Smaller Expansions?

By The Warp, in Cosmic Encounter

Just gauging the interest in small expansions for CE. Once the additional player pieces and stuff have been released, would people have an interest in a CE expansion that included smaller portions. Let's say for instance they put out 6 aliens and their 6 flares, and they charged $9.99 for it.

I know I for one would be all over it.

I think a small expansion could be the way to put out some of the more controversial aliens, or a way to include variant aliens (like Tech aliens or Lucre aliens, or Moon aliens, etc.)

Just thinking out loud.

YYYYYAAAAAAAYYYY !!! Me me me !!! Tiny boxes, Small boxes, Middle Boxes, Big Boxes, huuuuge boxes !!! Cosmic forever !

Just yelling out loud :)

$10 for 10 aliens with their 10 flares is a good deal to me.

I think it's a good idea once the brunt of the additions have been added. It'd also be a way to keep interest up and to add flavor to already included expansions .... things such as more Tech and Rewards cards.

I'll buy everything they make for this game. I'd buy a single alien with flare if they chose to package it as such!

I don't understand, Jack ... what is the connection between controversiality of an alien and expansion size? Are you trying to make the sets smaller so that people who don't like that particular alien "don't have to buy it"?

Personally I'd prefer that FFG put as much as they can into each expansion and price it wherever it needs to be. Fewer boxes to purchase means (a) less money wasted on shipping or trips to a store, (b) more new coolness at once, © reduced likelihood of problems from printing variations, card miscuts, etc.

The only reasons I could see for wanting smaller expansions would be if we didn't have to wait as long to get all the material that would otherwise have come in a larger expansion, or if it made the product more economically viable for FFG and thus increased its chances of a longer lifespan.

I'm guessing that smaller expansions are unlikely because of the production time involved.

Having watched Kevin bring a few games and expansions through the development process, I can assure you he doesn't have any "spare time" to knock 2-3 aliens out in. Even if he did, the Art Director doesn't want to order three pieces of art from their freelancers and the graphic design guys don't want to stop working on the big games to lay out three Aliens. Retailers don't want to deal with something that small and cheap that isn't kept at the front counter. (And it that's where it is, then it isn't on the shelf with the game itself)

I'm guessing that Cosmic Incursion represents the smallest expansion a company like Fantasy Flight can really produce and expect to make money. When you have 10 people involved on a project, that project needs to be big enough to occupy them for a while or it's going to get lost while they work on the big projects.