2C1C interviewed Michael Horvath at Worlds, who dropped a lot of very interesting hints.
We can reasonably expect:
- Conquest sized box.
- No Melee Figurines
- Split Rulebook
- Shadows may not be re-implemented. (it was mentioned in the same breath as Influence on things that would be difficult to phase out through rotation alone)
- Deck Size remains 60
- Constructing a full sized mono-faction deck will not be possible with one core set.
- House Card front: House Lannister. House Card back: Agenda - Support of House Lannister
- Splashing OOF without the agenda will not be allowed.
- No mention of any matchups excluded from cross-faction alliances. (no "alliance wheel.")
- Rules refer to Factions, not Houses. "For reasons."
- current playtest version retains all seven phases.
- the identities of the eight factions will be released before Gen Con.
Also, discussing might-have-beens, rotation rather than reboot would have entailed a new Core Set. But the pains of losing much of the card pool related to Seasons was cited as a big problem, as well as presenting a barrier to the templating and rules cleanup that they needed. Phasing out Influence or Shadows would have taken six years if they just stopped printing anything related to it.