What then? If FFG ever stops making Xwing, what happens?

This is completely hypothetical, and not likely in the near future, because STAR WARS is never going away.

but what usually happens to these kind of games when they are discontinued? do people still play these games?

I hope so. I'm gonna teach my kids to play this game someday, what will you guys all be up to?

I wouldn't be surprised if they went back farther in the timeline, and made a few waves of Clone Wars era ships. That's worth a couple of waves, at the very least. Plus, you have a couple more Star Wars movies due out, so we're set for a few years yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if they went back farther in the timeline, and made a few waves of Clone Wars era ships. That's worth a couple of waves, at the very least. Plus, you have a couple more Star Wars movies due out, so we're set for a few years yet.

Yea, but after that.... this is hypothetical.

Disney is going to want to sell toys, so new ships will start creeping out of the main trilogy, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got some new ones out of the anthology movies. There's a looooong way to go.

I hope they stop.
There's no point in continuing a game far beyond the point where you run out of material. At that point you're just diluting the game and filling it with stuff that'll never be used.

I love this game. When it stops, I'll keep playing. But I don't wanna see it full of crap that has no place

I think you're all answering his question but I don't think he's getting what he was looking for.

As it's a hypothetical, say that FFG went bust and no one acquired the license to go with X-Wing Miniatures and the game effectively died, would it still be played, would the community continue or would it quickly fade with a lack of official support?

(correct me if i'm wrong, OP)

The only way FFG stops producing this game is if they lose the license. I think they are in good position to keep it now.

Well if FFG calls it quits after a time, then I guess X-Wing will become OOP. With all that entails. Mind you, they still play Blood Bowl all over the world and have tournaments, so... A good game can withstand. X-Wing will endure. Heck, Battletech has been around for a billion years. You never know with games. DnD looked poised to fall off the face of the earth, and now it's back.

I will even dare to mention that Star Wars itself was kind of in limbo circa 1990, and then books, of all things, brought it back. As much as we hate to admit it, the prequels also played a big role in the resurgence of Star Wars in that time. One could even say that despite the lead-on and let-down of the prequels, Star Wars managed to hang on. I think the new era of movies looks set to keep us enthralled for a good long while as well. Fans will find an outlet for their passion, whether it's collecting or whatever. X-Wing as a game is pretty solid, at all levels, and I think it could attain a collectible value as well.

Personally, I think the game is big enough to sustain a playerbase similar to Decipher's SWCCG, which still has a decent amount of players after nearly 13 years out of print.

Hopefully the community will continue to thrive well after Xwing stops being in production, but those are times I do not want to think about.

If anything, Xwing will come down to one expansion a year, draw it out, or re-release old ships in new packaging or create much different versions of imperial aces, veterans and maybe even elites for more ships. I have a feeling thought that with the coming of TFA a new wave of ships is on the horizon that will keep Xwing fresh and new for years to come.

Hopefully the community will continue to thrive well after Xwing stops being in production, but those are times I do not want to think about.

If anything, Xwing will come down to one expansion a year, draw it out, or re-release old ships in new packaging or create much different versions of imperial aces, veterans and maybe even elites for more ships. I have a feeling thought that with the coming of TFA a new wave of ships is on the horizon that will keep Xwing fresh and new for years to come.

We will get a second edition before it comes down to that.

What will happen if FFG stops making the game altogether? No new expansions, no prize support, nothing? Honestly, the same thing will happen that has happened to myriad other card games and the like, it will diminish and possibly die off. Sure, there will be those who still have it and play it on occasion, but you'll never see it played in a game store even in casual games, much less in tournaments and such.

(NOTE - the above assumes that FFG stops selling the game and expansions, too. If it is still sold, just not updated, it will also diminish, but not completely die off. It just won't be nearly as popular.)

Who is going to want to fly a CIS droid army fleet? If anything I see the droid ships being usable by scum, since a lot of battle droids ended up on the black market.

Well if FFG calls it quits after a time, then I guess X-Wing will become OOP. With all that entails. Mind you, they still play Blood Bowl all over the world and have tournaments, so... A good game can withstand. X-Wing will endure. Heck, Battletech has been around for a billion years. You never know with games. DnD looked poised to fall off the face of the earth, and now it's back.

I will even dare to mention that Star Wars itself was kind of in limbo circa 1990, and then books, of all things, brought it back. As much as we hate to admit it, the prequels also played a big role in the resurgence of Star Wars in that time. One could even say that despite the lead-on and let-down of the prequels, Star Wars managed to hang on. I think the new era of movies looks set to keep us enthralled for a good long while as well. Fans will find an outlet for their passion, whether it's collecting or whatever. X-Wing as a game is pretty solid, at all levels, and I think it could attain a collectible value as well.

Blood Bowl is still played in tourneys here, that's for sure. I'd hope that if it ever came down to FFG stopping, that we'd still play. I know I'd be up for a gemae.

Given the history of miniature games, someone is going to **** up somewhere and start X-wing on a negativity spiral.

The negativity spiral is slow, but it causes nerdrage, abandonment, resale and general disinterest with the hobby.

Pricing and power creep are usually the invisible arched doorway into the negativity spiral, the cement is made of new games being released by FFG and it's competitors and the unwitting newbies who will eventually decide not to collect X-Wing miniatures due to the imposing amount of ships that will eventually have been released.

If a game does not suffer the negativity spiral it will simply die out as people move on to new games anyway fore the simple reason that they are, indeed, new.

That usually happens when they put an idiot in charge of rules or designing new ships. Sometimes they have an agenda too.

I still play SPI games, most notably War of the Ring. Not only do I play with the long since lost Babylon 5 Wars game For starship battles, but I play it with Attack Wing miniatures and unofficial Star Trek ship control sheets. A game does not need to be current to be enjoyed. I know people who still play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which puts them well behind what's presently published/supported.

X-wing, I think, is good enough to survive beyond its current life as plastic crack. It may even get better as we focus more on playing with our favorite ships rather than worrying about min-maxing for tournaments or keeping up with the latest releases.

I expect fan-made content like the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster campaign will do a lot to keep X-Wing going even after the end of official support and new releases.

I guess it wouldn't stop us from playing. Look, Warhammer community created his own version of the game when GW stopped printing it. That could happen in our community too, and with all the talented people here, I'm sure new expansions would come out, maybe as a kind of "convert your TIE advanced to a TIE aggressor", with custom rules and cards.

I somehow don't think this game is going anywhere for a lengthy period of time. Already started teaching my kids.

Oblivion.

Well, in wargaming terms X Wing is an infant. Three years is barely a blip.

However, X Wing has practically exhausted the available model pool. We've well and truly milked the EU, there's nothing left there but the absolute dregs that will hurt the game more than they help it if they are ever released, and the new movies have not added as much as we might have hoped.

I don't expect the 'spin off' movies like Rogue One to add much more either. A few new ships, sure, but I expect most of the action to be fan-service, reliving the glory days of the OT fighters. I know I'd much rather see the old T-65's kicking ass and taking names, rather than have some new ships stealing the limelight in Rogue One.

So, if it's only taken three years to exhaust nearly four decades of films and EU ships, how long can X Wing maintain this rate?

Not much longer, IMO.

I think FFG renewed their contract with the intent of letting it expire at the end instead of renewing it for a second time. And I think that decision was at least party to stop another company from taking the contract at this critical juncture, with Star Wars enjoying a renaissance with the Disney takeover.

I don't expect X Wing to survive much past the next few years. Or rather, I don't expect it to remain in print by FFG. I think it will stop being so profitable and I think FFG will relinquish the contract to another company to develop another game and start the process all over, rather than let it linger with FFG.

But I don't expect X Wing to go away after that. It's a great game with a large following and I expect it will enjoy cult status alongside other great games like Bloodbowl, Epic, Battletech, etc.

By that time I should have all the models I want. So yes I'll keep playing, and keep posting about the games on Google +1 and Blogger even if the forum closes.

While it might change with future releases, I know the ships I'm after and Waves 1 to 8 cover most. Just a few I'm hoping/waiting for.

Well it is hard to say what the exact lifespan of the game will be and in 10 years from now would it be bigger or will it fade out. Still 10 years from now it is safe to say if you still have all your collection and components and didn't lost them in a fire you can still play X-wing, unlike EA Star Wars Battlefront where there is no guarantee that EA will keep the server up.

Well if it does stick around for 10 years it will probably go through a 2nd or even a 3rd edition with little remakes of the models but reprinting all the cards and dials as well as new rules. Some table top games do last longer than a decade, take a look at how old Warhammer 40,000 is or Magic the gathering? Sure there is no guarantee that Warhammer 40,000 will be around for another 10 years but it has already been around for over 10 years. Also take a space marine army as well as the rules from 10 years ago and compare it to a space marine army today and of course there are noticeable differences in the rules and some new models. But all in all it is still the same game. I think X-wing will follow a similar pattern and it hasn't peaked in its life cycle as of yet.

Yes, X-Wing has come a long way since an old jedi made spaceships out of his leftover gribbles to pay off his gambling debts. Who knows what adventures it'll have between now and the time little plastic ships become unprofitable?