Hi all,
I just thought of sharing something interesting with you all.
Making business as indie developer is and always has been risky. Having your own Intellectual Property is very important.
Recently Fantasy Flight Games have lost their Games Workshop license:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/9/9/a-new-path-forward/
They have to remove any Workshop-related products from their catalogue:
- Black Crusade
- Blood Bowl: Team Manager
- Chaos in the Old World
- Chaos Marauders
- Dark Heresy
- Dark Heresy Second Edition
- Deathwatch
- Forbidden Stars
- Fury of Dracula
- Only War
- Relic
- Rogue Trader
- Space Hulk: Death Angel
- Talisman
- Warhammer: Diskwars
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
- Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game
- Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game
- Warhammer 40,000: Conquest
- All Fantasy Flight Supply products showing imagery licensed to Games Workshop
Quite long list, isn't it?
Just imagine how much work went into creating those products...
And now it has all go to waste as Games Workshop could not agree on license (probably wanted more money). Lots of players disappointed too :-(
That signifies importance of owning your own IP and not licensing anything. Some time ago we have been thinking of getting level maps from 3rd party - price was ok, but 2-years license term was a deal-breaker.
After 2 years we would need to pay how much they want (even if game did not make profit by then!) or have to take down AOF. Thus we did them in-house (a bit more expensive and not so detailed, but ours and ours only).
Take care,
Les
P.S.
We are not affiliated with Fantasy Flight Games by any means, but they have a nice game here (no longer supported thought!):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/348400/