Like many creators, we at Fantasy Flight Games like to dream big. When we launched Descent: Legends of the Dark in August of 2021, we knew we had something special on our hands. With its compelling narrative, tactical combat, and ever evolving app-assisted gameplay, we called the game “the definitive dungeon-crawling experience,” and we meant it. The designers poured their hearts and souls into the game, and we all dreamed of an extensive, ever-expanding game line that would take Descent and the Terrinoth Legends brand into the future.

Unfortunately, some dreams are just too big, and when reality comes knocking, it often means we have to make hard decisions.

It is with heavy hearts that we must announce the discontinuation of Descent: Legends of the Dark. We love this game and are proud of what we were able to achieve with it, so this decision was exceptionally difficult to make. We understand that many fans will be disappointed by this news, so without further ado, let’s go over some key points about this announcement.

Why is the game being discontinued?

Simply put, the game is too expensive to make. Between ever-increasing manufacturing costs, lengthy and pricey app development timelines, and global economic shifts making everything more expensive to produce, it became abundantly clear that continuing to make this game is just not feasible. This is far from the outcome we wanted—again, we all love this game and hoped to see it grow for years to come—but even if we were to sell every last copy, we would still ultimately be doing so at a loss. In a fiercely-competitive board game industry, that simply isn’t sustainable, and because of circumstances outside of FFG’s control, there are no adjustments we could make that could lower costs enough to continue printing the game.

What about Act III?

Act III of Descent: Legends of the Dark is no longer in development. This is the part that saddens us the most. We could fill a novel with the number of discussions, proposals, and “what-ifs” that happened behind the curtain, all of them trying to find a way to deliver Act III—in any form—to the fans. Unfortunately, none of those methods—not even the digital-only ones—proved to be feasible, and so the only path left to us is to cancel the expansion outright.

Will the app continue to be supported?

Yes, the app will continue to be supported. Though there will no longer be any additional content added to the app, you can continue to use it to play through the first two acts of Legends of the Dark as much as you want.

What’s next for the Descent / Terrinoth Legends universe?

Thankfully, though the story of Descent: Legends of the Dark ends here, the Descent and Terrinoth Legends universe itself will have more in the future. Back in February, our partners at Artefacts Studio unveiled Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent, a brand-new video game in the Descent universe coming to PC, Mac, and consoles later this spring. This standalone game captures the classic dungeon-crawl feeling of the Descent board games in a whole new medium, complete with eight heroes, 20 dungeons, voice acting, an epic campaign, and the tactical combat we all know and love. If you missed the game’s initial announcement, you can read more about it here.

As for future board games, while we don’t have anything to share at this time, there is always a possibility that we will revisit Descent in the future. It would take a different form and would not be Legends of the Dark, but this game universe is near and dear to FFG’s heart. The future is always uncertain, and even though we have to close the book on Descent today, we hope that, someday, we’ll be able to dream big with it again.

Written by Peter Schumacher