Exclusive: Wayland Games Take Over As Owners Of Wild West Exodus
October 21, 2016 by brennon
Outlaw Miniatures are going to be leaving the world of Wild West Exodus behind as it changes hands and becomes the property of Wayland Games Ltd.
To give you the lowdown on information Romeo has put together this letter to fans of the game.
Dear fans of Wild West Exodus,
Over the past four years I have gotten the opportunity to entertain every one of you with our great game. From the early years of Wild West Exodus, I had a vision to create a game that made people happy. I wanted Wild West Exodus to be something different and something cool to the gaming world. After our first successful Kickstarter I knew we had discovered something that would bring years of enjoyment to the masses. You the fans made that all possible by not just supporting us with our first Kickstarter but continuing to support us months and years after.
The dedication you as players and collectors showed us is what helped us get so successful. We carried that energy and success into our second Kickstarter campaign that also reached numbers we never expected. Your support for us and this awesome game is what has driven us to produce our miniatures. It has helped us to create exciting story lines and characters that anyone can get invested in. Your support has pushed us to get better at model design and the overall look of the world. For this support we thank each and every one of you out there.
As many of you have noticed over the past few months our team has gone a bit silent. This silence in no way signaled an end of Wild West Exodus or the respected brand it has become. Actually, the exact opposite has been taking place in the deep underbelly of the Dr. Carpathian labs. Over the past 12 months I, as the creator of the game have realized I needed more help. I realized that it takes a team to build and progress a game like ours. A team much larger then what I personally was able to put together at Outlaw Miniature. I and the rest of our staff felt that if we wanted the game to be incredible that something would need to change.
This change required a major decision to be made. Look at hiring several more people to progress the game, or sell the company. After many months of discussing the options and looking at what would be best for our fans, we decided to sell. The reason for the sale was simply to guarantee the game would continue to grow and actually get better. A larger team run by a dedicated staff would mean a second rule book, more factions, even better models, and so on. All the signs pointed to pulling the trigger and finding a buyer who has the knowledge and business sense to take over.
I needed to make sure that the buyers had the same vision and would dedicate themselves to carrying the torch forward. After several offers and many conversations the best possible buyer was found. The team at Wayland Games Ltd agreed to purchase Wild West Exodus and all of its assets. The purchase required both parties to discuss how the future of WWX would progress. The vision had to be there and the drive to achieve it needed to show. Wayland not only showed the interest but assembled a team of dedicated staffers who will push the game forward.
Effective today October 21st, 2016 Wayland Games Ltd are the new owners of the Wild West Exodus brand. I will still be involved with potential future story and character creation as needed by their team. I will always be available to talk to our fans and discuss the universe of WWX whenever needed. My love for the game and its characters has not lessened in any way.
I personally feel that this change will bring success and growth to an already popular game. Wayland Games and their Wild West Exodus team have many exciting details to share with everyone over the next several weeks. Stay tuned to more news and highlights of what is planned and when it will take shape.
I personally thank you all again and wish Wayland Games all the luck in the world.
"In Jesse We Trust"
Romeo Filip, Outlaw
So there you have it. Wild West Exodus is moving owners and it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here. We'll be following this to see how the game grows and in what direction things go.
As big fans of Wild West Exodus we're eager to hear your thoughts on the matter too in the comments below.
Let us know!
"I personally thank you all again and wish Wayland Games all the luck in the world..."
Interesting to see Wayland getting into the business of making games instead of just selling them. Similar to TT picking up Carnivale. I wonder if this will prove to be a trend.
My thoughts exactly. We say see more consolidation going on with games that made it through kickstarter successfully but maybe are struggling to grow into sustainable companies long term. Knowing how to make a game and grow a company are two different things and not everyone is well suited to doing both.
Aren’t Steamforged Games owned by Element Games in Stockport as well? I’m noticing a trend with some of the big distributors in the UK also getting involved with the design and production side of the industry.
Steamforged is more of a partnership between the Guild Ball guys and Element Games. I’m assuming that Byron and Greg’s ownership of Element is separate from their partnership with Mat and Rich in Steamforged, though it obviously is an example of retail store owners becoming involved in games manufacture.
When you Google Steamforged Games you get two addresses, one of them is pretty much element games although their website lists the other
I wonder if (or how long it will be before) element games /steam forged will merge formally
It’s because they’re in the same building. At one point there were three separate companies in there. Element’s store is first, the North West Gaming Centre were at the other end, and Steamforged used the space in between. Element have since bought out the gaming centre.
…there goes your deliveries being on time!
I live close enough that I can just go and collect in person
Mighty interesting news there, partner. I’m glad for fans of the game and since this could mean increased availability in the UK, I would be more inclined to pick up a starter and give the game a go.
Wayland 1, Troll Trader 1 😉
Wow interesting news. Great to see the game move on based in the UK. Lotta love for WWX in my group, will watch with interest. Good luck Wayland!
Just got the Kickstarter update about this, and as has been said above I hope this will see more folks here in the UK get into WWX as it’s a fun game!
I’m pleased hopefully the price will be more reasonable but time will tell
The world is a strange place. I backed the 2nd KS and wanted to test the game..so I looked online for rulebook,starterset ect. Availability was scarce in Europe….but Wayland was well stocked. 2 weeks later…my order was still not with me…I got nervous. To make this short…the stuff I ordered was not available like advertised …wayland said they waited on restock from Outlaw…Outlaw confirmed that Wayland did not order from them for a long time..I wrote mails back and forth…got a refund from Wayland (smooth and fast!) and orderd from Outlaw. I spent way too much on a game I… Read more »
I’m wondering how this will affect availability in the US. We might end up having a reverse situation from before, lol.
Miniature Market in the US is now the owner of All Quiet on the Martian Front too,
hopefully all of them will thrive although the key is going to be them becoming available to other stores (and maybe even distibutors)
I’m sure the retailers who are making these purchases will want them in regular distribution channels. I’d be surprised if WWX was going to do direct only with Wayland. Good call on AQotMF, I’d forgotten about that one. I suppose it makes a lot of sense that this is happening. There’s been a proliferation of minis games from small start-ups in recent years, many of whom have used crowdfunding to launch or grow the game. If it doesn’t work out there aren’t exactly a lot of larger minis companies out there to acquire them, and the ones that there are… Read more »
PLEASE let them develop the game in the UK as opposed to killing it by making it a product that you can only buy in their store or website. It’s a superb game but people are cagey about it until they actually see the models and actually play it. I’ve been working hard as a deputy and have seen the same pattern over and over. People will buy the product if they play it. Unless Wayland can build shops all over the place they will greatly limit their profit if they attempt to monopolize the UK market. The mindset is… Read more »
Wayland are a distributor already, so you won’t just see it in their webstore. Even if they were just a store I can’t believe they would buy WWX without trying to secure distribution for it. They don’t distribute in North America, to the best of my knowledge, so would need to find one to distribute there. I’m sure they’ll want to, it’ll be a case of whether one is willing to take it on. Outside of the big sellers, distributors don’t like importing minis games across the Atlantic. It’s why WWX has been so scarce over here. I wouldn’t be… Read more »
That’s a massive relief.
You present an interesting notion. Seeing as I live here in the states I have very rarely seen WWX in FLGs as it is. And by rarely I mean once. Maybe they are relying on the fact that they ship free to the US with a certain purchase level. In this hobby 50$ is not really that high to be honest and the fan base is already built in. They will never match GW in US market distribution so maybe they aren’t going to bother and just sell direct in the US.
oh my word….nooooo Wayland games could not organise a shag in a whorehouse, goodness only knows how they are going to screw this up. A sad sad day.
Had a similar reaction myself….
From the WWX Facebook group. “Hey guys, I’m from Wayland Games. We are going to make more detailed announcements next week but I’m happy to calm any fears and maybe tease some tasty tidbits if it will help. Regarding retailers, we are deliberately creating a separate game studio division within our business to keep our own retail activities separate. The best deals customers will get on their WWX purchases will be in their FLGS, *not* on Wayland’s web store (unless Your FLGS decides to sell at higher than RRP).” I’m feeling relatively positive about this move. The guys at Troll… Read more »
Wayland Games posted in their facebook page an hour ago. The news is true and they are receiving a lot of questions about this. They are going to make a formal announcement on Monday alongside an FAQ, which will inform us what the plans are for WWX.
This is interesting news.
Its an interesting side mov and shows how the industry is changing with KS allowing small companies to progress and develop and then reach a critical evolutionary point where they expand or sell. The move of distributors to this side of the market is something that one has been expecting as its not far from what a lot do now and the advantage is that they can expand on an already successful and know product and brand. The danger though is the flipside of this where they mess up and kill the concept for other businesses. One was having a… Read more »
To make an educated guess as to the distributor for North America it would be Golden Distribution http://www.goldendist.com/ , as they are one of the most established and biggest.
Never seen people play this game. Hope that changes now with new owners.
I have two factions build and primed plus the two player starter sitting around all build and primed plus buildings and terrain all build unfortunately I have never been able to find someone who wants to play it here in Dublin with me… maybe I’ll finally start painting it and find someone… wayland is nog. Af of you are able to understand their ordening system…
I really hope this is a good thing. Maybe we even get our cards back.