Netrunner

[spizio]

FFG is reviving the Netrunner ccg. They are going to move the setting to the universe from their Android board game. They are also changing it from a ccg to an lcg. A Living Card Game features a set of cards that you buy complete so you have a set pool to work from with expansions being made and sold in a similar fashion. So you can feed the card monster if you want but there is no randomness in buying cards.

[salamanca]

I know several people that will be delighted to hear this. I recall the game being pretty well balanced and having good play value. It just never appealed to this luddite.

[spizio]

I thought it was a good game, but poorly supported. As I recall it was asymmetrical, but what do you expect when a shadowrunner goes up against a megacorp. I don't know that the world that they are setting it in is going to have that extra gritty feel of shadowrun but it will be nice to see in print again.

[spizio]

Rumors are saying that this sold out pre-con opening, basically all the VIPs snatched it up. Any truth to this?

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, I don't know if the VIP's snag all there was, but it was sold out when Mark and I went and scrounged the Dealers room.

[kenderleech]

they were gone my 1:30pm on thursday for sure

[Black Jack Rackham]

Yup Scott its as Laura said, I was unable to procure a copy for you (or for me for that matter).

[salamanca]

Which means nothing because the marketing guys have finally realized that being able to claim "we sold out of product X" is a great sales boost and you all will flood their website with orders before it hits the shelves (and pay them retail). So all these companies have stopped bringing anything near enough merchandise to the con and artificially inflate the perception of sales. All the phrase sold out means is that somebody was too cheap to ship enough to the con.

[Black Jack Rackham]

The worst part of Laura and my foray into Fantasy Flight was they had another game which looked suspiciously similar to Netrunner (called Android) which I briefly thought was the game I was supposed to get and I ALMOST ended up with it instead...

[spizio]

Yes Android was a game they already have out, I actually think there are 2 games in the Android universe. They decided to base Netrunner out of the Android universe since they had thenproperty and art etc. this decision is likely going to lead to this Netrunner reboot feel less gritty.

As for selling out a lot of companies in the hobby game market are doing shorter initial print runs, then often struggling to catch up. It may not nessicarily been to sell out at the con. We're even seeing establish companies turning to alternative production methods like Kickstarter. Seems they are willing to take as much of a risk on new games anymore.

[salamanca]

That's the point, they are not actually selling out all copies, just the handful they brought along.

Privateer Press pulled the same stunt with Leviathan. they pitched that game and demoed it for over a year, then they released it and only brought like 25 copies to each con and hit the media with announcements of having sold out their entire batch to build bigger demand (because folks want what they can't get)

We all know they had more than 25 copies available, nobody only produces 25 copies. But that's all they bring to the show and then they shout "We sold out everything!".

[spizio]

Really these are niche products. We're talking print runs of a few thousand. Some producers are going leaner than this. Then printing more only if there is demand. FFG's website is showing a Q3 release and that the game is still shipping. This was last updated 7/27 so it could still be on a boat or sitting in customs. Since they had announced a GenCon release it is possible that they had a supply flown in to meet that commitment. It is just as likely that they could have sold out a large portion of the print run if it was at GenCon. Without seeing their records or talking to a boothie to find out how many copies were actually there we are speculating. I asked Mark to try and get a copy because I expected FFG to sell through most of the print run fast and have a down time of a few months while they did a reprint.