Fantasy Flight Games
 Main entrance of the Fantasy Flight Games headquarters in Roseville, Minnesota | |
| Game company | |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder | Christian T. Petersen |
| Headquarters | Roseville, Minnesota, United States |
| Products | Role-playing games, board games, card games |
| Website | http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/index/ |
Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games.
History[edit | edit source]
Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product (Twilight Imperium) in 1997, the company has been doing business as Fantasy Flight Games ("FFG"). Since that time, FFG has grown to become one of the biggest names in the hobby games industry, being a marketplace leader in board games and maintaining strong businesses in the card game, roleplaying game, and miniature game categories.[1]
In 2008, FFG partnered with Games Workshop to represent Warhammer and Warhammer 40K settings in role-playing, board, and card games.[1] FFG announced the end of that partnership on September 9th, 2016. Effective February 28th, 2017 FFG no longer offers for sale any games made in conjunction with Games Workshop.[2]
In August 2011, Fantasy Flight Games acquired the license for card, miniature and role-playing games set in the Star Wars universe.[3] They have also created board and card games for the well-known licenses Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, and Lord of the Rings, as well as board games based upon popular computer games: Doom: The Boardgame, StarCraft: The Board Game, and World of Warcraft: The Board Game. Additionally, they are known for revising and reprinting popular or cult classic games, including Cosmic Encounter, Arkham Horror, Talisman, and Netrunner.
From 2010 to 2013 FFG was Dust Studio's partner in publishing and distributing Paulo Parente's Miniature Wargame Dust Tactics. Commenting on the shift in 2013 Christian stated “it became clear that Paolo and the Dust games would be better served by a partner who specializes in the unique business of miniature games.”[4]
Fantasy Flight Games was known for their game franchise Midnight, which was also made into a movie called Midnight Chronicles[5] by the company's short-lived Landroval Studios.[6] As of 2012, it appears that Midnight is no longer produced or supported by Fantasy Flight.[7]
On November 17, 2014 it was announced that Fantasy Flight Games had agreed on a merger with French board game publisher Asmodée Éditions.[8]
Games[edit | edit source]
Living Card Games[edit | edit source]
Fantasy Flight Games defines a "Living Card Game" as a variant of collectible card games.[9] LCGs have regular expansions and deck construction like CCGs, but do not have the "blind buy purchase model" of CCGs. Instead of randomized starter decks and booster packs, LCGs have core sets, expansion packs, and deluxe expansions with fixed distribution of cards. The core set comes with pre-constructed starter decks, and is designed to be self-contained. (It can be played by itself or through constructed play with expansions).[10] Expansion packs are released on a monthly or near-monthly basis, and have 3 copies of 20 new cards, for a total of 60 cards. Deluxe expansions are released less frequently, and typically contain 3 copies of 55 new cards, for a total of 165 cards.
Many games from other companies use a similar distribution model, but because "Living Card Game" and the initials "LCG" are registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games, other publishers do not use this term.[11] For example, Upper Deck Entertainment relaunched VS System in 2015 as an LCG-style game but markets it as a "Two-Player Card Game" or "2PCG."[12]
Fantasy Flight Games currently prints the following LCGs:
- Android: Netrunner (2012)
- Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016)
- A Game of Thrones : The Card Game Second Edition (2015)
- Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game (2017)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (2011)
- Star Wars: The Card Game (2012)
Fantasy Flight Games previously printed the following LCGs:
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game (2008)
- Warhammer: Invasion (2009)
- Warhammer 40,000: Conquest (2014)
Awards[edit | edit source]
2016 Origins Awards[13][edit | edit source]
Board Game Star Wars: Imperial Assault, designed by Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Johnathan Ying
Miniatures Game Star Wars Armada, designed by James Kniffen, Christian T. Petersen
Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Force and Destiny, designed by Jay Little
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "What Is Fantasy Flight?". Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ↑ "A New Path Forward". Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ "Use The Force". Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ↑ "Battlefront Miniatures to take over Distribution of Dust Tactics". dust-models.com. May 2, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ↑ Fantasy Flight Games at Internet Movie Database
- ↑ ICV 2 | http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9117.html
- ↑ Against the Shadow | http://www.againsttheshadow.org/?topic=1447.0
- ↑ Forbes Magazine (2014-11-17). "Fantasy Flight Games Merging With Asmodee". Retrieved 2014-11-20.
- ↑ Definition of Living Card Games by Fantasy Flight Games | http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm.asp?eidm=14
- ↑ "LCG Player's Guide". Fantasy Flight Games. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
- ↑ LCG Trademark of Fantasy Flight Games | https://trademarks.justia.com/778/12/lcg-77812599.html
- ↑ VS. SYSTEM 2PCG Introduction FAQ | http://upperdeckblog.com/2015/05/vs-system-2pcg-introduction-faq/
- ↑ "Academy | 2016 Origins Award Winners". www.originsawards.net. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
