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Well, while we're on the topic why is FFG constantly out of stock? I feel like every time I go hunting for some peripheral accessory it's out of stock and it takes weeks for it to come back. This seems to be true even of some main products, like Arkham Horror (and as far as I know that's one of their most profitable products).

Being out of stock for weeks is just throwing money away. It reeks of being really overcautious with inventory.

BrianDavion wrote:

you'd be wrong on that everything from the EU was made non canon, however disney's been borrowing heavily from the old EU.

The two parts of your statement are not mutually exclusive. Everything from the EU indeed was made non-canon. Equally correct is your statement that DIsney has been (poorly IMO) borrowing/adapting from it after the fact. That doesn't mean it wasn't for years non-canon just because some kernel of it was reshaped and put back in.

 warboss wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

you'd be wrong on that everything from the EU was made non canon, however disney's been borrowing heavily from the old EU.

The two parts of your statement are not mutually exclusive. Everything from the EU indeed was made non-canon. Equally correct is your statement that DIsney has been (poorly IMO) borrowing/adapting from it after the fact. That doesn't mean it wasn't for years non-canon just because some kernel of it was reshaped and put back in.

which is exactly what I said. and I explained how disney had taken old EU ideas and adapted them for their own purposes.

however this means you need to be careful. FOR EXAMPLE, Darth Revan is now a canonical sith, that does not mean KOTOR or any details from it are canon, just all we know is there was indeed a sith named darth revan

Adeptus Doritos wrote:
X-Wing was fun, but Jesus... couldn't they just... I dunno, maybe find a way to execute this? And X-Wing seems to be completely forgotten. I suppose they took up CMON's business model for wargames- dump some crap out there, add a couple of things, bail on it and make something new.

Can you elaborate on this? I have read it three times and still don't get what you mean.

LordofHats wrote:Well, while we're on the topic why is FFG constantly out of stock? I feel like every time I go hunting for some peripheral accessory it's out of stock and it takes weeks for it to come back. This seems to be true even of some main products, like Arkham Horror (and as far as I know that's one of their most profitable products).

Being out of stock for weeks is just throwing money away. It reeks of being really overcautious with inventory.

FFG have terrible distribution and seemingly always have, in-between slipped schedules for printing/manufacturing, delays in shipping, delays in clearing customs and trying to get simultaneous release dates world wide (which I don't think they have actually ever managed to do) its sometimes a wonder that they manage to actually sell anything at all.

I have received first-hand confirmation of the RPG team's demise.

well that sucks. C7 lost the middle earth lisence recently, wondering if there's some turmoil going on in the industry as a whole right now?

As well as the death of the RPGs and the interactive department (which for some bizarre reason were not involved with things like the squadron builders) it has been said that there have been massive cuts in both customer service department and Asmodee NA.
Sales have been noted to be down across most of the ranges and both IA and Destiny are being canned and X-Wing will not have any more v1 ships reprinted this year (though the health of both X-Wing and Legion is good).

 ingtaer wrote:

Adeptus Doritos wrote:
X-Wing was fun, but Jesus... couldn't they just... I dunno, maybe find a way to execute this? And X-Wing seems to be completely forgotten. I suppose they took up CMON's business model for wargames- dump some crap out there, add a couple of things, bail on it and make something new.

Can you elaborate on this? I have read it three times and still don't get what you mean.

Basically, CMON is known for putting out a game, with an increasingly short time where they support it with expansions. They seem to drop support for one game altogether once they make a new, different game.

Zombicide was pretty well supported, until Black Plague was released. Black plague got fewer expansions, but then Zombicide: Invader dropped. Before you could even sort out the stuff in Invader, they were announcing Zombicide 2nd Edition and support for Invader was gone.

 LordofHats wrote:
Well, while we're on the topic why is FFG constantly out of stock? I feel like every time I go hunting for some peripheral accessory it's out of stock and it takes weeks for it to come back. This seems to be true even of some main products, like Arkham Horror (and as far as I know that's one of their most profitable products).

Being out of stock for weeks is just throwing money away. It reeks of being really overcautious with inventory.

I have no idea if this is what they're doing but I've always felt the low stock was on purpose. It allowed them to not have to keep as much in a warehouse -- especially if something sold poorly. FFG use to have amazing black Friday sales to clear things out -- which they don't anymore. Second is artificial scarcity to get people to buy something when they see it in stock as they don't know when it will be available again.

sounds like FFG's really gone downhill since they stopped doing the 40k RPGs (and I stopped paying em much attention)

BrianDavion wrote:
sounds like FFG's really gone downhill since they stopped doing the 40k RPGs (and I stopped paying em much attention)

My guess is they hit a snag and haven't found a way to make an RPG that requires you to buy special measuring sticks and D12's with stars, exclamation points, and smiley faces.

 Monkeysloth wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Well, while we're on the topic why is FFG constantly out of stock? I feel like every time I go hunting for some peripheral accessory it's out of stock and it takes weeks for it to come back. This seems to be true even of some main products, like Arkham Horror (and as far as I know that's one of their most profitable products).

Being out of stock for weeks is just throwing money away. It reeks of being really overcautious with inventory.

I have no idea if this is what they're doing but I've always felt the low stock was on purpose. It allowed them to not have to keep as much in a warehouse -- especially if something sold poorly. FFG use to have amazing black Friday sales to clear things out -- which they don't anymore. Second is artificial scarcity to get people to buy something when they see it in stock as they don't know when it will be available again.

Yeah I once got a big haul of the 40k books in one of those sales. They were at least 50% off if I remember correctly. Those were fun rpgs. Was sad when they lost the license. Hope everybody that got laid off is ok.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
My guess is they hit a snag and haven't found a way to make an RPG that requires you to buy special measuring sticks and D12's with stars, exclamation points, and smiley faces.

All their RPGs require you to buy D12's with stars, exclamation points, and smiley faces...

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

 ingtaer wrote:

Adeptus Doritos wrote:
X-Wing was fun, but Jesus... couldn't they just... I dunno, maybe find a way to execute this? And X-Wing seems to be completely forgotten. I suppose they took up CMON's business model for wargames- dump some crap out there, add a couple of things, bail on it and make something new.

Can you elaborate on this? I have read it three times and still don't get what you mean.

Basically, CMON is known for putting out a game, with an increasingly short time where they support it with expansions. They seem to drop support for one game altogether once they make a new, different game.

Zombicide was pretty well supported, until Black Plague was released. Black plague got fewer expansions, but then Zombicide: Invader dropped. Before you could even sort out the stuff in Invader, they were announcing Zombicide 2nd Edition and support for Invader was gone.

Oh, I got the CMON reference it was how it relates to X-Wing that I didn't understand!

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
My guess is they hit a snag and haven't found a way to make an RPG that requires you to buy special measuring sticks and D12's with stars, exclamation points, and smiley faces.

All their RPGs require you to buy D12's with stars, exclamation points, and smiley faces...

which is why I've never bought any of their RPGs and I know I'm not alone in that

If it works for Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, it must work for rpg mechanics, amirite!?

Some of their event staff were let go too. My local group has quite a few ffg employees and from what I heard the majority of the guys who travel and put on large events for them were let go.

Remember, FFG with Asmondee was sold to a French private equity company last summer. We are likely seeing the "increase shareholder value" of the company.

Possible the parent company is trimming down FFG to prepare for sale and make it look like a more attractive investment.

Hulksmash wrote:Some of their event staff were let go too. My local group has quite a few ffg employees and from what I heard the majority of the guys who travel and put on large events for them were let go.

wow. Pretty wide ranging then.

Gadzilla666 wrote:
Yeah I once got a big haul of the 40k books in one of those sales. They were at least 50% off if I remember correctly. Those were fun rpgs. Was sad when they lost the license. Hope everybody that got laid off is ok.

The sale they had for the books more were around $5. I got the Collectors edition Black Crusade for $20-$25 if I remember correctly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 silent25 wrote:
Remember, FFG with Asmondee was sold to a French private equity company last summer. We are likely seeing the "increase shareholder value" of the company.

Possible the parent company is trimming down FFG to prepare for sale and make it look like a more attractive investment.

Sadly this is a very possible outcome but it would be strange to be sold off after only a year. Usually private equity companies like to hold on to things for a few but that doesn't mean the parent company isn't having their own issues.

 Monkeysloth wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 silent25 wrote:
Remember, FFG with Asmondee was sold to a French private equity company last summer. We are likely seeing the "increase shareholder value" of the company.

Possible the parent company is trimming down FFG to prepare for sale and make it look like a more attractive investment.

Sadly this is a very possible outcome but it would be strange to be sold off after only a year. Usually private equity companies like to hold on to things for a few but that doesn't mean the parent company isn't having their own issues.

It can be surprisingly fast. Worked at a company that had a new CEO come in openly saying he was there to increase shareholder value. Layoffs started within 6 months. I got caught in the third round where they laid off the entire R&D department of my division despite us having record revenue and record sales. Investors want returns. That the company won't have any new products in two years, they won't care because they would have already sold off their shares.

With the RPG department, it may have actually been doing alright ,even successful, by game industry standards. But, likely it wasn't getting the returns they demands, thus it was shut down.

I kinda skipped the upgrading part of xwing 2.0 but I’m been getting the urge to jump in and switch to 2.0 now that they implemented epic play with new obstacles and missions... hopefully that stuff is decent. Does anyone here know?

I don’t think ffg needs to reprint Xwing 1.0 ships anymore they are already rereleasing all the ships in 2.0. The issue with xwing for me is the ships and pilots got more and more obscure and redundant.

That might be it. I'm sure they were 20 dollars or less as I got the Rogue Trader, Only War, Black Crusade, and Deathwatch sourcebooks along with a couple supplements. It's been a few years.

I am reminded of echos of the TSR/WotC Christmas lay-offs.

Just an outside observer, but it did seem the last few SW movies had really plummeted interest in all SW products. Seeing the various RPG class cards on fire sale told me the game wasn't in a stable state. I was very happy with how the Mandelorian is going and how ROS turned out, and I wonder if we'll see the popularity of SW tick upward after the bombshell disaster of Last Jedi.

Just as an aside, I'm pretty happy with the X-Wing 2.0 system. Anyone familiar with edition turnover has felt the same pain investing in the new material (specifically, the cards). Though the jump in ship $$ has put me off (which is just as well, I have enough to assemble my own fleet).

 warboss wrote:
If it works for Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, it must work for rpg mechanics, amirite!?

PLAYER: "I would like to search this room for any sort of traps, hidden doors, or clues."

GAME MASTER: "All right, place the plastic 'awareness circle' around your model's base by aligning it into the grooves. If you roll more middle fingers than puppies, you've sprung the trap- which will be represented by this hexagonal template with a special cardboard token stuffed into a slot."

PLAYER: "All right, I succeeded! And it looks like I level up!"

GAME MASTER: "So, now what you need to do is go online and order the Level 2 upgrade kit. You're going to need the orange D18's with penis icons in order to play a Level 2 hero".






Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Stormonu wrote:
Just an outside observer, but it did seem the last few SW movies had really plummeted interest in all SW products. Seeing the various RPG class cards on fire sale told me the game wasn't in a stable state. I was very happy with how the Mandelorian is going and how ROS turned out, and I wonder if we'll see the popularity of SW tick upward after the bombshell disaster of Last Jedi.

That's what happens when something makes a setting seem smaller.

Also, now that EU is pretty much disregarded and decanonized... people are stuck with what's in the movies, with no chance of seeing their favorite things outside the movies getting any game support.

I dunno, disney's been doing other things like SW rebels and the mandalorian etc, which should give other stuff, problem is though yeah, you can't just toss in a new ship into a video game, just for example, as easily. RPGs where responsable for making up a lot of the foundations of the EU back in the day, now though they proably are a lot more restricted.

BrianDavion wrote:
I dunno, disney's been doing other things like SW rebels and the mandalorian etc, which should give other stuff, problem is though yeah, you can't just toss in a new ship into a video game, just for example, as easily. RPGs where responsable for making up a lot of the foundations of the EU back in the day, now though they proably are a lot more restricted.

Yeah, for certain.

But it'll take a lot more than the Mandalorian to get FFG to start making new stuff for X-Wing and Legion. I am still very much holding out for Mandalorians in Legion, and I'd be pleased beyond words if we got Old Republic and Sith Empire stuff, but I think we all know that's unlikely.

I mean, if you asked me "what would you like your Star Wars war game to be like", I'd have hoped for kits that allow me to customize my own Jedi/Sith/Mando/Imperial Intelligence/Scoundrel commander and trick out my troops with various cosmetic upgrade options. A squad of Death Troopers but they have Tanktrooper helmets and painted camo, etc.

Yeah when they took the WFRPG and turned it into a game with fancy dice and tables to roll narrative events on it turn a weird turn.

They very specifically didn't do that for Dark Heresy's second edition, but then went full bore proprietary dice and other crap for their SW books.

It's just reinventing the wheel.

gungo wrote:
I kinda skipped the upgrading part of xwing 2.0 but I’m been getting the urge to jump in and switch to 2.0 now that they implemented epic play with new obstacles and missions... hopefully that stuff is decent. Does anyone here know?

New Epic is great (as are most of the multiplayer missions like Aces High), it is no longer an auto loose to take a huge ship indeed quite the opposite, they are pretty damn scary and the wing tool/formation for squadron play speeds things up dramatically. If the people are playing to have fun and not just to win as hard as possible it is fantastic. Outside of the gas clouds released with the prequel factions I have only experienced playing with one of the new obstacle types as they are not released until the new card packs next month or so.

I don’t think ffg needs to reprint Xwing 1.0 ships anymore they are already rereleasing all the ships in 2.0. The issue with xwing for me is the ships and pilots got more and more obscure and redundant.

The reprints are the rereleases, you either have to get v1 ships and have the stuff to convert it through a conversion kit or wait for it to be reprinted for v2. In many instances this has entailed a new sculpt (ref. B-Wing or Fang) but now it is rumoured that FFG are not doing any more of these for this year so you either get an old one to convert or you are out of luck.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah when they took the WFRPG and turned it into a game with fancy dice and tables to roll narrative events on it turn a weird turn.

They very specifically didn't do that for Dark Heresy's second edition, but then went full bore proprietary dice and other crap for their SW books.

It's just reinventing the wheel.

it's worth noting fan response to their turning WFRPG into a lotta properitory dice wasn't popular eaither, FFG proably figured they could smear feces on the pages and get a top selling RPG with that brand name

Looking at the Imperial Assault section of their store, everything is unavailable. Problem is I don't know if that's because they've stopped making it, or just because FFG is so awful at producing adequate stock of anything.

I mean I got most of my 40k RPG books either on store credit (for playtesting them) or as author's copies. I can't imagine having to buy the books I got via normal channels. Would've been very hard.