Actually, a lot of companies do this it seems, in that they'll really only announce things once it's come reasonably close to the targeted release date and that the chance of last second delays are pretty slim. Thus why companies like FFG go with "Quarter X of this year" for a release date until the product is in their warehouses and thus ready to ship.

For instance, there was a lot of vitrol and bile over on the Green Ronin forums regarding the extensive delay of the Set 3 box for Dragon Age, delays which were entirely out of Green Ronin's hands as BioWare was too wrapped up in producing Dragon Age: Inquisition. Again, there really wasn't much Green Ronin could do to move things along, and yet a decent chunk of their (alleged) fan base was pretty nasty about why we didn't have Set 3 after so many years.

As for WotC, don't really know and to be honest, don't really care enough to find out. While I enjoy the new edition, I've got the PHB and that's got enough options to keep me happy without needing additional splats or crunch. Then again, I'm more of a "sword'n'board Fighter" type of guy, so give me a Fighter/Champion build with a trusty long sword in one hand and a shield in the other and I'm a happy gamer.

As for "product support," there are folks that have been happily playing WEG d6 Star Wars and have ZERO intent to switch over to FFG's system, and that's been a "dead game" in terms of new product since the prequels came out. Hell, there are folks that are still playing Basic D&D, and that's not been supported via new product for decades.

From what I can recall of EotE's release schedule, AoE is still on course for a similar amount of content considering its launch one year later:

As of 1/2015, EotE has released 3 career sourcebooks, a location book and 2 adventures. Four of those came out this year which means in its first 6-8 months EotE only had the Explorer's sourcebook and the Beyond the Rim adventure.

AoR currently has the Assault on Arda I adventure and the Ace sourcebook.

We're looking at about one book per quarter for each core setting. So right now the real question would be when will the next couple get announced (and can they please include more new species per book if they're going to keep double-dipping from other core book's selections).

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pm4fQRl72k

As far as D&D 5th goes, it could be that they're trying to go the opposite tact from how they handled 4e, which had new crunch coming out every single month, and frankly caused a fair number of players and GMs to start feeling overwhelmed with all this new material, be it class powers, racial powers, themes, magic items, or what-have-you.

I think Midnight_X2 has the right of it in that there's only so many people that FFG has on staff to coordinate and develop the books for all three Star Wars RPG product lines. Rodney Thompson ran into a similar issue when he was heading up Saga Edition for WotC, in that he had very limited staff resources for his product line in contrast to D&D which pretty much ruled the roost.

Once Force and Destiny is out, we'll probably start seeing more products for AoR as well as FaD and EotE, but also remember that EotE has been a "finished" system in terms of getting the core rules out and on shelves far longer than AoR. Plus, FFG seems to play its cards close to the vest in terms of upcoming products, so there may be more in the pipeline than what they're comfortable announcing just yet.

Seeing what has happened with fans at sites like Pinnacle (creators of Savage Worlds), I can understand the general reticence towards releasing information prematurely. Ideas get thought up, worked on a bit, then, in a lot of cases, cancelled. Fans can't seem to understand that something might not come out or they get a sense of entitlement about things (check out the Chiss Charicters [sic] thread in the EotE to see what I mean) and only want things there way... So, Pinnacle doesn't talk about something until it is near ready to ship (or they launch a kickstarter and don't have to do anything if that fails, heheh). Seems like FFG is doing the same.

what happened at pinnacle?

Oh, I want it all too Desslok!

But I understand wiser heads will prevail!

As long as something is coming out, I'm happy...

As far as D&D 5th goes, it could be that they're trying to go the opposite tact from how they handled 4e, which had new crunch coming out every single month, and frankly caused a fair number of players and GMs to start feeling overwhelmed with all this new material, be it class powers, racial powers, themes, magic items, or what-have-you.

I think Midnight_X2 has the right of it in that there's only so many people that FFG has on staff to coordinate and develop the books for all three Star Wars RPG product lines. Rodney Thompson ran into a similar issue when he was heading up Saga Edition for WotC, in that he had very limited staff resources for his product line in contrast to D&D which pretty much ruled the roost.

Once Force and Destiny is out, we'll probably start seeing more products for AoR as well as FaD and EotE, but also remember that EotE has been a "finished" system in terms of getting the core rules out and on shelves far longer than AoR. Plus, FFG seems to play its cards close to the vest in terms of upcoming products, so there may be more in the pipeline than what they're comfortable announcing just yet.

Seeing what has happened with fans at sites like Pinnacle (creators of Savage Worlds), I can understand the general reticence towards releasing information prematurely. Ideas get thought up, worked on a bit, then, in a lot of cases, cancelled. Fans can't seem to understand that something might not come out or they get a sense of entitlement about things (check out the Chiss Charicters [sic] thread in the EotE to see what I mean) and only want things there way... So, Pinnacle doesn't talk about something until it is near ready to ship (or they launch a kickstarter and don't have to do anything if that fails, heheh). Seems like FFG is doing the same.

what happened at pinnacle?

They used to be more open about what they were working on. Delays happened, things got cancelled... fans got pissed. So, they stopped being so open to avoid dealing with the idiotic backlash.

As long as something is coming out, I'm happy...

Wait... I thought I was happy?

thanks kella

As long as something is coming out, I'm happy...

Wait... I thought I was happy?

You know, you keep saying that but you always seem so grumpy...

As long as something is coming out, I'm happy...

Wait... I thought I was happy?

You know, you keep saying that but you always seem so grumpy...

To be fair, he hasn't banished anyone to his ignore list in quite a while.

As long as something is coming out, I'm happy...

Wait... I thought I was happy?

I have to say I'm pretty happy with the boards these days. People disagree and attack arguments, but rarely attack the persons posting and nobody really seems to be intentionally offensive. So long as things stay like this, my Ignore List (I call it "Iggy") will go hungry.

'GrumpyDaze' isn't really as witty as 'HappyDaze'

Too bad my whit often consists of NC-17 innuendos. I have to remember that there are kids here.

Of course, I do have to wonder if the blind can distinguish women's tennis from porn when both are on the tele...

Your whit?

Too bad my whit often consists of NC-17 innuendos. I have to remember that there are kids here.

Of course, I do have to wonder if the blind can distinguish women's tennis from porn when both are on the tele...

Oh my! But to answer the question, I imagine yes. There's a "thwok" type noise you get only in tennis... usually.

I have to say I'm pretty happy with the boards these days. People disagree and attack arguments, but rarely attack the persons posting and nobody really seems to be intentionally offensive. So long as things stay like this, my Ignore List (I call it "Iggy") will go hungry.

poor Iggy. tell me you at least still take her outside to play fetch. she needs her exercise.

Too bad my whit often consists of NC-17 innuendos. I have to remember that there are kids here.

Of course, I do have to wonder if the blind can distinguish women's tennis from porn when both are on the tele...

Oh my! But to answer the question, I imagine yes. There's a "thwok" type noise you get only in tennis... usually.

and its not as wet. oh gods, did I cross the line there?

No, crossing the line will happen when tennis players start spitting on their rackets.

...my mind just went to a bad-but-good place involving tennis players...

In response to the AoR releases, lets compare.

EotE at what, 18 months in: 2 adventures, 1 setting book, 3 career books out already. That's one book every 3 months.

AoR at 6 moths in: 1 adventure, 1 career book. That's one book every 3 months.

Looks pretty even to me so far.

Interesting point, we are getting 1 book every three months (roughly) for each setting. We are getting the third setting this year. That's one book per month for the whole game line. Not to bad!

If we extrapolate the numbers out (and this is wild guess work here) we could be looking at 3 adventures, 3 setting books and 6 career books per line. That's a LOT of pages...

I also have a real hope that the setting books for AoR are more organisation based (Rebellion sourcebook, Empire sourcebook etc) rather than geographic. Who knows, maybe F&D might do time-line based setting books (most logical line in my mind to bring in an Old-Republic book plus the last line released so should be able to capitalise on the new movies the best). That would also help differentiate the lines and help my OCD... ;-)

speaking of ocd, http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tnzz-eFmKaw

We have heard multiple times from the dev team that they start working on a product at least a year in advance.

add to this that a lot of the concepts for each spec book where developed at the time the core book was created.

The also utilise a lot of freelance writers for the bulk text and images, only doing the editing and layout in-house.

because of this they have probably already mostly finished the EotE Career books, the text would be done and possibly all the artwork, and possibly another adventure and sector book are in the pipeline. this would mean that the Freelancers are likely writing material for AoR right now.

what I'm trying to say is that EotE will be mostly done by the time FFG need people working on the splat books for FaD, so only 2 of the lines will be being written for at any one time.

We have heard multiple times from the dev team that they start working on a product at least a year in advance.

add to this that a lot of the concepts for each spec book where developed at the time the core book was created.

The also utilise a lot of freelance writers for the bulk text and images, only doing the editing and layout in-house.

because of this they have probably already mostly finished the EotE Career books, the text would be done and possibly all the artwork, and possibly another adventure and sector book are in the pipeline. this would mean that the Freelancers are likely writing material for AoR right now.

what I'm trying to say is that EotE will be mostly done by the time FFG need people working on the splat books for FaD, so only 2 of the lines will be being written for at any one time.

I have to say that I am very impressed by FFG's management abilities. Organizing these sorts of projects with this variety of people and sticking to timescales is no easy task.

I admit I am hoping the first splat book for F&D is the consular one as I have both Sage and Nimian in my group.

I would love an Age of Rebellion supplement that focused on the Empire and gave detailed stats for playing Imperial characters. If Fantasy Flight Games wants to emphasize adventures where the players are inherently good and heroic, this type of supplement could even be an adventure module where the players go undercover. Or maybe they begin as Imperials and defect to the Alliance.

If they do more region-based books for AoR, I would love to see one dedicated to Bothan Space, and another possibly on the major shipyards of the galaxy, like Kuat, Mon Calamari, Sluis Van, etc.

Does anybody have ideas of what other species would be released in AoR supplements? I can see Ishi Tib, Shistavanen, Verpine, and maybe Caamasi, but are there any other alien races that feel specific or at least relevant to a Rebel vs. Imperial campaign?