Licensed games...

[Sulimo]

Boy. It looks like the industry is going nuts with licensed games. Let see, we have:

Mongoose: Slaine, B5, Conan, Lone Wolf
GR: Nocturnals
Eden: Buffy, Angel, Army of Darkness
Goo: Stormwatch, Authority, Song of Fire & Ice

I'm wondering, is the only way to get successful new game/setting going to use an established brand?

Not that I'm complaining...I'm curious to see pretty much all of the above items (some of which i already have).

 

[drnuncheon]

Boy. It looks like the industry is going nuts with licensed games.

It always has, really. Remember any of these?

Dr. Who (FASA)
Star Trek (FASA)
Star Wars (WEG, WOTC)
Indiana Jones (TSR)
Buck Rogers (TSR)
James Bond (VG)
Street Fighter (WW)

Those are just off the top of my head. There are plenty of other licenses out there that are buried in the mists of time and obscurity...

J

 

[Sulimo]

Re: Re: Licensed games...

It always has, really. Remember any of these?

Yep. Played most of 'em too at some point.

I guess my post came up due to the rash of announcements in tha last month or so that have all been about game licenses....Nocturnals, Angel, Army of Darkness, Stormwatch, Authority, Song of Fire & Ice, B5, Lonewolf (admittedly a few have been rumoured for awhile).

About the only announcement I've seen lately that hasnt been about a license lately is the one from ICE about their (kindof) Rolemaster Lite game, HARP (of which I've already got my hands in my pockets for).

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm wondering, is the only way to get successful new game/setting going to use an established brand?

Not that I'm complaining...I'm curious to see pretty much all of the above items (some of which i already have).

While a licensed game is sure to attract not just gamers but fans of a particular brand (what better way to get into the RPG hobby than with something you like?), sometimes it is not a sure thing.

Plus, with all licenses, it is temporary and at the whim of the IP owner/holder. As we've seen in past few years, license can be expired and transferred to another company. In the end, it's up to the business who once hold the license to come up with something of their own IP (Wizards' Magic: The Gathering) or acquired it (Wizards' acquisition of Dungeons & Dragons).

For Mongoose, they got their d20 supplement lines, plus they're coming up with their own mecha-based game, Armaggedon: 2089.

Green Ronin already have Mutants & Masterminds of which is going to be the base ruleset for Nocturnals product line.

Eden Studios got a lot of original IPs, from Witchcraft to Conspiracy X.

And of course, GOO have their very popular IPs: Big Eye, Small Mouth and Silver Age Sentinels.

Some companies I'm concerned about such as Decipher, whose products are all license-based; nothing original of their own.

 

[Remathilis]

You forgot

WotC: Star Wars, Wheel of Time.

 

[Ranger REG]

And Call of Cthulhu (IP owner is Chaosium).

 

[Dragonblade]

Indiana Jones was West End Games.

 

[WayneLigon]

Indiana Jones was West End Games.

TSR also had one. The common joke at the time was that the little Nazi standups were all labeled 'Nazi(tm)' as if TSR had tried to trademark the term It certainly seemed approriate in that era

 

[Ysgarran]

Mongoose: Slaine, B5, Conan, Lone Wolf

As in "Lone Wolf and Cub"?
Any more news about this? A quick look at the Mongoose publishing site didn't show anything but I may have missed it.


Ysgarran.

 

[NeuroZombie]

Also, no mention of the Suthority or Stormwatch at Goo's site. Any more info on those? I musta missed the pr for it.