End of Netrunner

[Sildric 4]

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/6/8/jacking-out/

Wow, don't even know what to say... I did not expect this...

[HaphazardNinja 84]

Yeah...like, what? This also sets a precedent for others games, which is chilling.

[HolySorcerer 4,105]

5 minutes ago, HaphazardNinja said:

Yeah...like, what? This also sets a precedent for others games, which is chilling.

Conquest would like to have a word with you. 

[avz 3]

Thank you and **** you again FFG

[Matrim 533]

Licenses are out of their control as has been proved in the past. Therefore you are certainly 'safer' with Arkham and L5R as there are no 3rd parties involved. GoT and SW both have those 3rd parties (not that I am suggesting that either of those two licenses are at risk)

Edited June 8, 2018 by Matrim
spelling

[cyberkeith 20]

I don't play and I'm crazy shocked.  wanted too but I'm horrible at all types of player vs. player games

[Hordeoverseer 157]

And Netrunner was what other LCG were hoping to be. It seems even titans can fall and nothing if for certain. 

[subtrendy2 2,975]

I don't play this game, but I too was shocked by this. I can only imagine that this isn't great news for most of you, so I truly am sorry to hear this.

Edited June 8, 2018 by subtrendy2

[BDrafty 490]

The owner(s) of the license must of asked for X in the renegotiations and the product line only yeilded Y. If they can't make the profit they need off of the line then they can't keep it going. Given that FFG stated that they had just launched a revised core set, I'm sure that this is the last thing they wanted. This is just a situation where everyone loses.

[Mangod 368]

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 5:35 PM, Hordeoverseer said:

And Netrunner was what other LCG were hoping to be. It seems even titans can fall and nothing if for certain. 

To be fair, if they didn't own the license then Netrunner's "fall" was a question of when, not if. Wizards of the Coast could have chosen to end or not renew the license for any number of reasons; fear of competition for M:tG, being unable to agree on prices for the license, wanting to farm it out to somebody else to make a video game RPG which required the license to be freed up, etc, etc...

It really sucks that it came to an end this abruptly, but at least it's better than how L5R ended up before AEG sold the license to FFG. At least Netrunner gets to go out with its last sets of cards completed.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Mangod

[Sildric 4]

Netrunner was probably eating into Magic's pie and they jacked the price of the license up. Or honestly Destiny could be doing it and this is their way to fight back.

[Laserwulf 3]

Wait, why is this a surprise? LCGs 'live' for a few years, die, and another one comes along.

• Game of Thrones (1st ed)  2008-2015: 7 years
• Android: Netrunner  2012-2018: 6 years
• Warhammer: Invasion  2009-2013: 4 years
• Warhammer 40k: Conquest  2014-2017: 3 years
• Doomtown: Reloaded  2014-2016 (in LCG format as we know it): 2 years
• Arkham Horror LCG  2016-present
• L5R  2017-present

Look at the alternative: MtG has been around for so long and become so ingrained in the gaming psyche that the de facto standard CCG has missed out on 25 years(!) of evolution in gameplay mechanics, despite continuously releasing products for that time.

(Heck, the original versions of Netrunner and Doomtown were my favorite CCGs when they first came out; I practically cried tears of joy seeing them both get a new lease on life.)

[Barbacuo 153]

So, another partnership broken by Asmodee, because it's not Star Wars.

[KrisWall 966]

8 minutes ago, Barbacuo said:

So, another partnership broken by Asmodee, because it's not Star Wars.

We don't know that.  The tone of the articles suggest that FFG wanted to continue the game, but that the license wasn't renewed.  Let's not jump to conclusions.  This may be an example of WotC wanting too much extra money to renew the license.  It's happened before with them.

[Hordeoverseer 157]

Well, it's hard to know who is the real culprit in the fallout of this news, it doesn't get us anywhere or bring the game back unfortunately.

[Lord Jure 0]

36 minutes ago, Laserwulf said:

Wait, why is this a surprise? LCGs 'live' for a few years, die, and another one comes along.

• Game of Thrones (1st ed)  2008-2015: 7 years
• Android: Netrunner  2012-2018: 6 years
• Warhammer: Invasion  2009-2013: 4 years
• Warhammer 40k: Conquest  2014-2017: 3 years
• Doomtown: Reloaded  2014-2016 (in LCG format as we know it): 2 years
• Arkham Horror LCG  2016-present
• L5R  2017-present

Look at the alternative: MtG has been around for so long and become so ingrained in the gaming psyche that the de facto standard CCG has missed out on 25 years(!) of evolution in gameplay mechanics, despite continuously releasing products for that time.

(Heck, the original versions of Netrunner and Doomtown were my favorite CCGs when they first came out; I practically cried tears of joy seeing them both get a new lease on life.)

It is a surprise because Netrunner is not even close to it's natural death. It was close to it a year ago but FFG did a great job revitalizing the game, we got rotation and new ban/restricted list. The game right now is in great shape, in fact... it has never been better. They even announced new big box expansion. Yes, one day Netrunner would die off, but it was not supposed to be this day.

The other games? GoT got too big, it had to be scrapped. Don't know about Invasion, but Conquest was killed of because of licencing. It had a potential to last for many more years.

[Hordeoverseer 157]

I think licensing doesn't talk to development and the latter is supposed to continue regardless if the tracks were running out underneath. If it was a trainwreck, well the game was over anyways. In this case, it wasn't...well, we get what we have now.

[Causty 4]

1 hour ago, Mangod said:

" wanting to farm it out to somebody else to make a video game RPG which required the license to be freed up, etc, etc..."

Technically not, digital and analogue rights can be farmed out seperately (and make more money that way) Look at Hair Brained, Piranha and Catalyst's ownership of the Battletech/Mechwarrior licenses for instance and 2 of those are developing digital platforms of the same I.P.  (HairBrained and Catalyst also share concurrent Shadowrun licenses too )

Edited June 8, 2018 by Causty

[Causty 4]

Now heres something ... On the back of the core box it says "Netrunner is licensed from WOTC" I have always known that Android belongs too FFG, also Gartfields game was a CCG this was developed as a LCG ... would it bot be possible to simply drop the Netrunner bit and carry on the game as simply "Android - The Card Game" ? Like Arkham ?

[Gundark 8]

1 hour ago, Sildric said:

Netrunner was probably eating into Magic's pie and they jacked the price of the license up. Or honestly Destiny could be doing it and this is their way to fight back.

I think A:NR didn't even come close to threatening M:tg 

[kTravio 8]

13 minutes ago, Gundark said:

I think A:NR didn't even come close to threatening M:tg 

I think it's more likely WotC/Hasbro is afraid of FFG/Asmodee on the RPG/board game front than card games.
 

15 minutes ago, Causty said:

Now heres something ... On the back of the core box it says "Netrunner is licensed from WOTC" I have always known that Android belongs too FFG, also Gartfields game was a CCG this was developed as a LCG ... would it bot be possible to simply drop the Netrunner bit and carry on the game as simply "Android - The Card Game" ? Like Arkham ?

There's a lot of stuff that would have to change; while Wizards can't claim copyright on the mechanics, they can claim copyright on the trade dress of those mechanics - for example, the use of the terms R&D, HQ, Archives, Remote Server, ICE, Heap, Stack, Grip, etc. to describe play spaces and card names are all covered under trade dress. Depending on how the license was worded, it might even involve having to redo the templates used for the cards and changing card backs. 

At that point, the game would be look different enough they'd likely be better served by just creating an entirely new card game set in the Android universe (co-op Android murder mystery game ala Arkham Horror anyone?).

Edited June 8, 2018 by kTravio

[GWItheUltimate 3]

16 minutes ago, Causty said:

Now heres something ... On the back of the core box it says "Netrunner is licensed from WOTC" I have always known that Android belongs too FFG, also Gartfields game was a CCG this was developed as a LCG ... would it bot be possible to simply drop the Netrunner bit and carry on the game as simply "Android - The Card Game" ? Like Arkham ?

No.  My girlfriend is working in a legal liscence dept and that would be too easy.  The licence doesn't only cover the name.  They would have to make a whole new game that is significantly different. It's really the end bro and it's sad.

 

I think with Netrunner and Warhammer earlier, they will be more careful with third parties licences but a game business is what it is.  If you have the opportunity to put your hand on a big licence, even for a 5 years period, they won't restraint to make some money out of it.

[Otacon 889]

1 hour ago, Hordeoverseer said:

I think licensing doesn't talk to development and the latter is supposed to continue regardless if the tracks were running out underneath. If it was a trainwreck, well the game was over anyways. In this case, it wasn't...well, we get what we have now.

Warhammer 40k Conquest playtesters reported not receiving a new cycle to test for months ahead of the announcement that FFG's licensing agreement with GW was ending. I haven't heard similar rumbling for Netrunner, and even FFG's newspost gives the impression they weren't expecting this in the same way. Obviously these kind of agreements have set end dates, but given everything they've done over the last year to overhaul things(bring in a new lead designer, follow through with Netrunner being the first LCG to hit rotation, revising the core set with a ton of new art and new card pool, and working on a new cycle and a new deluxe box), I can't imagine they would have done all of that if they were seriously expecting to have to end the game less than a year after all of those plans came to fruition. They likely expected extension negotiations to go smoothly(who knows, maybe they have happened that way previously, we don't know how long the license was for), and were somewhat blindsided when they didn't.

[qwertyuiop 591]

Why they chose out instead of off, I'll never know.

[KCDodger 11,102]

Casual X-Wing player here, just saw the announcement. Never played or cared about the game but...

I'm sorry about this happening, guys. It's never a great feeling for a game you enjoy to just get flat out discontinued. You've all got my condolences. I do hope somebody picks up the IP and does something great with it.