Fantasy Flight Interactive & RPG Arm Being Closed Down
January 9, 2020 by brennon
It seems like time is up for Fantasy Flight Games' Interactive wing which was developing digital versions of the well-loved properties. This comes only two-and-a-half years (or so) after it was formed and worked on bringing The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game to both PC and Consoles.
It seems like downsizing across the board has been happening at Fantasy Flight and it is a real shame to see this arm of the company go considering they had done a pretty great job on The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game. It played nicely and really captured the feel of the physical card game whilst also being a good fit for the likes of PC and Switch.
Despite FFI going under, Asmodee Digital seems to be taking up the slack and will be looking after the game on all existing platforms plus on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this year. Asmodee Digital has been helming a lot of different projects from many of the companies under their umbrella so it makes sense they'd simply carry on.
Roleplaying Games Getting The Chop?
As if that wasn't sombre news enough, it seems like the Roleplaying Game arm of the company is also being cut as well. Genesys, Star Wars and The Legend Of The Five Rings roleplaying game have been the focus for them over the last few years and whilst we've seen a lot of Campaign Setting books for the former and plenty of content for the latter two, it looks like it just isn't a priority for the company.
Whilst these games had their supporters I think that maybe Genesys just wasn't as approachable as it could have been. That's just my opinion of course and a lot of people have loved delving in and tinkering away, making their own worlds.
Still, it's never nice to see companies have to drop employees...
"Despite FFI going under, Asmodee Digital seems to be taking up the slack and will be looking after the game on all existing platforms..."
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Official Statement from FFG Interactive from LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6620002528014712833/
That link only works if you have a linked in account.
is this better? https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6620002528014712833-BV3S
It isn’t. I appreciate the effort though.
I bought far too many of the FFG star wars books and the campaign floundered.
I felt that the talent trees were a hindrance, forcing you to take talents you didn’t want, to get ones you did.
And the release schedule focused too much on alternate careers instead of the setting.
The RPG books doesn’t sound right.
They literally just announced a new Keyforge Rpg book line, like this week.
It’s not uncommon, in my experience, for there to be an apparent juxtaposition between the announcements of a(n RPG) department and the financial decisions of the managerial department.
Unfortunately seems so “Sam Bailey, a former FFG employee, added that most, if not all, of the RPG department, has also been laid off.”
https://www.geeknative.com/70427/fantasy-flight-games-to-close-rpg-department/
They do go on to say that more supplements/material could be provided by those outside the company so Star Wars/Genesys etc isn’t entirely ‘dead’
Without reading Fantasy Flight’s official announcement, this reads like a consolidation of the digital properties by Asmodee. The ditching of the roleplaying arm doesn’t surprise me. I’d been half expecting it sooner. It seems to me that as companies get bigger, as they get bought up by ‘investors’, and as they (it seems to me) focus more on shorter term profits, RPGs get ditched. I guess RPGs simply don’t meet the criteria for ‘investors’ and shareholders as well as CCGs, or even LCGs, or board games, etc. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a longer term plan to chop up… Read more »
If it’s like Mayfair and Days of Wonder, FFG will be reduced to its best-selling product lines, and everything else will be dropped.
RPG’s just plain don’t make as much money as other game lines, such as miniatures and CCG’s, which are “lifestyle” games. During the 1980’s (?) GW itself had boardgames and RPG’s, but, like what FFG is going through now, reduced itself to Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy.
You can buy one RPG book and play a campaign that lasts for decades. Sales peak at release, but unless you’re selling one of the market leaders the sales dwindle quickly.
LCG’s and skirmish games have a tournament scene and if you want to be competitive then you need to keep buying the new releases.
From a profit perspective it makes RPG’s look insignificant.
On the plus side… You can play same RPG for decades and never run out of material so long as your GM has ideas… so the games live on on.
It’s possible that they’re switching over to using freelancers for their RPG lines rather than having an in-house team. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re dropping RPGs, but it does seem likely that they might be downsizing a bit in that area.
A la Games Workshop.
https://www.geeknative.com/70427/fantasy-flight-games-to-close-rpg-department/
“However, Asmodee itself was sold the private equity firm PAI Partners for $1.4b in 2018. Traditionally, equity firms look to make a profit on their investments, and this is often achieved by selling on their ownership of a more profitable company later on.”
I really dont like how the ownership goes further and further from production. The quality doesnt hav to go down, but the vision fails…