I hope that this will change the future of Armada in Spain and in France.

My first impression, coming as it did on the heels of the Munificent article, is that this will be a good move for Armada. They made it a very public announcement in the community.

Atomic Mass has an excellent track record for the logistics side of things, something FFG has struggled with for years. It looks like the creative teams from Armada, X-wing & Legion will, in part at least, be transferring to AM.

My biggest question is, what will happen to the Forums. We have an amazing community and history recorded here. I would really hate to lose all that.

So does anyone know where AMG is based? It looks like it was set up by Asmodee a couple of years ago as a dedicated miniatures design studio, with Marvel Crisis Protocol being a test game. Its website just refers back to Asmodee NA for everything, it isn't listed on Asmodee's corporate list of companies, so it may not even be its own company just another trading name for Asmodee NA (although presumably it is incorporated somewhere). The address given on the latest Crisis Protocol FAQ is Asmodee's NA address - which is where FFG's buildings are, and the Asmodee careers page has a job opening at AMG, also in Roseville (although the job page itself says it is in Washington).

The point of all that is to say that this might not be a new organisation taking over as much as an internal restructuring, with people possibly staying in the same buildings, just under a different corporate structure and with different branding, as part of Asmodee consolidating all its companies by type of game rather than by licence or history. Which may mean not too many changes in how things work, just a bunch of changes in how everything looks (new website, new forum, new social media accounts, new packaging etc.). So perhaps nothing to get too worked up over... yet.

12 minutes ago, Grumbleduke said:

So does anyone know where AMG is based? It looks like it was set up by Asmodee a couple of years ago as a dedicated miniatures design studio, with Marvel Crisis Protocol being a test game. Its website just refers back to Asmodee NA for everything, it isn't listed on Asmodee's corporate list of companies, so it may not even be its own company just another trading name for Asmodee NA (although presumably it is incorporated somewhere). The address given on the latest Crisis Protocol FAQ is Asmodee's NA address - which is where FFG's buildings are, and the Asmodee careers page has a job opening at AMG, also in Roseville (although the job page itself says it is in Washington).

The point of all that is to say that this might not be a new organisation taking over as much as an internal restructuring, with people possibly staying in the same buildings, just under a different corporate structure and with different branding, as part of Asmodee consolidating all its companies by type of game rather than by licence or history. Which may mean not too many changes in how things work, just a bunch of changes in how everything looks (new website, new forum, new social media accounts, new packaging etc.). So perhaps nothing to get too worked up over... yet.

As far as I remember AMG is in the same building as FFG - so it shouldn't be a big hassle for staff to move over. But I don't have a source for that, just something I remember from last year when AMC was announced.

For what it's worth, Atomic Mass seems pretty active on YouTube (and Twitch). This could bode well for future updates and streams.

AMG is based in Seattle.

As long as we get the venator and lucrehulk in as beautiful models as others, then im not upset 😁

18 minutes ago, Uncrustable said:

As long as we get the venator and lucrehulk in as beautiful models as others, then im not upset 😁

Add in, as long as we don't lose 5 years of forum content and the forum as well, and you got yourself a deal.

3 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Could be the actual games will do well in a new studio. Who knows.

But FFG as a COMPANY will be gone as we know it.

It has been gone, and the fact that they can no longer hold licenses is proof of that.

8 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

It has been gone, and the fact that they can no longer hold licenses is proof of that.

After Asmodee acquired FFG, the license holder would most likely be Asmodee.

2 hours ago, Formynder4 said:

AMG is based in Seattle.

Is their design studio in Seattle, or just their articles of incorporation? If the CEO is holding an office in Seattle but the products are all made in Minnesota there might not be much change. But honestly, my biggest concerns with FFG were always the things they needed a head office to be in charge of - supply chains, marketing, community outreach etc.

1 hour ago, thecactusman17 said:

Is their design studio in Seattle, or just their articles of incorporation? If the CEO is holding an office in Seattle but the products are all made in Minnesota there might not be much change. But honestly, my biggest concerns with FFG were always the things they needed a head office to be in charge of - supply chains, marketing, community outreach etc.

There are no products made in Minnesota. To my knowledge, Asmodee has been in charge of shipping and logistics. Development is being moved to AGM, nothing else. Distribution and everything else is the same. Armada is printed/produced in China.

Well lots of Facebook chatter that Gernes and some others were let go. I have no idea if this is true and hope it’s false. Seems it’s coming from a former ffg employee that several members of the x-wing/armada/legion think tanks are not part of the transition and were let go. Like I said though this all Reddit a d Facebook chatter and I have no idea if it is factual. If it is factual, I’m a bit worried.

What will happen to this forum?

Do we stay here or move somewhere else?

How will we cope!?

1 hour ago, ninclouse2000 said:

Well lots of Facebook chatter that Gernes and some others were let go. I have no idea if this is true and hope it’s false. Seems it’s coming from a former ffg employee that several members of the x-wing/armada/legion think tanks are not part of the transition and were let go. Like I said though this all Reddit a d Facebook chatter and I have no idea if it is factual. If it is factual, I’m a bit worried.

Having just watched Crabbok’s interview with Gernes, I sure hope that’s not true. He seems like a great guy and genuine Star Wars fan, and I think he did a great job as developer and producer these past several years. I would be disappointed if he or Brooks were cut loose.

Folks here claiming Gernes and Alex Davy (Legion) were let go. Not good.

8 hours ago, cynanbloodbane said:

Atomic Mass has an excellent track record for the logistics side of things, something FFG has struggled with for years. It looks like the creative teams from Armada, X-wing & Legion will, in part at least, be transferring to AM.

Per a guy on reddit claiming to know people Alex Davies, Luke and Michael gernes were canned today. As well as 2 main OP people.

1 hour ago, Rmcarrier1 said:

Having just watched Crabbok’s interview with Gernes, I sure hope that’s not true. He seems like a great guy and genuine Star Wars fan, and I think he did a great job as developer and producer these past several years. I would be disappointed if he or Brooks were cut loose.

It's crappy timing to do this to people just before the holidays, and certainly opens up questions as to what sort of quality we'll ultimately be seeing.

However, game development and production takes a lot of time before the models are even being printed, so realistically we'll still have a couple waves of their quality work either way. Obviously the already-printed and on-the-boats Clone Wars wave 1, and the pre-development printing for Clone Wars wave 2 that had been teased already - likely wave 3 already mostly in the can, as well, and just playtesting. Beyond that, though...

I mean, it's entirely possible they cut the development team because there isn't going to BE any more development - they'll just go through the production and printing of what has already been designed and then EOL the line...

My primary question in this is what is the story on the Q1 2021 Clone Wars Armada expansions. While my sympathies go out to those who find themselves unemployed I have a not insubstantial ($400+) pre-order in for Clone Wars Armada Starters and Squadron Packs. This was based on the information (not official but from company sources) that additional expansions were coming in early 2021. Now it seems unreasonable to expect information about what might be in the works past Q1 2021 and this news explains the non-answer as to whether there would be individual ship expansions for the Clone Wars Armada Starter Pack Ships. It does not seem unreasonable to expect a next day or two announcement on these expansions.

I am also curious whether I should still expect my pre-orders for the four upcoming X-wing expansions alleged for the next few weeks and for the Clone Wars Starters, Squadrons, and the Card Pack to be fullfilled. It seems reasonable that they will be however this sort of news tends to disrupt all sorts of things and to bring unforeseen fallout.

Again while my sympathies go out for those who have lost their employment because of this my pre-orders do not seem to have prevented that and those dollars spent (I had to pay in advance for these items) will not help those individuals and I am not a charity. I would like to know how this is going to effect me in the near term. I also point out that this sort of information being forthcoming will directly impact whether I am still present for the short, medium, and long term.

7 hours ago, xanderf said:

I mean, it's entirely possible they cut the development team because there isn't going to BE any more development - they'll just go through the production and printing of what has already been designed and then EOL the line...

That is an excellent point. It seems to me they kept the minions who would get the product that is too far along not to release to market. By my reckoning there are four X-wing products, four Legion products, and six Armada products that we should expect by the end of the year. The only other things claimed are an additional four Armada products that have not had a particularly formal announcement but which may be past the point of cancellation. These may well mark EOL for all of these games.

11 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

These may well mark EOL for all of these games.

Seems unlikely. Why bother keeping an expensive IP license like Star Wars at all if you planned on scrapping 3 of it's most profitable prospects? It could be we're seeing these individuals leave for much more mundane reasons. I suspect a transfer to Atomic Mass would mean uprooting a lot of people's lives. There's a good chance some of the devs that didn't go along just didn't want to do that.

1 minute ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Seems unlikely. Why bother keeping an expensive IP license like Star Wars at all if you planned on scrapping 3 of it's most profitable prospects? It could be we're seeing these individuals leave for much more mundane reasons. I suspect a transfer to Atomic Mass would mean uprooting a lot of people's lives. There's a good chance some of the devs that didn't go along just didn't want to do that.

Is it a license to create these specific games or these types of games? They do not need to keep making Armada specifically for the license to create a fleet battle style Star Wars miniatures game to remain valuable. Does anyone have any idea what it is Atomic Mass may have convinced the higher ups of in order to have these games shifted to their studio? There is a lot of information we don't have and yes I'm speculating just like the rest of you. I am going to speculate on the pessimistic side. Corporations don't make the sorts of moves we're seeing here if they're happy with where things are and where they perceive things to be going. Any sort of status quo remaining in place for these games seems unreasonable to my logic.

Duplicate post. Assuredly not my doing.

13 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

Is it a license to create these specific games or these types of games?

Okay, no, but it would be a HUGE investment cost to start from scratch. Game development, testing, balancing, fabrication, painting, shipping, marketing on and on... Why would they opt to spend that money and time, when they have the games in place already? That makes no sense.

18 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

Does anyone have any idea what it is Atomic Mass may have convinced the higher ups of in order to have these games shifted to their studio?

Honestly? We don't know but we can make some educated guesses.

1.) MCP has been highly successful from a logistics and balance standpoint.
2.) Marmachine is often hailed as one of the best balanced systems from Privateer Press
3.) They literally have nothing else on their tables.

21 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

There is a lot of information we don't have and yes I'm speculating just like the rest of you. I am going to speculate on the pessimistic side.

I mean, I get it, and that's all you bud. It just seems premature to me to expect EoL of 3 games that continue, even through a global pandemic, to rake in money.

23 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

Corporations don't make the sorts of moves we're seeing here if they're happy with where things are and where they perceive things to be going. Any sort of status quo remaining in place for these games seems unreasonable to my logic.

I was expecting this for a while. After they gutted the RPG department off to another studio I had to presume they wanted to have FFG focus on board games.

1 hour ago, Frimmel said:

Is it a license to create these specific games or these types of games? They do not need to keep making Armada specifically for the license to create a fleet battle style Star Wars miniatures game to remain valuable. Does anyone have any idea what it is Atomic Mass may have convinced the higher ups of in order to have these games shifted to their studio? There is a lot of information we don't have and yes I'm speculating just like the rest of you. I am going to speculate on the pessimistic side. Corporations don't make the sorts of moves we're seeing here if they're happy with where things are and where they perceive things to be going. Any sort of status quo remaining in place for these games seems unreasonable to my logic.

As someone who works in corporate America (you may too; I don't mean to discount your own experiences), I will say that corporations change direction all the time, often for nebulous and not obviously beneficial reasons. I've been with my current employer three years and the amount of change I've witnessed is staggering (and this is in a company that's doing well).

My company is also made up of multiple smaller companies, like Asmodee, and in my experience, this may have been as much of a surprise for Atomic Mass as it was for FFG. It would not surprise me in the least if there was no "pitch" meeting. That the decision was made from the top, consulting only a bare minimum of employees.

Again, just based on my own personal, tangentially related experiences.