What is a Confirmed Rumor Anyway?
There has been a rumor floating around the board gaming world. This rumor has huge implications for people even if hey don’t know it yet. It affects grail game seekers, artisan hobby gamers, living card gamers, and especially amerithrash gamers. This rumor has the potential to create shock waves in the gaming industry but at the same time a possible new path for some to follow down. The rumor I am talking about of course is no longer a rumor at all as of Friday the 9th of September. As of that date Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop will no longer be working together.
Now they are both Grail games!! Source
This seems kind of mundane at first but if you look at the IP’s that Games Workshop offered FFG. From the crazy dice rolling randomness of Talisman to the awesomely thematic sleuthing of Fury of Dracula come Feburary 9th we will no longer see any new copies, expansions, or support for these games from FFG. And while there is only one Living Card Game that FFG currently has with their IP it is a doozy to lose. Warhammer 40000 Conquest is a gem and unlike its predecessor, Warhammer: Invasion which FFG had chosen to stop on their time line, Conquest will have a very abrupt stop. So why did it happen?
he is not mad at Age of Sigmar he is just about to light plastic on fire because he hates the environment. Source
At the moment all that have been floating around are rumors and even the rumors are not really well founded. Most of the ideas center around the fact that Games Workshop just loves making poor business decisions. Most notably by tanking their own fantasy miniature game by introducing Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop has been failing in the public eye. However, things like licensing negotiations aren’t things that typically happen over night. They can be in the pipeline for a while before something like this is announced to the public. But how about some juicy speculation!.
Heh…get it?
As far as my personal speculation goes I have a few possible ideas. One is that Game Workshop’s didn’t like the competing sci-fi licensing that was happening with FFG in the form of Disney and Star Wars. While Warhammer 40k is darker and grimmer it is still in the same milieu as Star Wars when it comes to a competitive market place. Perhaps there was pressure from Disney to cut ties as well, who knows? A second thought was that perhaps FFG wanted to run a bit more with Warhammer Fantasy since Age of Sigmar wasn’t doing so well and Games Workshop may not have liked that they even suggested it. A final thought is perhaps that Games Workshop is trying to get more into the board gaming business. With their newer fleet of miniature heavy board games (Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower, Lost Patrol, and Others) doing well maybe they want to take back their games to print them on their own.
Whatever the reason it means that now there are a lot of people who are even more frustrated with Games Workshop and possibly with FFG. Licensing has been known to end before but it means that the things FFG has created with these IP’s will not have any support. So is it an opportunity for GW to step in and support these games or will they let them die in a dark hole of abandonment?! We shall see what happens in the coming weeks. I have heard that there are already rumors about who has the Games Workshop gaming licenses now…but it is probably fake. What do you think about this whole thing? Put your feelings and reaction in the comments and I will see ya next time!
-Kyle