Fantasy Flight, AtomicMass games Miniature handover

By Spidey NZ, in Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Maybe the tale of Imperial Assault is not done.

But this is probably the nail in the coffin for IA. X-Wing, Legion and Armada are all named in the press-release while we've been left out. Nobody wants to deal with Hasbro and that licensing thingy.

This tells me that IA is done. Every other Star Wars title under FFG except IA, no new material (aside from maps) in a year and a half.

It was quite a bit more clear:

"Asmodee is announcing today that oversight of its three Star Wars miniatures titles will be moving to their dedicated miniatures games studio, Atomic Mass Games."

"Joining them will be key members of the teams involved in the creation and evolution of Fantasy Flight’s current Star Wars miniatures games"

I think that's pretty clear indication that development of IA has ceased.

(and for anyone who is serious about a distinction that IA is not a miniatures game, I'd look at what section of the forums you are in.
Home>Miniatures>Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Descent and Mansions of Madness are not in the miniatures section.)

Edited by Zrob314

We already knew there is no development for IA currently. The talk has been that it is still getting reprints and will likely get more attention in a couple years.

I'd be a bit less concerned if the restructure of the RPG line had borne more (any) fruit.

Of course, I'm still waiting on a growing backlog of material because of allocation issues and the Alliance divorce. . .

Yeah this does not seem to bode well for us. What happened to the head of asmodee saying that the tale is not done? Unless the outside hope that they are making strict campaign expansions and calling it a “board game”

At this point new IA content is gravy. It's not like any of us are expecting anything any time soon. "The tale is not yet done", OK, sure, that's not a product announcement. If one day there is one, great. No-one should be waiting for it with bated breath.

I may still be deluding myself that another campaign for the app will show up at some point.

1 hour ago, General_Grievous said:

Yeah this does not seem to bode well for us. What happened to the head of asmodee saying that the tale is not done? Unless the outside hope that they are making strict campaign expansions and calling it a “board game”

I think that's the best we can hope for, and even that, I think, is on far edges of their radar. The drainplug was pulled in IA just as soon as their shiny new toy Legion was launched. As others have rightly said, the use of tiles somehow makes it a board game, or at least that's the case Hasbro's lawyers were able to make. And give how the Sequel Trilogy imploded their toy market, they are going to cling to ever last dollar they can get.

12 minutes ago, player678037 said:

I may still be deluding myself that another campaign for the app will show up at some point.

That's the best we can hope for.

As I recall, Steve Horvath did say (in the "tale of IA is not done" interview) that they were viewing FFG as two separate companies: a miniatures company and a board game company. When asked if IA was mini or board game he didn't hesitate to say board game. Given how long the process of splitting a company this way takes, he very likely knew that this was the goal when he did that interview.

It would help me feel more optimistic if they moved IA thread to board games.. 😎

11 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

It was quite a bit more clear:

"Asmodee is announcing today that oversight of its three Star Wars miniatures titles will be moving to their dedicated miniatures games studio, Atomic Mass Games."

"Joining them will be key members of the teams involved in the creation and evolution of Fantasy Flight’s current Star Wars miniatures games"

I think that's pretty clear indication that development of IA has ceased.

(and for anyone who is serious about a distinction that IA is not a miniatures game, I'd look at what section of the forums you are in.
Home>Miniatures>Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Descent and Mansions of Madness are not in the miniatures section.)

Yes it's in a forum, but has been classed as a board game as it ties into Hasbro and their licensing. so could be a technicality maybe?

12 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

It was quite a bit more clear:

"Asmodee is announcing today that oversight of its three Star Wars miniatures titles will be moving to their dedicated miniatures games studio, Atomic Mass Games."

"Joining them will be key members of the teams involved in the creation and evolution of Fantasy Flight’s current Star Wars miniatures games"

I think that's pretty clear indication that development of IA has ceased.

(and for anyone who is serious about a distinction that IA is not a miniatures game, I'd look at what section of the forums you are in.
Home>Miniatures>Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Descent and Mansions of Madness are not in the miniatures section.)

If you go to FFG's actual product page where it's sorted by category, if you click on Board and Card Games, you will find Imperial Assault, whereas if you click on miniatures games, the only Star Wars games you see are Xwing, Armada and Legion.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/#/category

Huh, it's been a heck of a run (and I obviously needed to set up a new account) but it's been a good time.

I will say that IA has currently not been getting new releases (outside of the app, which isn't FFG anyway), so I think it's reasonable enough to assume that this announcement isn't particularly meaningful.

Even if Atomic Mass had plans for future IA content, this would be a bizarre time to announce it.

To me this just means that IA skirmish is done, forever and ever. Which, well, isn't really news at this point.

I think it lends support to the idea that, if there ever is a new edition of Imperial Assault, it will not have a skirmish mode and it will trend towards something similar to the new Descent (app focused, co-op, etc.)

This is a classic case of the ambiguity of individual press releases and announcements. On the one hand, based on this and the statement that IA is to be considered a "complete product line", I wouldn't blame you for declaring the game as dead as a doornail.

On the other hand, they did say "the tale of IA is not done", but that could mean many things. That could mean we are definitely getting more at some point, or we are maybe getting more at some point, or we were maybe going to get more before but definitely aren't now.

I hate to say it, but any of those things are still possible and we just won't know until we know. So I'm checking the Boards every now and then, but I'm emotionally moving on and looking for other games.

22 hours ago, player678037 said:

I may still be deluding myself that another campaign for the app will show up at some point.

Yes please!

  • Heart of the Empire App Campaign
  • Tyrants of Lothal App Campaign
  • An app campaign based on several boxed expansions
3 hours ago, Armandhammer said:

Yes please!

  • Heart of the Empire App Campaign
  • Tyrants of Lothal App Campaign
  • An app campaign based on several boxed expansions

and/or a new paper campaign booklet for people with all content. so there can still be imperial players and not random unthematic AI enemies

This announcement has nothing to do with IA. IA is categorized as a board and card game on FFG’s own Products page. If you click on miniatures games category, IA does not appear.

20 hours ago, Pollux85 said:

On the other hand, they did say "the tale of IA is not done", but that could mean many things. That could mean we are definitely getting more at some point, or we are maybe getting more at some point, or we were maybe going to get more before but definitely aren't now.

They also said this before COVID ravaged the world, before Asmodee’s holding company starting slicing and dicing its assets, and before a huge amount of talent left and / or was laid of from FFG. The beginning of 2020 feels like a million years ago. Who knows what the future holds.

1 hour ago, KalEl814 said:

They also said this before COVID ravaged the world, before Asmodee’s holding company starting slicing and dicing its assets, and before a huge amount of talent left and / or was laid of from FFG. The beginning of 2020 feels like a million years ago. Who knows what the future holds.

Actually the big layoff that occurred at FFG was in January, before the interview was posted. I did a Google search to see if any more had occurred between now and then and I couldn't find anything.

Your point stands though, it absolutely could have changed things. I just think your timeline is off.

If I were to speculate, I would think COVID delayed this move.

Edited by Uninvited Guest
19 hours ago, KalEl814 said:

They also said this before COVID ravaged the world, before Asmodee’s holding company starting slicing and dicing its assets, and before a huge amount of talent left and / or was laid of from FFG. The beginning of 2020 feels like a million years ago. Who knows what the future holds.

Yeah, I took that at the time with a grain of salt and I still do. The guy made a lot of vague sweeping statements in the interview without ever saying anything specific. Typical kind of business talk of "we don't have plans, but we also don't want to commit to saying we don't have plans" - especially because specifically saying they don't plan on releasing anything would mean an immediate drop in sales of whatever stock they still have in the warehouses that they want to sell.

Maybe we'll get an expansion or a 2nd edition or an update to the app at some point in the future, but I'm not holding my breath. I will continue to enjoy all the content I already have.