Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020.

We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed that, in the long term, Fantasy Flight Games will be discontinuing the production of its roleplaying game lines. This news comes in the wake of the layoff FFG’s RPG department staff, which occurred in early January of this year.

We have also confirmed that this will be a long-term endeavor, and that all currently announced and in-production RPG Products by FFG will be delivered. This means that the highly anticipated Starships and Speeders essential vehicles collection for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, as well as the Secrets of the Crucible Keyforge campaign setting for the Genesys Roleplaying Game will, indeed, be delivered and provide exciting official content for both RPG lines. It is still unknown, as of yet, what impact this plan will have on the fan-created content hub of the Genesys Foundry.

It also remains unknown as to why Fantasy Flight Games has made the decision to end RPG Production in the long-term. To date, neither FFG or their parent company, Asmodee, have made any public statement or comment on the matter.

While it is unsubstantiated conjecture, industry pundits and internet commentators have expressed numerous opinions that Asmodee is prepping FFG for a sale, or that French private equity firm, Eurazeo (who purchased Asmodee in 2013) is perhaps prepping Asmodee for a sale. Still other commentators are of the opinion that parent company Asmodee is simply seeking to focus exclusively on the board-game market. All of which – again – is unsubstantiated conjecture, to this point.

Following the 2013 acquisition by Eurazeo, Asmodee became extremely active in mergers and acquisitions of other hobby companies, beginning with the 2014 merger of Asmodee with Days of Wonder, and then with Fantasy Flight Games. 2016 saw the Asmodee acquisition of Z-Man Games, Plaid Hat Games, and Filosophia; as well as the announcement of agreements for Asmodee to publish the English-language versions of Catan from Mayfair Games (creating a new company, Catan Studio, Inc.). In 2017, Asmodee merged with German board game publisher Heidelberger Spieleverlag, and acquired the Spanish editor, Edge Entertainment. In 2018, Asmodee announced the acquisitions of both the Polish game publisher, Rebel; and the European distributor, ACD Blackfire Entertainment. None of these endeavors focused on the publishing of RPG material.

We at d20Radio are saddened by this news, as we have enjoyed a strong relationship with the FFG RPG team, and have become huge fans of their Star Wars, Genesys, and Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying games. The talented team that brought those game lines into the hobby world went above and beyond to maintain a great relationship with fans, and bring us some of the best roleplaying content we have ever had the privilege to play. More than that, they are our friends. Thankfully, their hard work has created games that we will continue to play – forever. And regardless of the long-term plans, we are extremely excited for the forthcoming content yet to come!