Lay-offs at Fantasy Flight Games?

Rumours have been posted over on Reddit that layoffs are taking place at FFG, which produces the Star Wars and Genesys RPGs, amongst many other things, most notably a metric ton of board games.

Its unclear what’s the situation is, but Sam Bailey, formerly of FFG has reported 14 layoffs, and Tim Gerritson confirms on LinkedIn that Fantasy Flight Interactive has been shut down.

This report suggests that the RPG department is a casualty. And this blog post has a good summary of what's currently in the pipeline, product-wise.



This post on LinkedIn confirms that Fantasy Flight Interactive is being closed:

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Fantasy Flight Games RPG Products Still in the Pipeline

Reviews and discussions about Dungeons and Dragons, roleplaying games, and wider geek culture.

knighterrantjr.blogspot.com

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Unfortunate news, but not unheard of in this industry, especially these days with never-ending cycles of buyouts, acquisitions, and turnarounds. It's a shame to think what we might miss going forward, but I think it is too early to say what real impact this will have on our tables.

As for the fate of the Star Wars RPG, I`m good. Thank you, FFG. The Force will be with us, always. (As well as "Edge" and "Age"!)

 

[Highland Raider]

I guess this means Modiphius will do Star Wars now. They do everything else.

Only if they manage to finally fulfill Siege of the Citadel the board game.

 

[Umbran]

2013: French private equity firm Eurazeo acquires Asmodee for €143 million

Ugh. If I were a mechanic in overalls looking under the hood of a car, I'd say, "Well, that's your trouble right there!"

Private equity firms, in general, are not driven by the continued health of a company the way a simple stock shareholder is.

 

[aramis erak]

Apropos of nothing, it's weird seeing those two posts right next to each other!

I am a pessimist, and saw hints of it in various posts and Q&A's...

The end result of a multi-national merger generally are to move IPs worth anything to the central office, and anything else gets sold off, often cheap... I would expect that the entire FFG catalogue is likely to be moved to "No reprint, PDF when legal, extract all value until sales stop, then take any reasonable offer."

 

[Wolfram stout]

I just saw where the collectible dice/card game for star wars is being "completed" is ending. Wonder if that i signs of more bad things to come for them and Star Wars. .

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now Star Wars is a golden egg goose to stop the production, a serious mistake of management. I start to wonder about the future of Asmodee will be sold to Hasbro.

 

[Morrus]

Star Wars: Destiny is being closed down.

The Saga Concludes

Announcing the End of Star Wars: Destiny

www.fantasyflightgames.com

 

[Zardnaar]

More or less called this months ago. Said something like I doubt they will renew the RPG license.

Then people pulled the top 5 RPG line u suspect the top RPG matters the rest not so much.

I suspect Disney will want more money and a Star Wars RPG fees are going to make it hard.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This is sad because Asmodee could become the second Hasbro, a big fish in the board-game industry but now PAI Partners are pruning the branches. Not allowing to growing up, because they don't understand how really this industry works.

Our hope all those franchises and IPs to be sold to other company to be in better hands, for example L5R by Chaosium or WotC.

If Fantasy Flight Games finally loses the SW franchise, I guess it will be again in Hasbro/WotC's hands because this would be the best bidder. In case this happens, I hope a sourcebook set in Legends/Expanded Universe to be published.

 

[aramis erak]

This is sad because Asmodee could become the second Hasbro, a big fish in the board-game industry but now PAI Partners are pruning the branches. Not allowing to growing up, because they don't understand how really this industry works.

Our hope all those franchises and IPs to be sold to other company to be in better hands, for example L5R by Chaosium or WotC.

If Fantasy Flight Games finally loses the SW franchise, I guess it will be again in Hasbro/WotC's hands because this would be the best bidder. In case this happens, I hope a sourcebook set in Legends/Expanded Universe to be published.

I doubt that Hasbro will let Wizards spend that much on a license they previously gave up.

As for the Destiny line, it's been a flop overall in my local area, and despite the fact that I love it, it's not gotten a strong enough base for sustainability. I know I quit buying over a year ago... because no one wanted to play. X-Wing and Armada, and the other boardgames seem to be doing quite well - the FLGS rack has about 10-20% turnover monthly for X-wing, and 5-10% for Armada and one of the ground ones.