36 minutes ago, Edgookin said:

If they do a relaunch and keep with the 3 core rulebook base, I suspect they will lose many sales. I would migrate to 2e if it had a thick core rulebook, then add playstyle books. So buy core book once, then add Edge/Age/TCW/TFA as a supplement.

People said that same thing when FFG first got into SW. They didn't care. They went their own way, and it brought them many $. If they believe it will do so again, they will split the line as many times as their projections tell them to. Individuals saying that this will lose them sales have not paid attention to what FFG has already proven.

1 hour ago, HappyDaze said:

Individuals saying that this will lose them sales have not paid attention to what FFG has already proven.

It's likely worth reiterating just how small a part of their portfolio the RPG lines seem to be - I'm happy they're at least finishing the line here.

11 hours ago, themensch said:

It's likely worth reiterating just how small a part of their portfolio the RPG lines seem to be - I'm happy they're at least finishing the line here.

Very true. In comparison to minis and card games, RPG books aren't very profitable at all. Depending on the property, they may even be seen as something of a "loss leader," in that they're sold in the hopes of drawing customers to their more profitable product lines in spite of making little to no money. It's been speculated that the only reason WotC hung onto the Star Wars license as long as they did is because they were making good money off of the minis game, and when that effectively dried up they let the license go rather than pay for something that simply wasn't all that profitable for the costs involved.

Given that RPGs in and of themselves don't have high profit margins (a long-standing industry joke is "how do you make a small fortune in the RPG business? Start with a large fortune and open an RPG company!" for good reason). Add licensing fees (which can vary depending on how hot the property is at the time the contract is negotiated), and you cut even deeper into the already slim profit margins. Most small press companies are content with breaking even, in that they make enough on RPG sales to cover production costs of the books themselves as well as general operating costs (such as paying their freelancers, what few full-time staff they have, and any rent/utilities for office space).

Given the number of reprints that has done of supplemental books (something WotC never did for Saga Edition in spite of folks clamoring for reprints of books like Starships of the Galaxy and Knights of the Old Republic even as the line was being wound down), it seems that for FFG, the SWRPG line has been profitable enough to warrant the additional print runs. But since even for big market RPGs like D&D and Pathfinder the gravy train doesn't run forever, it could well be that FFG is starting to see less of a return on investment with the SWRPG line, and as you said may simply opt to not publish new books for a while once the Spy book comes out (at this rate, I'm thinking it's being held for a GenCon release so that they've at least got some new SWRPG product to sell), and content themselves with reprints of core material such as the main rulebooks and the Beginner Box sets (which have proven fairly popular in being a good way to teach folks the game and get dice relatively cheaply).

After the Spy book I think that FFG will do one more era book covering the prequel movie trilogy and the Clone Wars cartoon. After that they might keep making reprints until the market dries up or they let the Star Wars license lapse.

It also looks like FFG is starting to allocate more RPG resources to Genesys campaign books for Anroid, Twiligt Imperium and maybe Arkham Horror.

If the Legends of Five Rings Core Rulebook and Beginner Game sells enough then FFG will follow that up with a full line of supplements (7 Great Clan books, a couple of regional books and a couple of hardcover adventure books).

6 hours ago, Alisair Longreach said:

After the Spy book I think that FFG will do one more era book covering the prequel movie trilogy and the Clone Wars cartoon. After that they might keep making reprints until the market dries up or they let the Star Wars license lapse..

I suspect we may see an era book covering the Sequel/TFA era once Episode 9 is released, as that's a fairly popular era and one that is actually quite accommodating to campaigns as the galaxy is very much a wide-open sandbox for GMs to play around in, and doesn't have the issue of the originals or prequels/Clone Wars were a lot of the major events are canonically handled by individuals who aren't the PCs.

On 7/5/2018 at 1:40 AM, Alisair Longreach said:

After the Spy book I think that FFG will do one more era book covering the prequel movie trilogy and the Clone Wars cartoon. After that they might keep making reprints until the market dries up or they let the Star Wars license lapse.

That is the most pessimistic post I have read on the board. With all the SW lines FFG have (RPG, XWing, Amarda, Destiny Dice, Legion, Imperial Assault...) I can't see the license lapsing any time soon.

This would be a good item of discussion on the Order 66 Podcast though. @GM Chris ?