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Announcement here.

This was a bit of a surprise! They just had a successful Kickstarter for Firestorm Armada, and things seemed to be humming along. Looks like their licensing for Halo cost them too much. :(

The tone of the announcement makes it sound like this is effective immediately, but the webstore is still open.

Well, just saw the post in News and Rumors.

So let's turn this into a memorial to all things Spartan.

When I first heard about Dystopian Wars, I was like "Great, another steampunk style game". Then I got a look at the French Air Battleship and that was it for me. The bad part was that the French didn't really have much for a long time, so I ended up with a British and Federated States fleet. That first year or so was a hot mess of exploding d6 action, with some pretty broken units. I'm looking at you, Convenent of Antarctica! After a few iterations of rule books, I think Dystopian Wars finally got to a good spot. And eventually, I got the French Fleet I dreamed of.

Firestorm Armada was a fairly solid space fleet battle game. I picked it up after BFG died, and liked it immediately. Didn't have the complicated rules of Star Fleet Battles, allowed for fleets instead of just fighters as in Full Thrust. At a time when there was no real space fleet battle games, Firestorm Armada filled a niche. My fleet was the Dindrenzi Federation, until the the so-called "second line" factions came up, and then how could I not play the Rense System Navy and their Banshee Dreadnaught?

We look back on games with rose colored sungalsses, fond of some great memories. Of course both games had their issues, and Spartan seemed to stumble more often then run. The games were still fun, and they will be missed.

Dystopian Wars had a great range of models. Too bad.

Also a lesson to games companies to avoid buying IP and instead keep building your own.

So Sad.

With their Forum Going down is there anywhere that a Spartan Addict like me can still share pics and Chat?

Plenty of OOP games are discussed on dakka so I don't see any issue in continuing to post and chat about Spartan games stuff here... whether in this thread, the one in news and rumors (https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/735963.page), or others.

Always a shame to see a company go out of business :-/ Never played, the models always looked very appealing

Dang, I feel bad for a lot of people I know who played Halo Ground Battles and Dystopian Wars. They really liked their models and games.

Damn. This is greatly going to hamper my ability to get the Leviathan walkers I wanted for Planetfall...

WestAustralian wrote:
So Sad.

With their Forum Going down is there anywhere that a Spartan Addict like me can still share pics and Chat?

We have been picking up Spartan refugees over at MBS:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php

The price gouging has already started saw eBay listing for a halo autumn cruiser and covenant blockade runner at £200 and £300

 Ruckdog wrote:

WestAustralian wrote:
So Sad.

With their Forum Going down is there anywhere that a Spartan Addict like me can still share pics and Chat?

We have been picking up Spartan refugees over at MBS:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php

I just joined up. I like Naval Wargaming, but I do not get to indulge as much as I would like.

 Tamwulf wrote:
Announcement here.
Looks like their licensing for Halo cost them too much. :(

I thought the same thing. Getting that licence could not have been a cheap thing.

Its a shame, Spartan Games had some great products. Hopefully someone can pick up the games and keep them going.

Feels like they would've been better off in the 28mm scale for Halo. Epic 40k scale was a bad idea, really.

It wasn't Epic scale, it was three times larger than Epic scale.

The scale was fine, it allowed you to re-create battles ala halo wars, the models were big enough to look good while small enough to get larger stuff like tanks on the table in a sensible manor.

The issue that stopped me getting into it was the price. I can't have a giant battle when a single tank is £30. A good plastic starter set was needed, like they did for fleet battles. Sadly it was resin and metal all he way.

Yeah, the pricing was harsh. A box of two Warthogs was like $40 when a box of two similar-sized Dropzone Commander tanks is like $15.

I have heard some vague murmurs that a 3rd party has picked up the rights for Dystopian Wars. Anyone else hear anything?

I just got an email that Wayland Games bought some of the Spartan Games assets. It looks like they're doing something under the name "Warcradle Studio."

The details aren't specified. They're letting us know they got the customer list, presumably, but don't mention IPs as of yet.

Am I being paranoid in hoping this isn't some sort of shuffle? If Warcradle gives off a hint of being a legal dodge to escape debt (while ripping off customers) I'll be unhappy.

On the one hand, giving jobs to the out-of-work guys is great, but not if it lets them pass on the old company's requirements and not change their practices. I guess I want to make sure the management of Spartan/Rebel are nowhere near Warcradle, but am cool if some devs, modelers, casters, and logistics people are hired.

I'm still hoping they use the IP, but toss the rules for Dystopian and release something better with the same rules.

"What is going to happen to the Dystopian, Firestorm and Uncharted games?

We are actively looking to bring the games to a wide audience from next year. Through Warcradle Studios, Wayland Games is investing in all aspects of the design, development and supply. Retailers can look forward to an easy to use ordering system, clear communication on the availability of stock and direct support from Warcradle Studios to ensure they can make the most of these exciting ranges and deliver the same to their customers.

Warcradle Studios are committed to producing an exciting range of new plastic and resin miniatures to support the growth of our games. These will build on the established releases as well as introduce new narrative and competitive gaming opportunities.

Warcradle Studios are planning in-store organised play support for their games as well as a range of exciting events planned throughout 2018 and beyond."

source:
http://www.beastsofwar.com/warcradle-studios/warcradle-studios-acquires-dystopian-firestorm-settings/