{{Short description|American game company}} {{Infobox company | name = Fantasy Flight Games | logo = Fantasy Flight Games.png | image = Fantasy Flight Games.jpg | image_caption = Main entrance of the Fantasy Flight Games headquarters in Roseville, Minnesota | type = Division | industry = Tabletop games | founded = {{start date and age|1995}} | founder = Christian T. Petersen | key_people = {{Unbulleted list| Chris Gerber (CEO)}} | products = Role-playing games, board games, card games, dice games | website = {{URL|fantasyflightgames.com}} | location = Roseville, Minnesota, United States | parent = Asmodee North America (2014–present) }} '''Fantasy Flight Games''' ('''FFG''') is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. In 2014, it became a division of Asmodee North America.
==History== Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product (''Twilight Imperium'') in 1997, the company has been doing business as Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). Since that time, FFG has become one of the biggest names in the hobby games industry, being a marketplace leader in board games and maintaining strong businesses in the card game, roleplaying game, and miniature game categories.<ref name="fantasyflightgames1">{{cite web|title=What Is Fantasy Flight?|url=http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg.asp|publisher=Fantasy Flight Games|access-date=26 October 2011}}</ref>
From 2000 through 2008, FFG produced a series of supplements and adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition under the Open Gaming License. This series was collectively known as Legends & Lairs. These books included supplements for classes, expanded magic, and environments, as well as a series of Instant Adventure booklets.<ref>{{Cite web |title=bibliogroup:"Legends - Google Search |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=legends+and+lairs+fantasy+flight+games&tbm=bks&gs_lp=Eg1nd3Mtd2l6LWJvb2tzIiZsZWdlbmRzIGFuZCBsYWlycyBmYW50YXN5IGZsaWdodCBnYW1lc0jrNFDSBlj9MnAAeACQAQCYAVGgAasUqgECMzm4AQPIAQD4AQHCAgUQABiABMICBBAhGAqIBgE |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=www.google.com}}</ref>
In 2008, FFG partnered with Games Workshop to represent ''Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000'' settings in role-playing, board, and card games.<ref name="fantasyflightgames1"/> FFG announced the end of that partnership on September 9, 2016. Effective February 28, 2017, FFG no longer offers for sale any games made in conjunction with Games Workshop.<ref>{{cite web|title=A New Path Forward|url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/9/9/a-new-path-forward/|publisher=Fantasy Flight Games|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref>
In August 2011, Fantasy Flight Games acquired the license for card, miniature and role-playing games set in the ''Star Wars'' universe.<ref>{{cite web|title=Use The Force|url=http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2528|publisher=Fantasy Flight Games|access-date=2 August 2011}}</ref> They have also created board and card games for the well-known licenses ''Game of Thrones'', ''Battlestar Galactica'', and ''The Lord of the Rings'', as well as board games based upon popular computer games: ''Doom: The Boardgame'', ''StarCraft: The Board Game'', and ''World of Warcraft: The Board Game''. They are also known for revising and reprinting popular or cult classic games, including ''Cosmic Encounter'', ''Arkham Horror'', ''Talisman'', and ''Netrunner''.
From 2010 to 2013 FFG was Dust Studio's partner in publishing and distributing Paulo Parente's miniature wargame ''Dust Tactics''. Commenting on the shift in 2013 Petersen stated “it became clear that Paolo and the Dust games would be better served by a partner who specializes in the unique business of miniature games.”<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dust-models.com/news_d.php?id=147 |title=Battlefront Miniatures to take over Distribution of Dust Tactics |website=dust-models.com |date=May 2, 2013 |access-date=January 24, 2014}}</ref>
Fantasy Flight Games was known for their game franchise ''Midnight'', which was also made into a movie called ''Midnight Chronicles''<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q123563713}}</ref> by the company's short-lived Landroval Studios.<ref>ICV 2 | http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9117.html</ref> As of 2012, it appears that ''Midnight'' is no longer produced or supported by Fantasy Flight.<ref>{{cite web|title=Latest on the disappearance of the Midnight RPG|url=http://www.againsttheshadow.org/?topic=1447.0|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221230110/http://www.againsttheshadow.org/?topic=1447.0|archive-date=21 February 2014|website=Against the Shadow}}{{User-generated inline|date=November 2023}}</ref>
On November 17, 2014, it was announced that Fantasy Flight Games had agreed on a merger with French board game publisher Asmodée Éditions.<ref>{{cite web| author= Forbes Magazine | title= Fantasy Flight Games Merging With Asmodee | website= Forbes | url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2014/11/17/fantasy-flight-games-merging-with-asmodee/ | date=2014-11-17 | access-date= 2014-11-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackgate.com/2014/11/19/asmodee-acquires-fantasy-flight-games/|title=Asmodee Acquires Fantasy Flight Games|website=Black Gate|date=19 November 2014|first=John|last=ONeill}}</ref>
Asmodee has helped to bring some of Fantasy Flight's board games to digital form, and in October 2017, Asmodée and Fantasy Flight announced the formation of Fantasy Flight Interactive, a division of the merged companies to bring more of Fantasy Flight's physical board games to digital implementations.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/24/asmodee-partners-with-fantasy-flight-for-new-digital-board-game-studio/ | title = Asmodee partners with Fantasy Flight for new digital board game studio | first= Mike | last = Minotti | date = October 24, 2017 | access-date = October 24, 2017 | work = Venture Beat }}</ref> However, as part of a company-wide layoff, Fantasy Flight opted to close Fantasy Flight Interactive in January 2020.<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/fantasy-flight-interactive-to-close-after-company-wide-layoffs | title = Fantasy Flight Interactive to close after company-wide layoffs | first= Alex | last =Wawro | date = January 7, 2020 | access-date = January 7, 2020 | work = Gamasutra }}</ref>
In December 2019 through January 2020 Asmodee announced they were moving towards focusing on Fantasy Flight Games' core boardgame-, dice- and card- games. Their tabletop role-playing games like ''Star Wars'' and ''Genesys'' will move to Edge Entertainment and Miniatures games like ''X-wing'' and ''Armada'' to Atomic Mass.
==Games== {{Main|List of Fantasy Flight games}}
===Living Card Games=== {{Main|Expandable card game}} Living Card Game is a term trademarked by Fantasy Flight Games for expandable card games. FFG defines a "Living Card Game" as a variant of collectible card games.<ref>Definition of Living Card Games by Fantasy Flight Games | http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm.asp?eidm=14</ref> LCGs have regular expansions and deck construction like CCGs, but do not have the "blind buy purchase model" of CCGs. Instead of randomized starter decks and booster packs, LCGs have starter sets and expansion packs with fixed non-randomized distribution of cards. Their starter sets come with pre-constructed starter decks, and are designed to be self-contained; they can be played by themselves or expanded for constructed play with expansions.<ref>{{cite web|title=LCG Player's Guide|url=http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=25|publisher=Fantasy Flight Games|access-date=28 June 2013}}</ref> Expansion packs are released on a monthly or near-monthly basis, each containing 60 cards, with a number of copies of each unique card equal to the limit of the number of copies a player is allowed in their deck (e.g. three copies of each card in an ''Android: Netrunner'' pack).{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} Larger "deluxe" expansions are released less frequently, and typically contain many more cards and sometimes introduce new game mechanisms.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}
Many games from other companies use a similar distribution model, but because "Living Card Game" and its initials "LCG" are registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games, other publishers do not use this term.<ref>LCG Trademark of Fantasy Flight Games | https://trademarks.justia.com/778/12/lcg-77812599.html</ref> For example, Upper Deck Entertainment relaunched VS System in 2015 as an LCG-style game but markets it as a "Two-Player Card Game" or "2PCG"<ref>VS. SYSTEM 2PCG Introduction FAQ | http://upperdeckblog.com/2015/05/vs-system-2pcg-introduction-faq/</ref> and similar Doomtown: Reloaded was called an "expandable card game".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Doomtown: Reloaded |url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156714/doomtown-reloaded |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=BoardGameGeek |language=en-US}}</ref>
Fantasy Flight Games currently prints the following LCGs:
*''The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game'' (2011) *''Arkham Horror: The Card Game'' (2016) *''Marvel Champions: The Card Game'' (2019)
Fantasy Flight Games has previously printed the following LCGs: *''Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game'' (2008–2015) *''A Game of Thrones: The Card Game'' (first edition) (2008–2015) *''A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition'' (2015–2020) *''Warhammer: Invasion'' (2009–2013) *''Android: Netrunner'' (2012–2018) *''Star Wars: The Card Game'' (2012–2018) *''Warhammer 40,000: Conquest'' (2014–2017) *''Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game'' (2017–2021)
Fantasy Flight has also printed ''Blue Moon Legends'', which is a comprehensive collection of ''Blue Moon'' and its expansions. Although it has similar gameplay and a fixed card set like a Living Card Game, it was not released in the Living Card Game line.
===KeyForge=== {{Main|KeyForge}} Fantasy Flight Games published the card game KeyForge in 2018. Created by ''Magic: The Gathering'' designer Richard Garfield, KeyForge differs from other collectible card games (CCGs) in that the game uses procedural generation to create unique decks. Commonly, CCGs are sold in pre-built decks or boosters packs. Fantasy Flight Games calls KeyForge a "unique deck game" because each deck contains a procedurally designed character unique to that deck called an Archon.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/7/17658396/keyforge-card-game-fantasy-flight-magic-the-gathering-hearthstone|title=KeyForge is a remarkable new card game gunning for both Magic and Hearthstone|last=Hall|first=Charlie|date=2018-08-07|website=Polygon|access-date=2020-10-29}}</ref> IGN described the game as "a bold new idea and a vastly different kind of game format", but questioned the randomization model, speculating that "people won't be spending tons of money on single rare cards, but that may have been replaced with spending tons of money on random deck boxes in the hopes of getting lucky with a great card combination.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/02/keyforge-the-next-game-from-the-creator-of-magic-the-gathering-uses-billions-of-unique-decks-gen-con-2018|title=KeyForge, the next Game from the Creator of Magic: The Gathering, Uses Billions of Unique Decks - Gen Con 2018|last=Marks|first=Tom|date=2018-08-01|website=IGN|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-02}}</ref> On June 22, 2022, it was announced that Ghost Galaxy had acquired KeyForge from Fantasy Flight Games.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-22 |title=There has been a shift! |url=https://keyforging.com/ghost-galaxy-acquires-keyforge/ |access-date=2024-07-14 |website=keyforging.com}}</ref>
== Awards ==
=== 2016 Origins Awards === * Board Game - Star Wars: Imperial Assault, designed by Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying * Miniatures Game - Star Wars Armada, designed by James Kniffen, Christian T. Petersen * Role-Playing Game - Star Wars: Force and Destiny, designed by Jay Little <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.originsawards.net/2016-origins-award-winners/|title=Academy {{!}} 2016 Origins Award Winners|website=www.originsawards.net|access-date=2016-07-22|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160710174319/http://www.originsawards.net/2016-origins-award-winners/|archive-date=2016-07-10}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{official website|www.fantasyflightgames.com}} * [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/17/fantasy-flight-games Fantasy Flight Games] at BoardGameGeek
{{coord|45|0|56|N|93|11|5|W|display=title}} {{Asmodee |state=expanded}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Board game publishing companies Category:Card game publishing companies Category:Companies based in Minnesota Category:Role-playing game publishing companies Category:Roseville, Minnesota Category:Publishing companies established in 1995 Category:American companies established in 1995 Category:1995 establishments in Minnesota