Important Announcement for Kingdom Hearts Players

By ffgjaffer, in Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game

Dear Kingdom Hearts Community,

It is with my sincere regret and disappointment that I must make the sad announcement that Fantasy Flight Games is discontinuing its collectible card game lines, including both UFS and Kingdom Hearts .

As some of you may have sensed, the collectible card game market has been in decline for some time with the market redirecting its focus on the core games of that particular hobby, making it difficult for any newcomers to enter into and compete in it.

When Kingdom Hearts launched in 2007, it was with very high hopes and expectations of success. Although initial interest in Kingdom Hearts was high, even in the mainstream market, and there arose a hard core of dedicated fans and hobby stores that formed around Kingdom Hearts to support it, the game never managed to find an adequate foothold in the already crowded and incredibly competitive hobby game market. As such, its sales could not and cannot support the long-term future of the game.

I relay this unhappy news knowing that despite how much you, the dedicated fans of Kingdom Hearts and I myself, love the game, it cannot support itself into the future, and we must therefore cancel any plans for future expansions to the game or larger-scale organized play. From myself, and on behalf of Fantasy Flight Games, please allow me to extend our apologies and our hope that despite everything you have enjoyed playing Kingdom Hearts and that it has been a good experience for you.

There are some lingering questions regarding Kingdom Hearts and I will do my best to answer them here.

To start, Kingdom Hearts products will still be available through Fantasy Flight Games for the foreseeable future. Likewise, for the time being, the Kingdom Hearts minisite and forums, as well as Rules Questions email address, will remain on the Fantasy Flight Games website. Should these conditions change, we will be sure to notify our fans through this site.

Unfortunately, all future sets of Kingdom Hearts have been canceled. Set IV: Break of Dawn will be the final set published by Fantasy Flight Games. Also, all tournament and other prize support, has also been canceled.

With regards to the promo cards published with Set IV, those players interested in receiving these promo cards can send a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope to Fantasy Flight Games and we will send back one copy each (foil and non-foil) of the Set IV promo cards: Belle, Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella.

Send your SASE to:
Kingdom Hearts Set IV Redemption
c/o Fantasy Flight Games
1975 West County Road B2, Suite 1
Roseville, MN 55113


Should any further questions arise regarding Kingdom Hearts, please feel free to address them directly to me and I will do my best to answer them. Thank you all for your support and thank you for playing Fantasy Flight Games.

Jaffer Batica
Marketing Manager
[email protected]

Grk.... ow...

Early announcement, eh?

Well, I'll have a piece to say about this later.

about those cards, how do it work for fellow canadians?

too bad they are shutting this one too. there where like only 3 set left :/

What about that special Sora 5/2 Player Card?

I too will have much to say about this later...but as of right now....

Fantasy Flight Games will NEVER and I mean NEVER see another dime of my money.

this sucks, with only the last set left to be released too.

but i only question is: the rumor was said that we would get this news in jan, if you know your gonna stop why wait to tell the public.....

Xmas maybe?

well i had fun, later all it was a blast i'm done with the forums if the game is dead

wish i had made it to gencon this past summer instead of thinking oh next summer will be fine

Eroecchi (^,^)b

You guys suck..hardcore..the one f**cking thing you announce early too!!!

I can honestly say I saw this coming. It failed because FFG didn't start Organizied Play after the first two sets, had you guys done so (and I'm assuming you were waiting to see how the sales went) the game would have done better because everyone I know was disinterested by the lack of company support and hard to find product, not TCG sales. What really makes me a little sad is that you have a failing state (Michigan) that was so into this game and then when it became hard to find cause the stores weren't supplied, you lost it.

I echo Mr. Dawn, I was thinking about looking into other FFG products, but I've changed my mind now. Good day all.

~Roxas

To everyone who has said they will never buy any FFG games again, and any other over the top reactionaries....all I can say is get a grip! FFG did not kil off there CCG just to harm you personally. They were BLEEDING cash. As much as they and their fans LOVED the games you cannot run a business that way. That's right first and foremost FFG is a business. While making kick ass games is a close 2nd, making $ is thier number one priority. That's not a personal attack on them, just a fact of life. If they don't make $ they don;t make games.

Reread the front page post. They tried to make it work but CCGs are dying all over the place.

It's shame when any game finally goes DOA,but that does not mean that you cannot keep playing a game you love. No one is going to show up in the middle of the night and repo you cards.

Relax.

-H, who has never played a CCG game.

Anyone chance of eitther games getting relaunched as LCG's?

hahnarama said:

To everyone who has said they will never buy any FFG games again, and any other over the top reactionaries....all I can say is get a grip! FFG did not kil off there CCG just to harm you personally. They were BLEEDING cash. As much as they and their fans LOVED the games you cannot run a business that way. That's right first and foremost FFG is a business. While making kick ass games is a close 2nd, making $ is thier number one priority. That's not a personal attack on them, just a fact of life. If they don't make $ they don;t make games.

Reread the front page post. They tried to make it work but CCGs are dying all over the place.

It's shame when any game finally goes DOA,but that does not mean that you cannot keep playing a game you love. No one is going to show up in the middle of the night and repo you cards.

Relax.

-H, who has never played a CCG game.

You may think it's over the top, however (I don't speak for everyone, they can speak for themselves) I think a company that puts it's people through what the we have gone through is not the company I want to be buying product from. You speak from the view point of an outsider, I speak from 2 years of being constantly disappointed time and time again by FFG with their lack of support for this game (from what I hear we got ..a corner? for Gencon and almost no product so people could buy it after they saw it since it was still pretty big). They are a BOARD game company, not a Card Game there is a huge difference and a prime example of that is the other CCG that was canned with us, UFS. From my understanding it flourished until FFG brought it and then it was pretty much left as is with new cards coming out every so often (maybe), they only reason that got OP was because Sabertooth had already set it up.

The other part of it is that FFG has left the game broken with many cards with bad wording and still in need of ruling because of said wording. Add with the fact that we're now out probably the better half of Kingdom Hearts 2 and would have made play more like a fast paced CCG like YGO or MtG and our disappointment is just and faith greatly shaken if not completely destroyed.

~Roxas (who has played about 4-5 CCG's all of which (other than this one) are still going strong)

Just so you guys know. This game was Jaffer's child so I'm sure he's just as upset as the rest of you. Sad to see that FFG couldn't keep this or UFS going, though I'm not really surprised. TCG's need more resources than what ffg had to offer.

hahnarama said:

To everyone who has said they will never buy any FFG games again, and any other over the top reactionaries....all I can say is get a grip! FFG did not kil off there CCG just to harm you personally. They were BLEEDING cash. As much as they and their fans LOVED the games you cannot run a business that way. That's right first and foremost FFG is a business. While making kick ass games is a close 2nd, making $ is thier number one priority. That's not a personal attack on them, just a fact of life. If they don't make $ they don;t make games.

Reread the front page post. They tried to make it work but CCGs are dying all over the place.

It's shame when any game finally goes DOA,but that does not mean that you cannot keep playing a game you love. No one is going to show up in the middle of the night and repo you cards.

Relax.

-H, who has never played a CCG game.

I understand you coming here and wanting to defend a company you obviously love, but your opinions are unfortunately pretty uneducated.

I own (and love) three of FFG's Big Box, epic games and 3 or 4 smaller FFG games. Everyone of the big box games I own have erratas posted on the game's page and people activley answering ruling questions from people on the forums. Non of this can be said about KH. You said they tried to make it work but the fact is they didn't try very hard. I've seen the type of effort their capable of puting into their games but they didn't here.

All in all I think it's good that their getting out of the CCG market because they obviously couldn't/didn't put the required amount of money/effort/research/advertising. But based on what I see this is totally their fault, and like you said, they are a business, but it was bad business to string a game along and put half ass effort into it, and for that I think boycotting FFG is warrented.

I for one won't be because they do put the required effort into their board games and make fun, high quality products. It's just a shame that they had the rights to an extreamly popular and successful video game and screwed up what could have been an extreamly fun, popular and lucrative card game.

Note: when I say they I mean the company as a whole and not one persone, certainly not Jaffer as I can see the effort he tried to put into this game.

Dang...definatly sad to see this game go. But it's also a good thing. It was like watching a crippled animal trying to crawl through the dirt, and failing. It's almost refreshing to see it's finally being put down

Anyone that says FFG did it's best for this game obviously has no idea what we, the devout player base have gone through. I will acknowledge specific exceptions, Jaffer being one of them. However from the day I entered the Kingdom Hearts TCG, which was very close to it's initial release, the community has been left wanting. Of simple necessities for any playable card game! I've ranted about the way this company has handled this game many times before, doing so now will just be a waste of words. My only hope is that FFG will never attempt to do this again

But that's enough of that. To these games, I will remember you fondly and mourn the loss. To Fantasy Flight Games, I simply say goodbye

Juts because this game has died doesn't mean ill stop playing. I have fun playing this an dmy friends and I won;t quit. Now buying crads will be a little harder but i dont care. It sucks that its dead now because i think this game had a lot of potential to make it. I mean if YuGiOh can make it big and that game is as simple as it gets, yopu thionk a little more promotion.

Blah... Im not quitting but I'm annoyed this has happened. In some off chance in the futrure you decide to bring it back ill still be playing even if that means FOREVER! XD

Take it easy guys, ill be looking for cards still so anybody wanting to get rid of their cards I'll probably take some.

Roxas said:

hahnarama They are a BOARD game company, not a Card Game there is a huge difference and a prime example of that is the other CCG that was canned with us, UFS. From my understanding it flourished until FFG brought it and then it was pretty much left as is with new cards coming out every so often (maybe), they only reason that got OP was because Sabertooth had already set it up.

To let you know, it is most people's observations that FFG tried many, many things to get UFS back on track. It was a bit out of wack even prior to FFGs purchase in MOST UFS player's (and it seems steve horvath?) opinions.

FFG has three very solid LCGs, and many solid board games. Please honestly consider... it is frippin impossible to make most TCGs profitable (and yes I admit the lack of OP from FFG was troubling, however, if you'll consider that they were liscencing this game from another company... there may have been a REASON why they weren't doing organized play right away... probably because they weren't ALLOWED TO?!?)

RoxaSoraX said:

Juts because this game has died doesn't mean ill stop playing. I have fun playing this an dmy friends and I won;t quit. Now buying crads will be a little harder but i dont care. It sucks that its dead now because i think this game had a lot of potential to make it. I mean if YuGiOh can make it big and that game is as simple as it gets, yopu thionk a little more promotion.

Blah... Im not quitting but I'm annoyed this has happened. In some off chance in the futrure you decide to bring it back ill still be playing even if that means FOREVER! XD

Take it easy guys, ill be looking for cards still so anybody wanting to get rid of their cards I'll probably take some.

It's kinda commendable seeing your devotion. Kinda reminds me when everyone on the Heart Forums had "No matter what I won't give up on this TCG" in their signatures.

However, then you psuedo-insulted Yugimonz. Mistake there, boya.

RoxaSoraX said:

Juts because this game has died doesn't mean ill stop playing. I have fun playing this an dmy friends and I won;t quit. Now buying crads will be a little harder but i dont care. It sucks that its dead now because i think this game had a lot of potential to make it. I mean if YuGiOh can make it big and that game is as simple as it gets, yopu thionk a little more promotion.

Blah... Im not quitting but I'm annoyed this has happened. In some off chance in the futrure you decide to bring it back ill still be playing even if that means FOREVER! XD

Take it easy guys, ill be looking for cards still so anybody wanting to get rid of their cards I'll probably take some.

i feel the exact same way mabye this is dead now but i REALLY feel bad for the UFS players....i mean we still get birth by sleep very soon and then Kingdom Hearts 3 eventually

although i havent been playing long i have been enjoying this game a whole lot more than other TCGs i have been trying (as the yu-gi-oh meta has become so generic and frankly boring) i also will continue playing and we have dicided to have weekly tournaments with no prizes just cause we love playing this game

i say to hell with FFG let them it we will pick it right back up and continue playing

power to the PLAYERS<-

i also will be still looking to trade or buy cards so if you r u looking to get rid of your stuff hit me up

vermillian said:

Roxas said:

hahnarama They are a BOARD game company, not a Card Game there is a huge difference and a prime example of that is the other CCG that was canned with us, UFS. From my understanding it flourished until FFG brought it and then it was pretty much left as is with new cards coming out every so often (maybe), they only reason that got OP was because Sabertooth had already set it up.

To let you know, it is most people's observations that FFG tried many, many things to get UFS back on track. It was a bit out of wack even prior to FFGs purchase in MOST UFS player's (and it seems steve horvath?) opinions.

FFG has three very solid LCGs, and many solid board games. Please honestly consider... it is frippin impossible to make most TCGs profitable (and yes I admit the lack of OP from FFG was troubling, however, if you'll consider that they were liscencing this game from another company... there may have been a REASON why they weren't doing organized play right away... probably because they weren't ALLOWED TO?!?)

It's not impossible for a TCG to be profitable, especially with a game that had the hype this game had in the beginning. If there was a reason, the company should have said something, instead it reinforces that FFG couldn't handle maintaining a CCG.

On a side note: Sorry Jaffer, I don't mean to say that you didn't do everything you could, if it sounds that way.

I'm torn right now, y'see I’ve played many, many CCG and TCGs. So on one hand I can honestly say that I know what Jaffer is talking about when he says it’s very hard to get a card game to thrive. And because it has to be said the days when MtG first came out are gone. These days you need not only nothing-short-of-amazing game design but also a highly popular and marketable Intellectual Property. Just look at the games to come out in the past 10 years. You can count the games based on new IP on one hand.

Now I can also say that even though the market is incredibly tough, I’ve seen good games get off the ground with the right effort and promotion. And I’m not just talking about the kid-centric games either. I don't think anyone expected the WoW TCG game to stay around long, especially when it seems the MMO players aren’t the main proprietors. But the work that went into promoting that TCG was really off the charts.

So all I can say is I’m still on the fence. Part of me wants to say that they could have made it even with the kind of game support and promotion other card games have seen, and another part of me wants to say even with that kind of attention its still not uncommon to see a good game die.

So in closing, See ya KHCCG, our time together was too short, but I had some fun times and I’ll continue to keep a deck together, just in case I happen to find someone else doing the same :)

Not even going to lower the prices of your product that has been discontinued? or have they not gotten around to it like usual?

Darkwing Duck said:

Not even going to lower the prices of your product that has been discontinued? or have they not gotten around to it like usual?

I've been wondering that as well, boxes were $10 before the announcement and now their back to $100. I don't see why people would pay the $100 plus here instead of the $60 with s/h at ccgarmory.com

That would definitely be cool to see them at $10 a box again. I missed out on that because my computer died and I needed to get a new one so I didn't find out about it until it was too late. Bring back the sale!!!! :-)

By the way, does anyone know the time frame for a response from FFG on the mail in? Just curious! Thanks!