X-Wing and me: EOL

[sundancer 42985xp 2]

EOL. Three letters with many, sometimes fatal, meanings. End Of Life (when a product is discontinued) or End Of Line (when communication is terminated) What do I want to say with EOL?

I’m stopping with X-Wing.

It has been almost two years since I last played X-Wing together with someone else. V2 never picked me up completely, the delivery situation in Germany has always been a thing (Hello Asmodee, translations of rules etc pp, panting forever after the releases of FFG and then also not even bringing out certain mins in German), I’m really running out of space and the last straw that broke the camel’s back is the fact that my FLGS will close its doors forever on 12.09.2020.

Why is the closure of the FLGS a factor? Magic word “minimum order value”. By co-ordering X-Wing stuff, the baskets at the distributor are simply filled faster and I got my “main plastic crack” Star Wars: Legion simply faster. And that is now omitted.

I had a bit more hope for the game when FFG released the Solo Rules, but there is not much happening now. Which is a pity, because they were very nice to play, despite the alpha status.

What happens to my collection?

Well, I bought *every* ship from X-Wing V1 once since day one. Then *all* conversion sets and all *new* ships for V2. I saved the re-releases of aviators like X-Wing or TIE Fighter because even at that time there was not much space available. So I will now think about the best way to stow the ships. As far as space is concerned, it would of course be best to pack everything as tight as possible. But I already said at the very beginning of X-Wing: “If I don’t play the game anymore or it’s not produced anymore, the minis will still look good in a showcase”. A showcase still won’t fit in my study, but I will measure and test whether the showcase inserts for my Kallax take up less space than the ships in their original boxes now. In any case, there is nothing for sale. I also don’t want to calculate how much money went into it 😉

But what if Asmodee will keep all their promises and vows to get better?

Well, I’d be really happy about that, especially for all active players, but that doesn’t really solve my problem of “players on site” and “no room in the study” either.

And this blog, the rules collection and the V1 V2 comparison list?

For the time being I will continue to maintain all that. Just not with that much enthusiasm anymore.

But I would like to say “Thank you” to all the people who made X-Wing become reality. The designers, rule writers, testers, distributors, players and dealers. It was a great 7 years with ups and downs. X-Wing has brought me a lot of fun and partly filled the gap that was torn by the Wizkids bankruptcy and the end of Star Wars: Pocketmodels. Now the models join their little brothers. Thanks FFG, Heidelbär/Asmodee and Karsten. Sometimes it reads.

PS: It’s a bit ironic that the new German reference manual was published the day before yesterday (17.08.2020). I just saw it in the Asmodee Forum. Too little too late.

[redbenParticipant 9415xp 0]

Even if you’ve not played in the last two years, then that still looks to be five years of gaming with X-Wing which is a good amount of time to spend on any game. It was noticeable that in the most recent set of ICv2 North American independent gaming stores sales charts, X-Wing was no longer in the top 5. It had been a fixture in it pretty much since it’s release and around the time of The Force Awakens had even topped the charts. So it looks like you’re getting out around the same time many others are as well.

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

I never look at sales charts other then local ones. Since what good is a game selling like hotcakes on the other end of the world to my local scene? But I get what you are saying. I’m wondering if FFG is hanging on to it because it still sells reasonable and they make money on different paint jobs or if there is some kind of commitment they need to fulfil in order to keep the licence.

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 1]

The problem wit Star Wars is that outside of an RPG it actually has limited gaming lifespan. Like most licensed IPs it has a lot of short term potential but ultimately it will die off when the IP is inactive. At any given time, Star Wars only has two factions (Republic/Separatist, Rebel/Imperial, Resistance/First Order) – you can cross them over but generally fans of the IP will prefer to stay canon. You could argue a third with Scum and Villainy. On top of that, fans of the IP are less likely to be interested in “new canon” generated by the licensee company – they usually want stuff that they have seen in the films or games or TV shows. That’s not to say there’s no scope for new material, but the game won’t survive on it. But there’s only a limited amount of units for the games that can be drawn from the canon and once they have been released you’re into the realms of duplicates or re-releases (i.e. same model with new stats or alternative colour schemes). I think X-Wing has kind of hit that point which is why it’s fading out as a game despite being given a new edition. I think Legion will also reach that point at some point too.

[smithscoParticipant 1212xp 0]

This. Beyond the fact I don’t like FFG’s business practices, the rules they made don’t make their games sustainable long term. My group already gave up X Wing and decided not to dive into legion. We play the old WOTC game because the minis were cheap back in the day and it’s sustainable. There are so many characters and combos plus an RPG feel means no game is the same.

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