DoW sells BattleLore to FFG

From the press release (emphasis added by me):

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.

Sounds like they get the whole kit and kapoodle.

This announcement just screams to me another reason we need a professional gaming press. Somebody who can interview both parties and answer all those questions that are floating around internet message boards today. I'm sure both companies would prefer talking to one journalist rather than getting bombarded by questions from hundreds of fans.

WOW, do I ever agree with that. All we have is "fan press", which is not professional, authoritative, or respectable.

Still, that "sole publisher" and "partner" thing doesn't jibe. "Partner" implies that DoW is retaining something and is working _with_ FFG rather than signing the title over 100%. Gah, this is the kind of thing I do for a living, maybe that's why it's causing me so much consternation.

Yeah, the "partner" wording is definitely weird, but everything else makes it look like DoW is passing everything off to FFG. It doesn't feel like the same partnership between FFG and GW.

There's a FAQ here, but it doesn't say much:

www.daysofwonder.com/en/msg/?th=15302&start=0

I'm confused by the FAQ, since it mentions the rising costs of fuel, plastic, and Chinese labor as factors in the decision to sell BATTLELORE to FFG. Why don't these rising costs affect the other DOW titles equally? The FAQ indicates that there are plans for future MEMOIR '44 expansions that aren't just paper maps. How could these be economically feasible if BATTLELORE expansions are not? Are the expansions going to be card decks, or something?

Michael Barnes wrote:

Still, that "sole publisher" and "partner" thing doesn't jibe.

Maybe a DoW employee will help FFG out a little.

BattleLore has quite a bit more bits than Memoir '44. Just take a look at the box, quite a bit bigger.

Juniper wrote:

I'm confused by the FAQ, since it mentions the rising costs of fuel, plastic, and Chinese labor as factors in the decision to sell BATTLELORE to FFG. Why don't these rising costs affect the other DOW titles equally? The FAQ indicates that there are plans for future MEMOIR '44 expansions that aren't just paper maps. How could these be economically feasible if BATTLELORE expansions are not? Are the expansions going to be card decks, or something?

I think that's just PR talk to disguise the truth so that DOW can save face. I believe the real impetus behind this deal is either:

A DOW has no clue how to develop BL further

or

B DOW does have a clue but they simply don't want to spend the $$ necessary or can't afford to.

Either way DOW smells like a company in trouble that is selling assets to raise funds. If all they have in the pipeline is more M'44 stuff then they are definitely in trouble.

-Will

This recent influx of new announcements from FFG is getting completely ridiculous. After the past week, there's just not enough hype left in me to feel hyped about this.

In fact, I'm getting a little worried that FFG might be overreaching, with all these billions of projects all over the place. But let's not jinx that If anyone is up for the challenge, it's them.

Read between the lines - DoW is in trouble.
As has been pointed out a lot of this partnership stuff reads as face saving.
It was only recently that the troll thing got announced - if this FFG deal was done ages ago they would not have anounced that expansion. This leads me to believe this 'deal' was quick and recent.

Go back and read the pre-release material for battlelore. At one stage Battlelore was claimed as one of the reasons as to why DOW was formed - remember all of the "We use to play this stuff as a kid..." claims. DoW obviously had big plans for the lines, and it's all gone wrong.

Somewhere DoW are in trouble. What we are seeing is the damage control.

I don't think DOW is in trouble. There is too much revenue coming in from Ticket to Ride.

In regard to what DoW's new focus might be... I pulled this from the DoW Website:

What does this mean for other games?
We have a number of exciting new games which we will announce in the coming months. Stay tuned!

So it looks like they could be coming back to their roots and they are certainly planning new games. So I do plan to stay tuned.

I do agree that things have gone wrong for DoW on this product line. Like any good company would, however, they are divesting themselves of this product line to focus other product lines that more in line with their core business.

Ryan B.

I'll believe it when I see it.
Like we were saying the other week - how long has it been since DOW last game - which they are now dropping.
This Huberis between releases makes no sense unless they have cashflow problems.

If Revenue was all it took to keep a company solvent what happened to Wizkids? Or Wizards of the Coast? Lots of buisnesses with high selling product fall over.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Read between the lines - DoW is in trouble.
As has been pointed out a lot of this partnership stuff reads as face saving.
It was only recently that the troll thing got announced - if this FFG deal was done ages ago they would not have anounced that expansion. This leads me to believe this 'deal' was quick and recent.

Go back and read the pre-release material for battlelore. At one stage Battlelore was claimed as one of the reasons as to why DOW was formed - remember all of the "We use to play this stuff as a kid..." claims. DoW obviously had big plans for the lines, and it's all gone wrong.

Somewhere DoW are in trouble. What we are seeing is the damage control.

I think this is a very sound theory.

This is the first thing that came to my mind when I read this news. Maybe it's because I work for a big bank and this is what it looks like when you are trying to cut your losses and stay afloat, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see more of their properties gobbled up by other pubs in the near future.

I hope I'm wrong, but stranger things have happened...

I don't think DOW is in trouble. There is too much revenue coming in from Ticket to Ride.

Ryan I don't buy it. If DOW isn't in trouble then why is it selling BattleLore? Where is the new stuff? Why is it that since Colosseum DOW has put out nothing but re-treads and expansions? For an excuse DOW says it's because of rising costs of fuel, plastic and labor in China. Then what's that stuff they use to make Cleopatra, M44 and TTR? To me these are symtoms of a game company in trouble. That trouble is either a lack of cash and/or vision. It's as if Hasbro suddenly announced it was selling MtG to Upper Deck.

Either way I hope FFG can do BL justice and DoW can become relevant again.

-Will

QUOTE:
Days of Wonder has announced an agreement to sell the BattleLore Game System to Fantasy Flight Games. You can read the announcement on our Press Releases Page.

Why did Days of Wonder do this deal?
We progressively came to realize that we did not have the proper resources to support and develop this game system in a way that would simultaneously please the fans, deliver on the vision we had initially outlined and meet our own internal financial goals; With fuel, labor and plastic costs out of China rising continuously, we decided to face reality, bite the bullet and do the right thing by finding a partner with the resources and a deep love of the genre and product. We are firmly convinced we could not have found a better home for BattleLore than with Fantasy Flight.

Sounds like they're doing it out of kindness and charity to the fans. But I'm sure something this drastic was all about money. Whatever they mean by partnering, I hope it doesn't include some kind of creative control over future offerings. I think FFG could really go places with this if they don't get interference. But like others, all the recent news from FFG makes me wonder if they are up to it all. I mentioned to someone just the other day the fact that I've seen a lot of companies blow into town, build a shit load of franchises only to have 80% or more of them fail in 3 or 4 years. Of course that leaves 20% still surviving. It seems counter intuitive, but I wonder if this is some body's idea of a real business model... put out a lot of stuff and see what sticks even if you take a huge financial hit doing so. Hope FFG isn't doing the same.