Warcradle Studios Acquires The Dystopian And Firestorm Settings
September 26, 2017 by thisisazrael
Warcradle Studios have just given a press release announcing that they have acquired the rights to Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada and Uncharted Seas. Read the full press release below.
"Warcradle Studios is proud to announce it has acquired all rights and materials relating to the Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada and Uncharted Seas settings.
Dystopian Wars, Dystopian Legions, Armoured Clash, Firestorm Armada, Firestorm Planetfall and Uncharted Seas were created by the team at Spartan Games and we are excited to now be able to explore those settings further. We will also be developing and expanding on a large number of exciting scenic products to support those ranges.
Who are Warcradle Studios?
Warcradle Studios has already successfully developed Wild West Exodus and is the creative studio for Wayland Games Limited, the largest independent tabletop hobby retailer in Europe. Warcradle Studios is able to draw on their considerable experience in the industry and partner that with a passionate and focused creative team keen to develop quality, innovative and exciting tabletop hobby experiences for a global audience.
Warcradle Studios are continuing to look for future exciting settings and ranges to develop.
Have Wayland Games purchased Rebel Publishing, the company that owned Spartan Games?
No, Rebel Publishing remains the company responsible for any Kickstarter or retail/trade activities that took place prior when they ceased trading.
I am owed products from Rebel Publishing. How can I get them or my money back?
Backers or customers of Rebel Publishing should get in contact with the Administrators for any issues relating to Kickstarters or purchases. Contacting Paypal or your credit card companies would be our recommendation for trying to getting any money back from anything relating to a transaction you may have had with Rebel Publishing.
While we are not liable to do so, if there are any Kickstarter custom items that have been produced (such as personalised rulebooks) we will endeavour to look at how best to pass these on to the relevant backer. We will contact the Kickstarter backers directly regarding any developments on this. However it is important to be clear that there are no miniatures to be sent out for backers and that the Kickstarter was by Rebel Publishing and any liability or queries relating to it remains with Rebel Publishing.
What about stock that Rebel Publishing held?
There has been very little stock given over to us by Rebel Publishing. We are not able to fulfil any pledges or orders given to Rebel Publishing.
Will you be making any of the exclusive miniatures from the Kickstarter available?
We believe that customers should have the chance to get all the miniatures for our games. Even if a miniature is made as a show exclusive (such as the Captain Nimue we released last year) we intend to then make it available at retail the following year. Miniatures such as the Ice Maiden and others will be released as part of the relaunched game in the new year.
Why purchase Dystopian Wars, Firestorm and Uncharted Seas?
We are huge fans of the games and settings. Early in our relationship with Spartan Games our MD Richard Lawford was keen to buy an entire print run of Dystopian Wars to give away to every gaming club in the world (that we could find!). We are thrilled to be able to help shape and secure an exciting future for these games.
What is going to happen to the Dystopian, Firestorm and Uncharted games?
We are actively looking to bring the games to a wide audience from next year. Through Warcradle Studios, Wayland Games is investing in all aspects of the design, development and supply. Retailers can look forward to an easy to use ordering system, clear communication on the availability of stock and direct support from Warcradle Studios to ensure they can make the most of these exciting ranges and deliver the same to their customers.
Warcradle Studios are committed to producing an exciting range of new plastic and resin miniatures to support the growth of our games. These will build on the established releases as well as introduce new narrative and competitive gaming opportunities.
Warcradle Studios are planning in-store organised play support for their games as well as a range of exciting events planned throughout 2018 and beyond.
Look out for our announcements of new products and show attendance in the coming weeks."
Read the full official Press Release (PDF)
What do you think about this news?
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"Warcradle Studios are continuing to look for future exciting settings and ranges to develop"
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It would be nice to see Uncharted Seas back again
I agree. It is a game i actually regret not looking into.
Yeah, by far my favourite Spartan concept and a game I wanted to try for ages but since it went unsupported by Spartan I never got round to it.
Second ex-Spartan game for me to pick up would be Firestorm Armada. Another game which I never got far into due to the lack of coherent release schedule. They would wow us with new ship concepts and then never release them and instead decide they needed yet another new faction rather than expanding the factions they already had.
Good stuff.
Like Torros, I think Uncharted Seas is the best of the IPs in that bunch, simply because its a unique game in the market today, whereas the others have plenty of competition.
Also, shout out for Stuart! Star of many of the early weekenders.
You’re too kind.
I really wonder how this will work out for them.
After all Legions and Firestorm, as well as Wild West exodus can be considered as “failed Systems”
Maybe its really about selling models to hobbyists rather than keeping a system relevant by people playing it, which probably is much harder to achieve.
Let’s find out!
I wish you well !
I mentioned this a few weeks ago, albeit with a far more positive spin. Warcradle/Wayland Games have now acquired Wild West Exodus, Dystopian Wars and Firestorm IPs. TT Combat have also acquired Carnivale and Relic as well as releasing their own original IP Rumbleslam. I think that in a market that is getting much more competitive, this kind of consolidation will become more prevalent. I don’t think it was the IPs that failed as much as the businesses that owned them. That’s not even a criticism of the former owners either, just a statement of fact. But in their new… Read more »
I think did they simply happened to miss the opportunity to shine.
That resulted in a failure for the company that made them, but calling it a ‘failed system’ as a result seems a bit harsh.
If the games themselves were bad then the investment would be a waste of money.
As such I think they see potential.
Legions did fall into an odd spot, it would have needed as much support of Dystopian Wars it self or more. 28mm-35mm is a much more cut throat than 1:1200 primarily naval system.
The work Warcradle have done with WWX fills me with hope. I never actually got into Dystopian Wars (picked up a rulebook but got no further) so glad to see I’ll get another chance.
A good quality rule book would be great
I am hoping again to see my kickstarter pledge now!
Also looking forward for Planetfall 2.0.
Now word about Halo though.
Halo will be a more complicated process I’d imagine due to the involvement of Microsoft as the IP holder.
Also as it directly competes with other Spartan Games, I don’t think it would make much sense for Warcradle to try and pick it up.
We will not be continuing the Halo game.
Unfortunately, and I really hate saying this to a fellow backer, given the content of the press announcement and what they say in the video, you are still not going to see your Kickstarter Pledge. They make it abundantly clear they have no liability for items that Rebel Publishing (i.e. Spartan) failed to deliver to Kickstarter backers, and that there was virtually no stock (or at least not in meaningful quantities) to even send out. The simple fact of the matter is, Spartan probably worked as hard as they could before the end and got out everything they had and… Read more »
There’s an order in which creditors are paid when administrators liquidite a company, which presumably will happen now Rebel no longer own the things that could make the company viable again. Unsecured creditors are last on that list are lucky to see anything. I’m not even sure KS backers count as unsecured creditors, so they could be even further down the list.
It sucks, but that’s basically where things are I’m afraid.
Mate , I am also a kickstarter backer and the facts of the matter is that our money is gone. Sad but true. Warcradle owe us nothing . The company which does owe us something is no more. Like bad relationship, best thing you can do is let it go, learn from it and move on.
The pdf says they have nothing to do with the Kickstarter as that was another company running it and people should contact the administrators
Good news!
I feel for the Kickstarter backers as this puts a strain on them to get the products that were promised. As to these games I am very happy that they will live on and expand. I do see that many of the small studios are not fairing well out in the market. It seems as though you have to make a great game and get it funded so that you can sell it on to another studio. This isn’t the largest piece of the pie in the entertainment industry and there is only going to be so much growth to… Read more »
I think there are plenty of small companies out there doing well. They just no the limitations and what they do well and create loyal followings because if it? It’s when companies start jumping from one thing to another and overstretch themselves that problems happen
Yes, the thing that frustrated me most about Spartan was their schizophrenic attention span. It made it hard for people who were only into one of their games (Planetfall for me) to feel like they were getting the support they needed – meanwhile no game system got the full support it needed either. I’m glad Warcradle didn’t pick up Halo, cos’ it was a direct competitor to Planetfall, not only for customers but for Spartan’s attention. It felt like the players who Spartan had drawn in to the big launch of Planetfall were almost immediately forgotten about when Spartan went… Read more »
Heh, it’s starting to feel like an arms race between TT and Wayland, but honestly if it means preserving games and models that still have some mileage in them then this has to be a good thing for both the player base and the hobby as a whole.
So good on ya, Warcradle, for keeping the dream alive for those Firestorm and Dystopian fans 😀
Arms race? Nah. The TT guys are cool doing their thing. We’ll do ours. If we decide to release a wrestling game set in renaissance Venice then maybe there’s fuel to that fire, but really I think we’re in a golden age of gaming. Plenty of great games for everyone to explore.
I’m glad to see these properties find a new home. I just hope that Warcradle don’t bite off more than they can chew.
1) Choose one of the games
2) Get the work done to re-launch and support it.
3) Adequately staff the studio and manufacturing to maintain and expand the products.
4) Repeat as needed.
We’ve watched Spartan for many years. We are aware of the pitfalls!
We have been continuously adding to Studio capacity and Manufacturing staff for months. Coincidentally, we have just invested in significant prototyping and manufacturing facilities so seems a shame not to use them 🙂
Some little rule revamps, new minis for the games and yes please, bring Uncharted Seas back. I´ve minis for Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada, i need some Uncharted Seas… ^^
Thx guys for keeping those worlds alive!
You are very welcome.
Do people think Microsoft will pull the plug on the Halo Miniatures idea after all this even if another company approaches them?
It will likely be some time before we see anything Halo again – it would all need to be renegotiated from scratch and none of the previous work is likely to ever see the light of day again.
Spartan games couldn’t compete anymore because their games weren’t selling now why in the world would you want to buy these three games. Three games that didn’t have much of a following in the first place, I wouldn’t do anything with them till the time is right which will be never the steam punk nitch is like dieing GW’s 40k 8th edition is like 98% in everyone’s face right now alot of companies are taking a big hit at the moment from it. Wait about 3 years to release anything
If people thought like that back in the days of 4th and 5th edition we wouldn’t have any alternative games to play today 🙂
I’ve said this before, but Spartan’s biggest problem wasn’t that they couldn’t compete. It was that they gained, from very early in their public life as a games company, a not-undeserved reputation for having lots of big ideas with a decided lack of follow-through. Things tended to get announced long before even initial concept work had been finalized. There was always a rush to do the next really cool thing before the most recent really cool thing had left the drawing board. They were a fountain of excellent ideas plagued by the worst case of collective shiny object syndrome ever… Read more »
I agree that one of Spartans issues was their gamer ADHD – it is bad enough for us as consumers but very hard for a company
punctuation is your friend, use your friend.
MIdas, capital letters at the beginning of a sentence is your friend. Also, one shouldn’t use friends, unless they’re friends with benefits 😉
Generally I look at this as a good thing. Warcradle seems to be more open in being transparent about their plans than Spartan/Rebel publishing has been. Also the fact they don’t seem to want to deal with the Halo IP and concentrate on the original three Spartan IPs tells me someone at Warcradle was paying attention to some complaints being made on the Spartan forums and social groups. One thing I do hope they have access to is the data Spartan got from their annual surveys of players. It appeared that Spartan did not seem to pay attention to them… Read more »
I’m really interested in what they do with Dystopian wars. I always thought it look interesting and was tempted a number of times to buy into it. Once they begin releases I think I’ll pick up a starter or something just to see how it is.
This is great news and I think the video is very clear. I also appreciate their take on “exclusives”.
And the mentioned ‘Armoured Clash’, my favourite but generally unloved parted of the Dystopian setting (have a ‘large’ EotBS force) – so colour me interested.
Great news – I played Dystopian not too long ago and really enjoyed it again. The system works, I just need the rest of my fleet.
I have HUGE fleets for both Dystopian (Prussians) and Armada (Multi). I have not played much of either of these in a couple years and would LOVE to see them back on the tabletop!!
Interesting news, uncharted seas always looked like the spiritual successor of Man o War
Interesting! I was more interested in the Spartan Scenics system though.. Hope someone picks that up!
I thought they said that they will have much of the scenics from Spartan Games. Which is something they look forward to developing and expanding.
We did!
Whoot, whoot! There was some mighty fine stuff there
Well this is great news and good luck to Warcradle with the new acquisition.
A couple of questions: are you taking on any of the Spartan design team to work for you? And will there be a return to selling models in blister packs? (I’d be interested to know how others feel but I picked up few of the boxed sets)
If there are ex Spartan staff that would like to have a chat about working for us they are welcome to contact us.
Warcradle Studios are tied with Wayland. In the past Wayland bought the dept of another company and immediately requested payment in full. That company had to close its doors. Is this a Repeat?
I think if anything like that had occured (by any company out there) it would have been plastered all over the internet. (Just as maelstrom did at the time)
I think all parties in this are on the right side of history in this one and keeping some great IP’s alive (and hopefully improve them!) 🙂
Goban… No.
For many reasons, no.
Just: No.
Great news – DW always been a favourite of mine but it lost me when it just became bigger and bigger robots all around
Nothing wrong with giant robots, though too many on the field may turn the battle into something resembling a grape pressing casket squeezing out people wine.
They lost me when the dreadnought robots came out
Your second point would stop me buying anything from them if that was going to be their business strategy
Amen to that