Steamforged Games Announce The End Of Guild Ball
August 10, 2020 by brennon
Steamforged Games has announced that Guild Ball, their Fantasy Sports miniatures game, is coming to an end from September.
Guildball // Steamforged Games
Guildball has, according to the team from Steamforged Games, become a little bit of an unwieldy beast. With competitive events taking place last year and showing the designers that the game had become something different from what they'd envisioned and COVID-19 hitting in 2020 it seems like it was time for the game to come to an end.
With some really fun ideas from the very beginning and lots of interesting characters popping up along the way, Guild Ball has been a firm favourite for many. Whilst Steamforged Games won't be making the miniatures for the game or supporting it from a rules perspective this doesn't mean the end of the game for the community. I'm sure that everyone who enjoys the game is going to continue to play it within their own groups and fire up events for it.
What do you make of the news?
"...this doesn't mean the end of the game for the community"
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Sad to see this. As a backer of the original Kickstarter that started it all, I have a place in my heart for this game.
Hopefully, the game will continue on in one way or another. Perhaps a third party company may make some unofficial teams in the future.
Sad news, it was always one of those games that I’d look at and think I’ll get this one day…
Same for me, I saw the first Kickstarter and thought that game looks interesting but at that time I didn’t want to get in. Then some years later they released a 2 Player Starter Set and I thought now I’ll gte in, didn’t happen though.
I hadn’t played this game but would have thought it would have made a ready alternative to blood bowl so surprised it’s getting wrapped up and not supported further with the GW announcement of Season 2. I wonder if another company such as Warcradel might pick this up as they have with the dystopian age.
It is an okay game, but seemed to me to be a bit too long for what should have been a more pacey game of fantasy football.
Kind of feels like whip-lash with Guildball ending about the same time as a new edition of Blood Bowl coming out.
We’ll miss Guild Ball, for sure.
I wonder if it had more life in it if it was more of a hobbyists game. It swung towards being a boardgamey and accessible product.
Wow i wonder if players moved to blood bowl.
Given how very different those games are I don’t see much crossover.
I liked the miniatures but as a player of bloodbowl 1st edition with the cardboard players and the styro turf….it was just the right game and everything else seemed to copy it to get on the fantasy football bandwagon. as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,I still play bloodbowl with a nod to the original chaos cup.
Pretty sure I remember 1st edition having an interlocking cardboard playing field and it did pay a little homage to troll ball which was nice
Well this is unfortunate.
I got a copy of kick-off from a convention last year. It’s a cool game, but it takes forever.
If they’d be able to speed it up a bit it was an absolute winner. I’m sure to play it every now and again.
Nice models, good gameplay. Shame it ends.
As an original KS backer, but only a part-time player, I soon lost track of the continuos churn of seasons, players profiles and necessary paraphernalia to the point it became difficult to get a game in.
IMHO they had too aggressive a business model relying on this churn to generate fresh income; they pursued it until theu bled occassional players dry.
A more stable, community driven version of the game – not driven by such an aggressive business model – will hopefully emerge and provide life for players and models alike.
My thoughts exactly. I did not want to be the naysayer here, you know, ‘do not speak ill of the dead’, and all that. But coxjul has hit the nail on the head here imho. Their aggressive business model ended up being a barrier to entry in itself as well as a turn off for many.
Let the dedicated community take the reins. It will become a better game and experience for all.
Maybe some of my unbuilt teams from the original KS will suddenly be worth something on fleaBay etc after all!
Just because the manufacturer stops making a game does not mean it has ended. The player community will continue to develop and tweak rules and manufacturers of “alternative” sport-like wargame miniatures will fill in with some minis for those that want some new ones. This will be a dissapointment for some competative players but personally I don’t mind when games enter this phase. It is hard for new players to enter, true, but I’ve got everything I wanted from them and can play the occassional game quite happily not having to worry about whether I’m playing the right seasonal version… Read more »
I agree with you to a point. Steamforged themselves admitted that the game has turned into something they did not envision. All I am saying is if they kept to the original premise, and let the game grow a bit more organically, instead of all this out pour of product and seasons, then maybe the game would of rendered more in the long run. It seems that they stumbled on their own strategy and created barriers to enter because of it. I could be wrong and misinformed, and I certainly do not know all the details – but it pains… Read more »
> instead of all this out pour of product and seasons
Dakka rumormill is that investors, ironically including known game designers, killed it. The company was doing better with the KS IP properties. It’s possible that all this product was made in a short time to either show GB could bring in money, or to finish up everything before its expiration. Unfortunately, if a company has competing products, they put their resources into the more successful one. “Lifestyle” games tend to be resource-intensive and have a smaller market than boardgames.
My wife and I will continue to play Guild Ball. We enjoy it quite a bit.
Good evening. I agree, these news are bad. But there are also many other games to play. Just check new products from 2020! I want to install Valorant, did you play this game? As I know better will be to use games boosting services to play on high rank. Is it true?