The thing is having stuff that FFG doesnt make *at the moment* ist much of a get out either is it because what you're actually doing is making it harder for the actual licence holder to market the official product later if you've already met demand by bootlegging it.

If FFG were to run out of smal and medium (and epic) ships to do they might well look into prepaint scenery or debris etc and you can see why having a clear market would be an advantage

But you're right darius, the C&D notice makes it pretty clear they were pulled for making things they dont have the licence to.

which would be both complete and wrecked 'versions' or 'sculpts' of any design or ship type clearly part of the star wars universe and especially if you are daft enough to label it with the same trade names (the ones they quote in the C&D).

Its like i could make toy 'laser swords' that light up and probably get away with it, it wasnt an original concept in 77, im sure it had been in sci fi for years.

If i make them have the same buzzing sound as lightsabres and *call* them lightsabres or even worse 'darth vader's light sabre' i cant be surprised if i get a letter from Disney.

Exactly. Tell you what though. I'm REALLY curious about those redacted dates.

At the most i imagine they have been wondering if they can fight it for a week or two and dont want to look like they have known for some time.

At best they are perhaps just keeping some bits of the action to themselves.

I suppose.

Not a fight I'd want to pick, GW sure. chapterhouse did it. They didn't directly name, no recasts etc.

The mouse, that's a different league. Especially with the naming conventions, recasts etc.

GW being used for comparison because let's face it, big gaming company throwing C&D's around like candy? It's kind of one of the things they are known for, whether you agree with them or not.

I suppose.

Not a fight I'd want to pick, GW sure. chapterhouse did it. They didn't directly name, no recasts etc.

The mouse, that's a different league. Especially with the naming conventions, recasts etc.

But remember Chapter House only had the ability to even go there because

1. they got pro bono defence, it would have crippled them otherwise

2. the case was heard in the states, it would have cost GW a small fortune just to fly witnesses in each time.

Were CH not counter sued in the end and it all ended up as a bit of a stalemate, i dont know i stopped paying attention after a while as it was dragging on but im pretty sure it wasnt a 'ok guys keep on making shoulder pads with chapter symbols on them;

What i think it *may* have done is prompted the death of WFB and the creation of 'age of sigmar' by forcing GW to burn anything that didnt have a unique name and picture which... on the whole probably annoyed more people than the amount of people who had schadenfreude over seeing some one 'stick it to GW '

Not over here. No one played it so the death received little note.

Yeah, WFB never had as huge a following as 40K, It did lead to things like the doom of mai tai's disappearing, as well as several dark eldar characters.

I still maintain that 40k needs a complete and utter re-work.

Tell you what though: excited over specialist games coming back.

Good lord. Their Nebulon-B frigate is still posted to Amazon under the listing "Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game - Nebulon-B Frigate."

These guys weren't just playing with fire. They were actively re-enacting the gasoline fight from Zoolander.

Well if the site was selling recast parts, that's that. Even if they were good blokes who only spent the money on lager and chips, you just can't do that unless you live in a country with no international copyright laws.

As long as FFG isn't moving into some kind of corporate d-bag mindset, then it's all good. You do have to defend your IP and make sure that people are paying their dues. You know sometimes the C&Ds can be a good thing, if handled the right way. Cyanide Games made an outright Blood Bowl rip-off called Chaos League and garnered attention from GW, then end result being that CG and GW teamed up to produce the current run of BB games. So if this Space Rocks, or any legit entrepreneur, like the makers of HOTAC, were to approach FFG in a sensible manner I'm sure we could see some good out of this tightening up of policy. After all if you are an artist or game maker or whathaveyou and you have a solid product it's probably in your best interest to try and get on board right now. Prove your products popularity and we could see a huge shift in X-Wing towards a more streamlined and ramped up manufacturing process.

Think about it. If Disney is going to reign in on online retailers, issue C&Ds to small unlicensed vendors, and from what we've seen get more involved with FFG, then maybe, just maybe this is the dawning of a golden age of X-Wing and Star Wars in general?

I think the evidence is mounting. Look at SW:Rebels, we have a direct tie-in with a Disney cartoon, direct tie-in with the new trilogy. Let's face it guys, it may be for better or for worse but X-Wing is going to be handled by Disney through FFG. If the staff are smart, and I think they are, they'll stay put and invest themselves in the future of this game to make sure it doesn't turn out like GW, and remains true to the current business model and true to their player and fan base. It's going to be a cash cow anyways, might as well handle it with some dignity right?

Tell you what though: excited over specialist games coming back.

Yep. Blood Bowl and Mordheim are going to get me to buy GW products again. Those bastards keep pulling me back in.

Mordheim, necromunda and gothic for me.

Though it really depends what they do... new minis/re-releases, new rules.

Maybe inquisitor may return...

Maybe it'll be 2001 all over again, some 15 years later.

I just want Epic back, damnit. I know Flames of War exists and Dropzone Commander and all that. But... Titans... proper Greater Daemons...

The announcement of bringing back their "specialist games" reeks of desperation to me, especially after what Gadge said led to their demise in the first place.

The way I see it, GW are now casting envious eyes at the producers of other self-contained (and successful) tabletop games, and are wanting to sink their claws back into that share of the market.

Mordheim, necromunda and gothic for me.

Though it really depends what they do... new minis/re-releases, new rules.

Maybe inquisitor may return...

Maybe it'll be 2001 all over again, some 15 years later.

have they announced mordheim though, because i doubt they would as it would canabalise sales from AoS

I think they did, but it may have been Necromunda... Defo Gothic tho.

Honestly, Mordheim would sell better than AoS...

So were does this put things form the EU now. Disney has said it doesn't exist but but some things form it are diffidently Star Wars like one of my Favorites. The TIE Vanguard it has no true "Cannon" is listed only in legends.

So were does this put things form the EU now. Disney has said it doesn't exist but but some things form it are diffidently Star Wars like one of my Favorites. The TIE Vanguard it has no true "Cannon" is listed only in legends.

Disney still owns all of it.

The announcement of bringing back their "specialist games" reeks of desperation to me, especially after what Gadge said led to their demise in the first place.

The way I see it, GW are now casting envious eyes at the producers of other self-contained (and successful) tabletop games, and are wanting to sink their claws back into that share of the market.

It very much is, as the only thing GW cares about is separating people from as much of their money as possible. However, if this mad scheme happens to bring in new Blood Bowl players and new Blood Bowl sculpts I'm all for it.

So were does this put things form the EU now. Disney has said it doesn't exist but but some things form it are diffidently Star Wars like one of my Favorites. The TIE Vanguard it has no true "Cannon" is listed only in legends.

Disney still owns all of it.

Was mostly curious due to the fact they said it doesn't exist that could be seen as giving up copyright on those objects. But I dont' think anyone would have capital to fight them on those grounds anyway.

So were does this put things form the EU now. Disney has said it doesn't exist but but some things form it are diffidently Star Wars like one of my Favorites. The TIE Vanguard it has no true "Cannon" is listed only in legends.

If it came out as part of an officially licensed product, like a book, comic book, or video game, then it is the property of Disney and they control all rights to how and where it is used. Just because they say it's not "Canon" does not mean that it is not still their intellectual property. It's just that they are making a decision about how that intellectual property is to be used in reference to any new movies or TV shows.

It's like Marvel's "What If?" comics. They can put out a story discussing, "What if Tony Stark became the Hulk?" That story can even be popular enough to get its own action figure. However, it's up to Marvel editorial whether they want to actually make that story canon, and they control the rights to how that story is ultimately used.

I think they did, but it may have been Necromunda... Defo Gothic tho.

Honestly, Mordheim would sell better than AoS...

Gothic might be the biggest flop of them all. First thing people are going to do when it launches is draw paralkels wuth Armada, and I highly doubt GW staff has the knowledge to desugn somwthing even 20% as good.

I think they did, but it may have been Necromunda... Defo Gothic tho.

Honestly, Mordheim would sell better than AoS...

Gothic might be the biggest flop of them all. First thing people are going to do when it launches is draw paralkels wuth Armada, and I highly doubt GW staff has the knowledge to desugn somwthing even 20% as good.

our community said LOL BFG TIME and made armada-scale BFG ships from plasticard.

and BFG ship rules for armada rulepack.

works perfectly.

I think they did, but it may have been Necromunda... Defo Gothic tho.

Honestly, Mordheim would sell better than AoS...

Gothic might be the biggest flop of them all. First thing people are going to do when it launches is draw paralkels wuth Armada, and I highly doubt GW staff has the knowledge to desugn somwthing even 20% as good.

And apparently their proof reading sucks too!

I think they did, but it may have been Necromunda... Defo Gothic tho.

Honestly, Mordheim would sell better than AoS...

Gothic might be the biggest flop of them all. First thing people are going to do when it launches is draw paralkels wuth Armada, and I highly doubt GW staff has the knowledge to desugn somwthing even 20% as good.

Specialist Games were the only things that GW did well and they were done really, really well. Since they were done well, GW being the company that they are decided to shut them down. At least they're finally bringing them back.

The thing is having stuff that FFG doesnt make *at the moment* ist much of a get out either...

I was sorta involved in something like that on the fringe. I played a MMO called City of Heroes, and that game got sued by Marvel. The grounds of the suit was that CoH would interfere with the Marvel MMO that was in the works.

Now in that case Marvel kinda shot themselves in the foot. The major part of their claim was that people could recreate marvel characters in CoH, so that would harm their ability to sell a MMO. Why play the Marvel game when you can already play Spiderman in CoH...

The problem was, every example of a Marvel character they produced was made in the game by someone from Marvel, there was very few cases of real people playing marvel characters, and when the only examples of IP infringement you have is made by the IP holder... you lose a lot of weight in your claim.

As it was, the whole thing was settled out of court and so no one but those involved know what all happened,, but CoH did make more of an effort to crack down on marvel and DC costumes and names. It was also a year or so after that that Paragon Studios let everyone know they were working on a Marvel MMO... which never made it and became Champions Online.