how accurate they were attempting to be, it doesn't necessarily rule out experience with miniatures. Personally, I'd read that as they do make minis or have made them in the past, they just aren't known for them...it's other things they are most known for.

But again, that all depends on how accurate they were attempting to be, and whether they purposely parsed their words...

 

[HeavensThunderHammer]

Interesting.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Mongoose didn't just say that they did not get the license. They said that the didn't, AND that somebody else did, and dropped hints about who that might be. I think Matt knows the Internet well enough to know that will spark a rabid frenzy of speculation.

Mongoose had a legitimate announcement which net them pretty much zero marketing benefit ("we didn't get a license").

So Mongoose spiked that announcement by leaking the fact that the license had been granted along with a bunch of details about who did get the license. They stopped short of openly identifying that company (possibly because they were legally prohibited from doing so), but they did take a course of action deliberately designed to (a) steal some of that other company's thunder and (b) reap the benefit for themselves.

Now, as long as the frenzy of speculation continues, the actual license holder is probably going to benefit from all this. But if speculation settles into consensus that FFG has the license and FFG does have the license, then the resulting response to the final announcement of "that's old news" will probably be harmful.

In that spirit, I say: "This is going to be West End Games' big comeback."