No, I’m not joking: Fantasy Flight Games has arranged to purchase BattleLore from Days of Wonder, including all copyrights and existing backstock, to become the game’s new publisher. BattleLore fans shouldn’t worry, as the transfer of ownership includes the recently announced Troll Map expansion, and BattleLore creator Richard Borg has agreed to continue developing support products. Probably a good fit at FFG, which obviously still didn’t think it had enough to do. (Full press release below)
Days of Wonder press release follows:
Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight Games announce agreement on the BattleLore Board Game and Game System
FFG to acquire all rights, existing inventory and future development for fantasy game system
Los Altos, CA; Roseville MN – August 21, 2008. Days of Wonder (DOW) and Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) today announced that they have reached a comprehensive agreement for FFG to acquire all worldwide rights to, and become the sole publisher of, the BattleLore game system. In addition to all copyrights, game artwork and the moulds to reproduce existing figures, FFG will also purchase all remaining unsold inventory for the original BattleLore game, its expansions and the recently announced Troll Map expansion. Transfer of the game is expected to be completed by the end of September 2008.
Richard Borg, BattleLore’s author, has also agreed to support and develop additional expansions for FFG. DOW retains all rights to its other Command and Colors title, Memoir ’44, and will continue to publish and develop additional expansions for this game, also created by Borg.
“BattleLore is as perfect a fit for FFG as could possibly exist in the marketplace,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO and founder of FFG. “Needless to say we’re very excited and proud to include this power title and brand into FFG’s family of products. Previous to today, FFG had no fantasy ‘battlefield’ game, a void which we now can fill with this gorgeous industry leader. We plan to support this game vigorously. Even in the very first discussion with Eric and Richard about this deal, there was a flood of exciting ideas for how FFG can expand this game, serve its community, and move the brand of ‘BattleLore’ forward under the FFG banner.”
“With its strong resources and superb track record in developing fantasy titles, FFG is the perfect partner to take the BattleLore game system to the next level in gaming. As fans of the game ourselves, we are confident it will be in great hands”, said Days of Wonder CEO, Eric Hautemont. “This agreement now allows us to focus our resources on providing even more support for the other games in our portfolio as well as successfully launching yet-to-be-announced new games.”
“I am delighted with the opportunity to see BattleLore gain a second life at Fantasy Flight, and look forward to partnering with them as we continue to develop and expand the BattleLore system,” said BattleLore author, Richard Borg.
About Days of Wonder
Days of Wonder publishes top-quality, family-oriented board and card games that are easy to learn and fun to play. Founded in 2002, Days of Wonder has a global presence, with offices in the US and Europe, and distribution in 25 countries. To date, the company has sold over 1.4 million games and hosted over 12 million games online. In June 2004, Days of Wonder became the youngest publisher ever to win Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres, the world’s most coveted game prize. For more information, visit their website at www.daysofwonder.com.
About Fantasy Flight Games
Roseville, Minnesota’s Fantasy Flight Games is a publisher of board, card, and role-playing games. Founded by Christian T. Petersen in 1995, Fantasy Flight has published many titles, including World of Warcraft: the Board Game, The Lord of the Rings series of board games; board and card games based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, and many original board games such as Twilight Imperium and Runebound. For more information, visit the Fantasy Flight Games website at www.fantasyflightgames.com. Battlelore, and the FFG logo are trademarks owned by Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
FFG gets another expensive, lavish boxed game with a dozen expansions? Cats living with dogs!
First DoW going “exclusive” with Alliance and now this… hmmm… doesn’t smell good for the future of Days of Wonder.
And before someone jumps down my throat, I *LIKE* DoW. Hell, I own almost everything they’ve ever published. I just think that the downturn in economy has really hurt them moreso than others.
Still, if FFG can continue to carry the banner, I’ll be happy to buy my BL from them. Their new BSG game, if you haven’t played it yet, is brilliant… even better than Shadows Over Camelot in my (current) opinion.
I don’t honestly see this as much of a surprise. There was a lot on the Battlelore blog about how DoW was having a rally hard time figuring out where to go next with BL. The expansions that were done were interesting, but in a challenging form factor to make a decent sell in retail. They were a little spendy, and didn’t have a lot of depth (still not saying they weren’t fun, cause they were). DoW is still doing a really fine job with Memoir, and TTR is still a big seller, so I personally don’t see anything other than a smart business move here. Sending one of the Command and Colors games over to FFG (who now owns damn near the who Fantasy Board Game market at this point) seems like the right way to go.
Agreed, Chris – this seems like a good move for Days of Wonder, and a good fit at FFG. I just keep hoping that FFG isn’t taking on too many projects to give them all proper attention.
I wish I could sneak a peek at FFG’s product strategy. Their booth at GenCon had 2-3 examples of every major gaming group imaginable and I wonder how they’re going to manage all their on-going brands.
Pop quiz: How many miniature lines does FFG support?
The Answer: 3
* AT-43/Confrontation
* Mutant Chronicles
* Anima Tactics
If their upcoming Rust miniatures game doesn’t use one of the above then it’ll go to 4 lines. This on top of all their boardgames, role-playing games, and card games. I hope they can keep juggling all this stuff, but I fear they’ll drop stuff I’m really interested in.
Arguably four lines: Wings of War, and the manufacturer has not been able to keep up with US demand (though there’s supposed to be more planes coming in September)