Gen Con News

I am not attending GenCon this year but am keeping up with news and new releases announced there through a very hopping Twitter feed. Facebook updates are interesting but usually discuss booth set-up, how tired people were, or how amazing (or not) sales were. People are using Twitter to announce news about new releases.

 Ergo, some major announcements from Steve Jackson Games and Fantasy Flight Games

Take Steve Jackson Games (please). They launched Hipster Dice and Classic Car Wars  at GenCon and announced the following Munchkin releases:  Love Shark Baby, a 15 card expansion pack for Munchkin coming next January just in time for St. Valentines Day;  Munchkin Kobolds Ate My Baby (All hail King Torg. You get the joke if you’ve ever played a game of Kobolds) though no indication as to whether it will release as a 15 card pack, 112 card set or a full boxed set  (my money is on the full boxed set though I have my doubts that Kobolds Ate My Baby (All hail King Torg) is strong enough to support a full box set) and the big get Munchkin Apocalypse Judge Dread.  I have commented before  on the amount of licensing Steve Jackson Games has done with Munchkin in the past year so more licenses do not particularly surprise me but the Judge Dred one is pretty spiffy. Like Kobolds Ate My Baby (All hail King Torg), I do not know if Judge Dred still pulls enough attention in the market to drive large Munchkin sales.

 Adventure Time will, though, and I saw one picture showing Munchkin Adventure Time already on the racks at GenCon.Given the anticipation for that version, it would have been nice if USAopoly had managed to get it in stores at the same time as they offered it for sale at GenCon. WotC and Paizo were both able to do it, so a company with the distribution expertise of USAopoly ought to be able to do so.

Board Game Geek did ae exemplary job live tweeting the Fantasy Flight Games presentation mentioning in the first few minutes that Fantasy Flight has grown over 25% annually since 2000 and that the company has shipped more than 30,000 Organized Play kits.  That’s a lot of Organized Play.

Other notable announcements during the presentation:  X-Wing will introduce the Scum and Villainy faction later this fall with about 7 ships coming in the wave, as well as an online “Mission Control” system for players to track what they own for the game; Star Wars Armada for outer space mass combat coming out early 2105, along with Imperial Assault, a miniatures board game somewhat similar to Descent; Mountains of Madness for Eldritch Horror late this year, along with Order and Chaos for the Netrunner LCG.  Armada and Imperial Assault both have quite a lot of potential but price on them will be key. A big selling point of X-Wing is the comparatively low price point for entry into the game.

By the way, if you get a copy of the new Advanced Class Guide for Pathfinder, check out the major proofreading error on the front cover. Bet that gets changed by the next printing.