Wizards ending Star Wars Saga and Miniatures

[Katana_Geldar]

We've suspected for a little while, it's official now

There have been several questions lately regarding the future of the Star Wars Miniatures and Roleplaying Game and until now I haven’t had definitive answers to give you. After a lengthy evaluation, Wizards of the Coast has decided not to renew the Star Wars license with Lucasfilm. We’ve had a long and fantastic run, but with the economic downturn, we have made the tough decision to discontinue our Star Wars lines.



The license officially ends in May this year, with WotC product available through August. In the meantime, we have awesome new products still coming your way. This week, we released The Dark Times minis and Galaxy of Intrigue RPG. We’ll have more coming with Masters of the Force minis in April, which will have some of your most favorite characters along with rare creatures from the Dejarik Holochess game that have never appeared in our game. We’ll also release The Unknown Regions RPG in April, which includes entirely new planets and mini-adventures for each world.

We are finishing the line with a bang so look for special programs at your local game store to stock up on favorite sets before they go into the vault. We will continue to support our Star Wars forums on the Wizards Community site so you can reach out and chat with us and other fans.

While I know the news is disappointing, we wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible and thank you for being such great fans. It’s been a fantastic ride with the Star Wars community and working with Lucasfilm. We hope you enjoy the next several months of great products. You never know when we may circle back again!


He's right, it has been a fantastic ride. And after Wizards goes we're going to have the game for a few years if someone decides to pick up the license again.

It's a good system and it had to end sometime anyway.

[Rappy]

It's expected. None of the d20 incarnations of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game have lasted a truly lengthy period of time without starting to lose any official support...just like what happened with d20 Modern.

In my pessimistic mind, as fun as the Star Wars RPGs have been, they were bound to die at one point. Dungeons and Dragons has and will be Wizard's big cash cow in the RPG department. I mean, it's not like you can walk up to someone on the street and expect them to react with oohs and ahhs if you say "hey, ever heard of Alternity? Fun stuff, eh? That Dark*Matter..."

Still a sad loss though.

[Starbuck_II]

Darn, I don't play often. But I always thought it was cool that there was more and more Star wars stuff.

They could have waited till they finished making a book based on the MMO (they did make a KOTR one).

[Mushroom Ninja]

There is only one word that can sum up my feelings on this:

Spoiler

Show

[FMArthur]

For some reason I am satisfied that they appear saddened by this turn of events. I don't know why, but I kind of expected a "lol we don't care about Star Wars anymore so... bye!" from WotC. It's hard to see the company as being run by people after all these years.

[Matthew]

Should be interesting to see if anybody picks up the license, what with the new Star Wars live action television series supposedly hitting our screens in a year or two, and the animated series doing service in the meantime.

[Dienekes]

Should be interesting to see if anybody picks up the license, what with the new Star Wars live action television series supposedly hitting our screens in a year or two, and the animated series doing service in the meantime.

You're forgetting the distinct possibility of Star Wars 3D that Lucas may be setting up.

As to the news. NOOOOOO!!! (was gonna link to the Darth Vader clip but someone already stole that joke)

I was just starting to play Saga edition!

[ZombieGenesis]

I don't play the Star Wars game, but I'd say they're approaching this really well. Milk it for the fans sake now, surrender the rights and move on. Then when things are looking up, maybe come back to it later.
Or, alternatively, find another franchise to work with! Harry Po-
God no. I'm not even making that joke.

[Foryn Gilnith]

WEG d6 Star Wars still exists in all its discontinued glory. And SAGA was getting mildly bloated anyway (which I found quite bizarre, given that there weren't that many books out)

[Mushroom Ninja]

WEG d6 Star Wars still exists in all its discontinued glory. And SAGA was getting mildly bloated anyway (which I found quite bizarre, given that there weren't that many books out)

There may not be many books, but people have already found a way to do an arbitrarily high amount of damage in one attack.

[Mongoose87]

Statement: I suspect they will cut another deal with Lucasarts in a few years, when absence has allowed demand to creep back up.

Irritated remark: Hopefully this doesn't become the norm, shorter-lived editions, with fewer years in-between.

[Tiktakkat]

That explains the new Gamma World product.

[Attilargh]

Spoiler

Show

Oh well, Saga had a good run and I really prefer not having a million supplements to leaf through anyhow. Now I just need to get copies of the Rebellion and Legacy Era Campaign Guides, before they run out!

[Katana_Geldar]

I've blogged my thoughts on this, but the sum of it is that it will give us a few years to enjoy the game without forking out $50=$0 every three months.

[Longcat]

What a shame, really. I've always considered SAGA to be the best synergy between 4e and 3.5.

I wonder who's going to pick up the new license, though. I sure hope it won't be Paizo.

[raitalin]

At least there's plenty of material as it is. I always enjoy being able to get every book for a given edition of an RPG, that was the one benefit of d20 Modern kicking the bucket.

[Yora]

Wow, I didn't knew they are still making Saga books! I thought it was discontinued years ago.

I don't think it's much of a loss. Fans of the game all have the core book by now and maybe one or two additionals for eras they really like. There's really not much reason to release any new books.

[Attilargh]

...But the game only came out in '07.

[Person_Man]

This is really odd to me. Star Wars is a franchise that is going to last for at least another 10 years, and perhaps 20 or more. They still have a cartoon, comic books, novels, toys, video games, a large web presence, and they're probably going to re-release the movies in 3D, plus Lucas could always make (or allow someone else to make, if we're lucky) Episodes 7-9. It has universal brand recognition. Why would you give up that license? Even if it's not making a lot of money now, I doubt that it's losing money. Keep one professional staff person on it and hire a bunch of interns, and you could keep churning along until the economy gets better. WotC as a whole just seems very short sided.

[Zeta Kai]

This is really odd to me... WotC as a whole just seems very short sided.

You sound surprised.

[raitalin]

Keep one professional staff person on it and hire a bunch of interns, and you could keep churning along until the economy gets better. WotC as a whole just seems very short sided.

"short-sighted"

Its my understanding that not only is a Lucas license expensive, its also a massive pain in the ass. Lots of rules and regs, constant legal and quality requirements and final word for everything goes to them, so that might also be a factor. I still maintain that there's more than enough material as it is and future books may have degraded in quality. Including 4e's least popular mechanic (the skill challenge) in the most recent book was probably a bad sign.

[Matthew]

Why would you give up that license? Even if it's not making a lot of money now, I doubt that it's losing money. Keep one professional staff person on it and hire a bunch of interns, and you could keep churning along until the economy gets better. WotC as a whole just seems very short sided.

The question that occurs to me is how much were they being asked for to renew the license? Star Wars is on the cusp of yet another marketing cycle, so they may have flexed their muscles and asked for more money than Hasbro was willing to budget Wizards of the Coast. Alternatively, it may have been a mandate from on high to keep to the core business and only work on brands out-and-out owned by the company, which is a very common economic downturn reaction. Either way, it is a bit of a pity.

[DabblerWizard]

This marks a sad turn of events for roleplaying game fans around the globe.

...

Maybe some intelligent, foresight driven company will pick up the Sci Fi gamer niche and make something like... "Star Trek RPG". MWAHAHAHAH.

[Gamerlord]

BLAST!

And I was going to get started sometime in may....

Still, maybe they might make a star trek d20 game, that alone would make up for it...

[Rappy]

BLAST!

And I was going to get started sometime in may....

Still, maybe they might make a star trek d20 game, that alone would make up for it...

Doubtful. You see, there is a licensed Star Trek d20 game, Prime Directive . So unless its parent company loses their license or Wizards wants to buy them out (which is admittedly possible), it's not happening.

[Asbestos]

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...t_announcement

WotC stops carrying the Star Wars line in April.

A pity, Saga was probably the best system they made.

[Knaight]

By a massive, massive margin. It did fantasy better than D&D with only a handle of tweaks too. This sucks.

[Matthew]

Previous thread on this subject somehow feel to page three: [News] Wizards of the Coast Not Renewing Star Wars License.

[Asbestos]

Though, the SW Minis line had to come to an end. I mean, how many Lukes and Hans can you sell to people?

[Knaight]

There was a merging done too. On the LucasArts license, yes it is a pain in the ass. So release the same system, but with the Star Wars filed off. There are no longer "light sabers" just "beam blades", there isn't an A wing or X wing, but there is a "Light Fighter" "Corvette" etc.