Some mentions scale. Some prices. Some delays, which led to loss of steam. Some says launch conflict from tough competitors (ie: WoW and MonPoc). Others, collectability: I for one dismissed this game out of hand when it was first announced that it would be a blind boostin' collectable game. Only when it died, I found that it was fixed distribution.

Maybe it all comes down to many little factors synergizing to create one soured experience for MC CMG. One too many straws for that camel's back kinda thing.

What are them real reasons? Don't pull punches. Tell me what you really think went down.

I'm a latecomer to the game.  I noticed what was going on when Miniature Market added the boxed set and some boosters to their clearance section.  I waited and waited to see what the trend would be.  Not having played a game of 54 mm scale, I was only interested in the minis as sculptures.  For some reason, call it a demiurge, I bought the starter set and four boosters literally a day before FFG made the announcement of the cancellation.  I then went back and bought a second starter set and have picked up a couple of the "Lost Legion" sets and extra dice.

I read the rules, looked at some samples of play (haven't played yet) and find that this is a nice easy to pick up game that doesn't get bogged down in excessive detail.  It's the only game on this scale that looks approachable from a non-Warhammer player.  However, the market leans towards greater detail and larger armies and, thus, smaller figures.

I believe FFG when they said that they could not make a profit off of this game.  A quick google search yields a mere -half-dozen support and fan sites.  Without the community involvement, this game could never have survived. 

I'm glad I discovered it even during the endgame and I think that I will continue to play it for a long time.  One thing is simplified, I'll never need to worry about spending more on boosters.

You want answers?
Fantasy Flight Games : I think I'm entitled to them.

You want answers?
Fantasy Flight Games : I want the truth!

You can't handle the truth! Fantasy Flight, we live in a world that has games. And those games have to be good with thought towards miniature scale.. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Fantasy Flight Games? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the Death of Mutant Chronicles. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that the death of the Mutant Chronicles, while tragic, probably saved gamers. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves gamers...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me to help you make decisions on scale. You need me to help you out during those meetings.

We use words like scale, playability, cost...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent gaming. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a company who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very games I play, then questions the manner in which I play them! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a new game and a new scale. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Actually the game IMO was a failure from the beginning. 54mm just doesn't fit into most gamers styles of play or type of miniatures collected. I would say at least 90% of the gamers that heard about a new Mutant Chronicles were initially excited but then became extremely disappointed when information about scale came out. I am not exactly sure what and how much time went into pre-marketing, but I can tell you that it wasn't enough. If more research had been done on the miniature scale alone, it should have been evident that 54mm is not the best selling scale to do. By far the best scale would have been either 15mm or 28/30mm. Since Warzone had already used those scales in the past, IMO, it should have been a no-brainer as to what scale to continue with. IMO more consulting of previous Mutant Chronicle gamers should have been utilized.

Even if the game/ruleset was a flop and the figures were in 28/30mm scale, you would have people buying the figures, just so they could have used them in other gaming systems. That alone probably would have helped sales.

- long delays ...

- maybe the "scale-racism" ...

- maybe to high expectations about the paint-job in 54 mm ...

- even more long delays ...

- maybe the redesign of some "old scool" miniatures (Venusian Rangers for example)

- delays of Wave 1 - 3 between the US an europe (about 2 - 3 months for some warpacks)

- a little bit disappointing league kit

- no "real" mutant chronicles backround. just some miniatures and a ruleset.

- hard competitors (Monsterpocalypse, WoW Miniatures ...)

- overall: a worse selling

- maybe wrong combination of miniatures in the starter an warpacks (nearly no cool characters ... because MC IS character driven ...)

- no additional maps (only a "do it yourself" map pack)

- maybe the overall problem with whole franchise

- maybe the economy crisis

- maybe all of it above ...

Morphology said:

Hey, you who allready own the Lost Legion pack, what is the stuff that comes with it????

The product description mentioned a poster map, and promo cards. Is the map a new paper map that you can play on? Is the promo card the same cards as the downloadable stuff pdf-cards released??

And, the article about cancelation mentioned that you would get a Mutant Chronicles patch - what is that patch, if you got it??? Is it new rules???

Thx

 As a Mutant Chronicles licence old timer, I feel it my duty to tell you the rumors saying that the licence is cursed.

Hear! Hear! Ol' tHe_MaN's gonna tell you all the tale of the rise and fall of the MC licence.

Once upon a time, Mutant Chronicles was a compelling universe which first got to be known through a roleplaying game, soon thereafter through a miniature game (Warzone) and a CCG (Doomtrooper). That was in the mid-90s, and to the Swedish company behind it everything seemed possible, even to take on the mighty Warhammer licences. At the image of the drawings from Paul Bonner displayed everywhere, it was a time of hubris.

Proof that everything seemed to be destined to glory, MC RPG got a second edition in the late 90s, as well as Warzone, which also received enhanced minis. Three novels and four comics in the MC universe went to the market. There were even talks of a Hollywood movie.

But then it all crashed down. In 1998, Target Games was closed. All games on the MC licences were abandonned. The licence was purchased by Paradox, another Swedish company, which was known only to a handful of hardcore computer-wargame players. To many in the MC community, this is when the curse fell on our beloved game.

Paradox first tried to relaunch the licence through video games. There was first Mortificator, an infiltration game quickly cancelled. Then Warzone Online, a massively multiplayer tactical game, which was shown through gorgeous screenshots at the time, to be later cancelled. And last but not least, Mutant Chronicles Online, a MMORPG developed by a small team in Dubai, which also got to be cancelled.

In parallel to Mutant Chronicles Online, Paradox handed the rights to the Warzone miniature game to a small American company named Excelsior. With its CEO a big fan of the MC universe, they undertook with their very limited means to first issue the missing army books for the Second Edition, and ultimately to build a whole new edition. The project was huge, and after 3 years of delay it lead to a huge book, called Ultimate Warzone, which also came to be the downfall of Excelsior. Too big was the task at hand, especially since 90% of the work was done by Excelsior CEO, who simply could not keep up with the community expectations - and worst of all, with his own commitments. Excelsior lost the rights to Warzone in early 2005, and closed soon thereafter.

Where it should have been a new time of grief for the MC universe, the community actually got the excitment of three almost simultaneous announcements in 2005: first, a successful professionnal gaming company, Fantasy Flight Games, was to publish a MC collectible miniature game. Second, an unknown Swedish company, COG Games, was to develop and release a new edition of the RPG. And, last but not least, a full scale Hollywood movie was on track, with a 22M$ budget, and starring heavy weights such as Ron Perlman and John Malkovitch. Once again, hope was in the heart of the MC fans. Once again, these hopes were to be dashed.

The movie was completed in 2007, released in some countries in 2008, leaked to peer-to-peer networks the same year, and was one of the worst sci-fi-horror movie on earth. And with only the remotest link to the MC universe of the original RPG. Release in the US finally planned in late April 2009... in only two cinemas. A disaster.

The third edition of the RPG is, as of today, officially still on track. However, it has already been delayed several times, and the development team does not seem to be willing to announce a release date any more. Some rumors say that, as with Excelsior, the project undertaken was too big for the company, and that they got completely overwhelmed by the task. If anything is ever released one day, it is very likely to be the swan's song of COG.

As for the collectible miniature game, after several delays and a change in distribution mode, it is widely acknowledged as a great min game, original, fun to play and tactically deep. But still, it came to naught. The game was quickly stopped. The curse had striken again.

So now what? This short summary proves one thing: even if all projects based in the MC universe came to be failures after the original ones, the Mutant Chronicles licence is surprisingly resilient. There is no doubt others will, in the future, undertake to propose new games in the world of the Cardinal and the Dark Apostles. That most will fail, there is little doubt. But each project, even when it fails, is a tribute to the undying love of some for a universe that is both deep and catching. For despite all those failures and dashed hopes, if individual games fail and are forgotten, in the end the Mutant Chronicles live and even thrive!

As a conclusion, it appears quite obvious that as for most politicians and generals, hubris was the main reason why most MC projects failed. And while "official" licenced games rose and fell, slowly but surely a mind was at work, with small ambitions but sure results. Indeed, unknown to the large majority of humans, between 2005 and 2007 was released "Mutant Chronicles 2.5", an updated version of the RPG, in French, correcting most shortwoming of the second edition and proposing a slight evolution of the background. Then, after Excelsior failure, the same mind offered to the world "Warzone 3", a French translation of Ultimate Warzone also correcting most bugs. And now, rumor says the supernatural being behind those productions is working on a new project... This "being" (because no one knows for sure how much of him - it? - is human and how much is machine) is well-known of both US and French forums, under the nickname Coral Beach.

Whatever can be said about the contested background evolutions proposed in MC 2.5, Coral Beach work has achieved something no recent "official" MC project has: to deliver clean, professional products in the timeline committed on. And to keep working on improving and animating the MC licence. This is the best lesson for the next companies to try to take on the MC licence: better to aim for the top of the hill and eventually reach the sky, than the other way around.

Long live the Mutant Chronicles licence!

Good summary, but do not forget that much of the sinking was due to Games Workshop to win a legal battle that ended in a lawsuit that forced the destruction of  Warzone molds minis

Games Workshop die!! 

I'm probably making things too simple here, but... why didn't they wait until the movie release? Surely someone would have seen the movie, googled mutant chronicles, then came across the minis. Maybe not.

Thank you tHe_MaN for the brief(?) down memory lane on the history of the MC curse!
 

Danann said:

This is the first time I hear about this. Are you sure of it? Can you give us your source?

From what I know, the Warzone mini molds were destroyed in 2005 by Excelsior, at the request of Paradox. At this time, Warzone was played by only a handful of players around the world, its past glory long behind it. I cannot see what would have pushed Games Workshop to sue Paradox over a game with this very limited player base. At that time, Confrontation or Helldorado must have been far tougher competitors than Warzone.

You stamp out any challenges to the throne while they are either young or weak or both. Out of the 3 miniature lines, Warzone was the easy pickings for a legal battle.

Just throwing my 2 cents into the discussion pool...

the-man, you are a wice man.

I can see the old 90s stuff as the original, and the ulitmate warzone as the last stuff out of the original setting.

This CMG game, the movie, and the Cog RPG are three different initiatives trying to reshape the concept of MC. See them as the son of the original, trying to be loyal to it's father yet come up with something different and new, making the 90s MC up-to-date. This will ofc meet alot of trouble, making people sad, angry, affected positivly in perplex ways and so forth... but in the bright future, when a thrid wave of MC stuff comes - it will stand on the shoulder(-pads) of BOTH the original setting and this altered, broaden campain setting of FFG, COG and the movie. I beleive in MC being a license who in the next generation deals with the curse the-man talks about - and by that, letting this generation take all the risks and blame that come with bravery and pure heroism.

I salute FFG for their bravery.

Is it me or is there more people and more discussion about the game since it died?!?

Yes, a lot is going on in the forum, since the message from ffg. strange ...

Maybe the MC players are a quiet bunch, but will not keep silent against the dying light.

I hope another company does pick this line up and keep the torch burning, 'cause it's a great system! Best incarnation of the Doom engine in fact.

Yes, I also wish that some company to take the license from FFG and continue to produce this game (without any changes in minis size, card and maps design etc.). FFG could even stop for some time producing MC but not to abandon it totally. Really, it lived only 6 month!- this is very short period of time for such a cool game. May be all fans should gather and to write a kind of letter to FFG regarding future of MC CMG?