Steel_Wind
Legend
Do you really think the Star Wars license was in 'perfect conditions'? If there is no money to made with expensive licenses they why would WotC keep Star Wars? Why would any company?
WotC made money off of Star Wars, don't you think they didn't.
However, one of the aspects of the game line that made them money was one that WotC had already sold to death: Star Wars Miniatures.
Star Wars minis always made money and, unlike the D&D minis, there was a significant group of people who bought Star Wars minis just to PLAY Star Wars minis. But after all the sets they did sell, the market had been flooded.
Take away the demand for more minis in a saturated marketplace, add the fact that the main Saga Edition game was essentially complete = and balance that on the other side of the equation with the cost of a new up front licensing fee.
From Lucas' perspective, Star Wars is a valuable commodity and there are two things coming up in the future which would appear to greatly enhance the value of the license, namely:
- Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game, to be released in May 2011; and,
- The Star Wars Dark Times live action TV series - release date unknown but expected 2011-2012.
Any licensee is going to pay $$$ to reap the benefit of those expected additions to the Star Wars milieu, whereas, the profits to be realized from them would happen 2-3 years from now. Win or lose, the license fee would have to paid for NOW.
In the meanwhile, the Saga Edition game had pretty much gone as far as it reasonably could have and Star Wars minis were a product which had been bilked of most of its worth. Given the upfront cost and the deferred expectations of profit -- all without the same Star Wars minis revenue for at least the next 18 months until the TOR MMO was released to provide a variety of new mini material to sell - WotC said NOPE.
How often can you revise, reset and resell a RPG? Saga Edition is an excellent game - and frankly - it didn't need a new rules set revision right now. WotC saw the numbers and the price asked for and said no. They were probably right to do so.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Saga Edition. But perversely, that's one of the best things about the end of the license. Saga Edition is a complete game. It didn't need and was not going to benefit from a cynical and FOURTH "revise/reset/resell" of the game, and it didn't need more books at this juncture, either. It needed WotC to leave it the hell alone and go to a maintenance release schedule for the game until The Old Republic was released. One, perhaps at most TWO books to be released in the next 18 months. And that sort of slow publishing process is not something WotC does very well. They operate with different expectations of profit and revenue than this game needed right now.
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