I have been watching all the speculation about Wave 3 ships, and there is a lot of conversation about how limited the options are once we have the B-Wing and TIE-Bomber. There is a lot of conversation about what may or may not be available from the EU. However, it occurs to me that there the folks on here have missed somethig rather obvious.

Disney intends to make a Star Wars movie every year starting in 2015.

So, in 2 years there is a very, very good chance the EU is going to expand, including some new ship designs. Every year after that we have the potential for more new ships, more new pilots, more everything.

Far from the possibility of "running out" of potential ships for this game, we may be looking at the beginning of something truly epic. Especially if the new Star Wars films are as good as the reboot of Star Trek was, and we find ourselves with a whole new generation of Star Wars fans.

My local chapter of the 501st may actually be able to field a full platoon (or company?) of Stormtroopers before the decade is out. :-)

Oh, there's not a doubt in my mind that Disney will want to merchandise the new movies. I certainly hope they extend the licensing to FFG, it's just a question of what FFG will print for however many Waves they produce in the meantime. I guarantee you FFG is already in development on Wave 4 and Wave 5, possibly 6, so those are not going to have much Disney product to go on.

I've found it somewhat interesting that, while we don't yet have EU ships, we have a very large pool of EU pilots to go in the ships we do have. Stele, Fel, Salm, the non-Boba Firespray pilots, etc all are sourced from EU sources. Pilots such as Tycho Celchu, Dutch, etc are names that are matched to specifically shown pilots in Episodes 4-6, while all the named pilots from Obsidian and Black squadrons are likewise names given to pilots of TIEs seen in 4 and 5, so they're kind of a grey area, but Fel, Stele, etc…those are pure EU.

shade_1313 said:

Indeed. They've said they have rights to the EU, but not the Prequels. Based on comments that staff have made during Q&A sessions, their concept-to-publication timeline is 18-24 months.* So more waves are in the pipeline, and EU is where it's at. Once they have Disney ships to work with, I expect we'll be seeing those ships from there on in.

*Christian Peterson at Days of Ice & Fire April 2012: "I'm working on stuff right now that we will publish in 2014." So, that long period may include licensing negotiations, but still. They start work on these things waaaaay ahead of time.

KineticOperator said:

We can only hope that they never run out of ships. It will be interesting to see what they do come the first part of 2015. I would expect a movie trailer by then so there is a possibility of showing some new ships before the movie is released. How cool would it be if they spend all of 2014 hitting the EU hard and then first waive of 2015 they drop a new ship or two from episode 7 before the movie is released?

Hopefully FFG can keep renewing the liscense (whenever that time comes) so they can make ships from episode 7,8,9 in-between movies, etc. a reality.

Grimwalker said:

"They" never said they don't have prequel rights.

And it's obviously a false statement, anyway - the Senator's Shuttle from Star Wars Episode 1 is in the X-Wing Core Set!

And have you taken a look at their RPG ?

…recognize what movies the critters on page 25 and 32 come from?

xanderf said:

Not quite true. License to produce miniatures is a specific category of licensing. It's distinct from the rights to use images, likenesses , or characters , etc.. There's a really great example I wish I could cite but I learned about it while under NDA, which I take seriously.

Suffice it to say I suspect the reason the Senator's Shuttle is a token is because they don't have the rights to make a miniature of it. For example, they've got rights to produce a Lord of the Rings card game, but the rights to make miniatures are licensed to another company. They've got rights to make a Millenium Falcon miniature, but if they tried to make a "desktop collectible" I bet they'd be in violation of the agreement. I forget where it was reported that somebody from FFG said they don't have rights to the Prequel Era ships, but I'm fairly sure if that's the case, that they don't have the rights to make "miniatures," and the counterexamples above are unfortunately not related.

I started a thread on this topic a month or so ago. Yes, it is real likely FFG will try to liscense the new ships coming in episode 7. However, the ships will already be in developement rigth now. Game developers can often get insider viewings on film production, so FFG will most likely see the new ships and put them into development for release in 2015, in time with the new movie release.