It might sound fatalistic, but I think that the lifespan of the game is a particularly relevant topic given recent releases.

Running out of New Ships

The expansions to the core game have come along smoothly so far, but there is a problem looming just over the horizon. It doesn't take a lot of investigation to realize that the pool of recognizable, faction appropriate ships available to the game developers has almost been dwindling. The imperials have a relative abundance of TIE variants, but the rebels have nearly exhausted their supply of ships. "Recognizable ships" have arguably already been depleted, with all the ships appearing in the OT already in the game. The simple fact is that FFG is printing ships faster than they are being created, there is a finite pool to draw on and many of the choices left are less than palatable.

Limited Design Space

In addition to the lack of usable models from literature and movie sources, the design space must also be getting crowded. As far as I can tell, the basic ship archetypes have been covered pretty thoroughly, and new ships would struggle to differentiate themselves from existing models. There is still some space left, but there is a limited number of variations you can reasonably expect from 4-stat ships, even with different action bars. It's tough to make a new ship that doesn't feel like one we already have. It is possible to refresh things with upgrade cards, but right now the primary delivery mechanism of those cards is with new ships.

Buying Time with Scum

I think that a major driving factor behind the introduction of the new S&V faction was a concern of the game's lifespan. The new faction opens up a little more design space with new upgrade slots, and a new design philosophy for the new faction. It has justifiable access to a lot of EU ships, some more recognizable than others, but many that would not feel right showing up in the Rebel or Imperial fleets. It's a blood transfusion for the game, and not a moment too soon.

But the original problem remains; the pace of releases is unsustainable. Unless a new approach to releases is adopted, such as the release of pilot/upgrade packs in lieu of brand-new ships, it's hard to see many more years left.

*edit*

I do expect that the game will continue to be fantastic until the end. But I have trouble seeing the game having the capacity to thrive past a certain point. I'd love to hear ideas on how it could, though!

7

All games encounter this problem and X-WingTMG has a lot of its bases already covered for the future.

Running out of ships? That wont really be an issue when the movies start churning out. Sure this wont really please the purists, but crew those old codgers and their dollars (hey, wait, I'm one of those codgers!) The facts are that getting younger players is always critical to keeping any game going and the new movies and other future canon will drag a new generation of victi....er, kiddies into the game where they can grow to be older, poorer codgers like us who remember standing in line for hours for the Episode VI.

Limited design space? The game will be due for a reboot in a few years. It's pretty crowded now, but in two more years this game will be a mess and regardless of the pain of having deprecated game pieces and cards, the public will demand a new version of the game to be released. This 2.0 vers of the game should be full of awesome mechanics that were designed with all the current game's shortcomings in mind and hopefully they will gradually phase in the cheese (Biggs, et al) to keep the design space tidy.

Buying time with the scum? Nah, everything looks like it's on track as long as they are planning a reboot at some future date.

7

i agree =)

They haven't even touched the pre-trilogy yet.

How much life is left in X-Wing? That really depends on how many people will still play it when FFG stops releasing new stuff. I don't think we'll see FFG stop putting out products for another couple of years. A game's life doesn't end when production stops, a game's life ends when people stop playing it.

I think new films coming out, and a new tv show around the corner provides the possibility of new ships that this game can pull from. Starting next year we are getting a new Star Wars film every year. If new ships are in all these movies we will have many options to come possibly.

But there's still the "limited design space" question. I see this as more of a problem than running out of ships. Even if we get loads of new ships will FFG be able to implement them into the game without creating copies of older ships or stumbling into power creep? It's a valid concern. No one can really say, but I'm optimistic.

There is a load of pilot options from the EU they haven't even explored. Especially if they start going out past the Rebellion era. Also I love repaints. They could sell me those for the next 3 years and I'd be happy.

Without reading a single word in the thread:

Somewhere between 5 years and infinity... Much depends on the "new trilogy" and spin offs as well as licensing.

Being able to reprint ships with new pilots or even the same pilots with different abilities could keep the game going forever. With new movies coming their will no doubt be new ships coming. He'll, we even have a new model of X-Wing given to us from JJ himself. The new movies will also introduce more characters as well.

Disney didn't pay a ton of cash to not make a ton of movies. The future is secure as long as Disney is making movies.

I think if you look at how Disney plans to pick and choose the best of the old EU now called Legends, they are going to break out with 3 movies in the next 5 years. Disney is already full bore into tweaking the universe of star wars and already have canonical books in development.

It speaks volumes that ffg has chosen the ships they have for what is currently out. They are all relatively sane designs that people recognize from games and some books from EU and have set the stage for VII to sweep more people into the game and capitalize on the knew designs that it will bring.

I was previously worried about the end being 2 years out but Scum and Villainy slows things for the new era and universe of star wars to boot up.

I think it's got 4 years at least with accurate guesswork about how the new universe is coming along.

there's my long 2 cents...

I think if you look at how Disney plans to pick and choose the best of the old EU now called Legends, they are going to break out with 3 movies in the next 5 years. Disney is already full bore into tweaking the universe of star wars and already have canonical books in development.

It speaks volumes that ffg has chosen the ships they have for what is currently out. They are all relatively sane designs that people recognize from games and some books from EU and have set the stage for VII to sweep more people into the game and capitalize on the knew designs that it will bring.

I was previously worried about the end being 2 years out but Scum and Villainy slows things for the new era and universe of star wars to boot up.

I think it's got 4 years at least with accurate guesswork about how the new universe is coming along.

there's my long 2 cents...

Five movies in the next five years =)

Episode 7 - 2015

Backstory movie - 2016

Episode 8 - 2017

Backstory movie - 2018

Episode 9 - 2019

I like being corrected from time to time

And it's not like Episode 9 will be the last movie either. It's just the last ANNOUNCED movie. It's a little hard to comprehend, but we're really entering an entirely new era of Star Wars. Everything you think you know, you don't. A new unified universe with hundreds of future novels, comics, and dozens of games and movies.

It hasn't even gotten started yet.

All FFG needed was time till that really gets started and Scum and Villainy gives them that.

As for design space, we've already seen the beginnings of X-Wing 2nd Edition with the scenario cards and different colors of attack dice in Armada.

This game isn't going anywhere until FFG loses the license. This game alone makes up 32% of their revenue. It's the Magic: The Gathering of miniatures games.

Seriously, this game is at zero risk other than the license issue.

Strap in, we're in for a long ride.

I wonder if they'll ever stop releasing models and just release new Pilots, Upgrades, etc. occasionally to keep the game fresh. There aren't enough ships to go forever, but there are probably enough pilots and rule modifications to keep things going longer.

How much more interest do I have? =/

I think after I get a Decimator I'm going to stop. Have a few of everything. I'll proxy any cards from SV that I want and just live out my days comfortable on a moisture farm somewhere.

Oh. I do need to get some more alabaster space cows for that. We're gonna need dairy.

There's no life left at all. It's dead.

I'll take all your ships off your hands for you. I'm helpful like that.

ded gaem ded

I think we need to consider the difference between the lifespan of the game and the lifespan of new product releases. If FFG stopped printing new releases right now and just left the existing stuff for sale indefinitely the game would probably continue for a long time. New releases get lots of attention, but there are plenty of popular games that see few, if any, updates once they are in their "finished" state.

Also, I don't think that the S&V expansion is "buying time", I think it was done because it was something that should have been done. A lot of people like ships/characters that don't fit very well in the main factions, and S&V gives FFG an opportunity to include them. And I think it would have been a good idea to do it this way even if the design space was infinite and running out of new product options was never going to be a concern.

If Warhammer 40,000 is still going 20 years later, X-Wing is hardly in any danger...

I think we need to consider the difference between the lifespan of the game and the lifespan of new product releases. If FFG stopped printing new releases right now and just left the existing stuff for sale indefinitely the game would probably continue for a long time. New releases get lots of attention, but there are plenty of popular games that see few, if any, updates once they are in their "finished" state.Also, I don't think that the S&V expansion is "buying time", I think it was done because it was something that should have been done. A lot of people like ships/characters that don't fit very well in the main factions, and S&V gives FFG an opportunity to include them. And I think it would have been a good idea to do it this way even if the design space was infinite and running out of new product options was never going to be a concern.

Thanks for pointing that out iperegrine, I overlooked it in my post. Bounty hunters and low life's are very prevalent in A New Hope and later on

If Warhammer 40,000 is still going 20 years later, X-Wing is hardly in any danger...

Well 40K has an advantage in that the setting and the game are both owned by GW. They can continuously add to the game as anything they do add can easily be written into the universe upon its creation.

X-Wing does not have that luxury. It is based on other pre-defined media. Unless Disney allows FFG to make its own unique ships, there is finite material to work with, unlike 40K which has infinite material potential.

Also, Where the hell are the snow speeders and AT-ATs, and the 'Atmospheric battles' rule card that should come with... :-)

As long as we keep training new Jedi we won't have a problem

Not even the empire could wipe them all out

How long has Wings of War been going? since 2004