Ah, duh.  Forgot about that.

jhaelen said:

Sure. It's in the second link in the post actually, but here it is again:

www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/2604

Here is the full press release:

phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml

We just need to ask a few questions:

1) What is Hasbro doing with the board game licence?

2) Do they have any future plans for the licence?

3) Is what they are currently producing generating enough income to justify the licence?

4) Is Lucasfilm happy with how the licence is being used?

My answers would be:
1) Not much. Not sure they are even selling many Star Wars Monopoly games right now. Plus they are redesigning a bunch of their games and seem focused on simplification. The only way it seems to be put to use right now is a game you can use your Clone Wars action figures for.

2) Star Wars isn't as big a brand as it was five or six years ago since the new movies ended. Hasbro is refocusing on their core products and I wouldn't be surprised if they have no specific plans for Star Wars.

3) Having WoTC drop their licence makes me think it is not, especially when it comes up for renewal and there are other companies actively looking to bid on it.

4) It seems unlikely that they would be if they care about pleasing their fans. I don’t know if that is the case. They can be a peripheral licence (board game wise, not counting toys here) with a huge company or a core brand with a smaller one.

Will someone other than Hasbro get the board game licence? Not sure anyone outside of these two companies can say. Maybe there has been some back room discussion about it but we’re even less likely to hear that.

I would say the outlook is decent unless Hasbro makes a big push with Star Wars board games in the near future. Of course all this depends on when the board game licence comes up and if that is tied in to the toy licence it will be a cold day in hell before anyone other than Hasbro makes a Star Wars board game.

Spike1382 said:

On the other hand, Star Wars: The Card Game is explicitly an Original Trilogy product, and those movies still have commanding recognition even now, almost 30 years since Return of the Jedi first came out in theaters. Too bad we still have at least a year or two yet before the live-action TV series comes around. That is expected to cater more towards a more mature audience than Clone Wars CGI and is closer to the era this card game is depicting.

Don't put any store on the live action show. It's currently too expensive to film as Lucas wants to film it and so it's on ice until production costs come down. 

Spike1382 said:

1) Agreed. Not much at all. In fact a really good opportunity to utilize the license was passed by not incoporatiing the SW IP into their newest Battleship game. Which is good for FFG since I doubt X-Wing would have had much of a chance since both games are fairly simplistic and cater to the same demographic.

2)  #1 applies here somewhat to answer #2. Such precedence makes it doubtful. It seems Hasbro is doing the same thing FFG does by making up their own contrived universe to lessen dependance on outside licensing.

3) Also agree. But then again they do not need to really do anything with the license to make money, they just have to keep it from anyone else from utilizing it effectively and steal Hasbro's market dominance. By simply preventing other companies from making money on the license, they can better maintain their own grip on the undiscriminating plebeian boardgame mass market. This should not be mistaken for spite, but as an almost political marketing maneuver. It's not unheard of for larger businesses to do this to keep the little guys "little".

4) As with #2-3 this is hard to say with any sort of accuracy. We do have to keep in mind that Lucas does have a stake in Hasbro though. This tips it in the favor of Hasbro unless another company can come up with a phenomenal use for the boardgame license.

Number 3: It's not "spite" or "political marketing maneuver". It is just capitalism. If Hasbro can limit the chances of a company appearing that can threaten their market share and profits they are going to do that. Simply holding onto the Star Wars licence and allowing it to tick over allows them to do that. It gives them a license which will get them some money, and it prevents a competitor getting hold of something that may make them a bigger competitor in the future.

borithan said:

Agreed. It's not as though Hasbro is a malevolent entity, any more than all corporations are to some degree. Nor is it the case that Hasbro's staff don't care about their fans. It's just that a corporation needs to please its shareholders, and it can't do that if it drops a money license just because it's not doing anything great with it.

Hellfury said:

borithan said:

Man, its almost like there is a echo in here.

Political marketing maneuver. Capitalism. Potaytoes. Potahtoes. Other than attempting to make that distinction you just said the exact same thing I did.

You say that like echoes are a bad thing. :P

Like echoes are a bad thing... 

 There's no place to ask questions about the possible SW RPG that they have the license to.. If you ask anybody who has played it most ppl Dislike WOTC d20 system of the RPG. I say there is such a plethora of material for the d6 system still out there online and other places that it would make sense for FFG to take that availability and package into something that makes it relevant again and not just a re-print to make money.

I hope the LCG of SW makes alot of headway. I still love to play EPIC DUELS to this day  (i think thats really a miniature/CG even though released by hasbro under the eir BG license) that might not really qualify as a board game. 

 Actually it doesn't make sense for them to use the d6 stuff at all. It was produced by another company. While FFG holds the SW license it almost certainly comes soley from Lucas and not from the publishing company that wrote the d6 system.

I'd rather something brand new.

Hellfury said:

So I read this thread last night and have been thinking about the point mentioned repeatedly above. Basically this could work for FFG as well, right? I mean, even if they don't make a ground-breaking game that everyone loves, the fact that they have the license is a big deal. I don't know about anyone else, but I never even heard of FFG until it was announced that they got the licence for Star Wars. It was a really great move for them just to get their name out to non-gamers who aren't familiar with them but like Star Wars since it expands their pool of potential customers. Of course, it would be better if they did make fantastic Star Wars products, but I'm just saying there doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive to do anything more than milk Star Wars for its popularity and drop it when it starts to stagnate since they'll probably be able to sell more of their other products through the Star Wars fans.

I could be 100% completely wrong about this. Please point out the holes in my logic.

spirit said:

At the price LCL is charging for licensing,  they should be able to produce it.