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Gone Cardboard News: Fantasy Flight to Publish Cosmic Encounter, “Dune” and Borderlands
Fantasy Flight Games announced at Gen Con 2007 that it will publish new versions of three classic titles from Eon Products: Cosmic Encounter, Dune, and Borderlands. “We have the rights to the designs,” says Jeremy Stomberg. “But we’re not just going to take the original files and print these games. They’ll be updated to our production quality standards. They will be Fantasy Flight versions. What that means—whether they’ll be filled with tons of plastic or in the epic box size or the War of the Ring-sized box—is still up in the air.”
Having the rights to the EON game designs gives Fantasy Flight control over every element of Cosmic Encounter and Borderlands because those games feature original settings and their own thematic elements, but that’s not the case with Dune. “We knew that the [Dune] license was a separate issue,” says Stomberg. “We have been really lucky with [the movie version of] Beowulf and a couple more titles that we hope to announce soon, but this one— There’s speculation that we weren’t willing to pay for the license, but we heard from Kim Herbert herself that the license isn’t available.”
In fact, the FAQ section of the Dune website says just as much:
| Are there any plans to have the classic Avalon Hill or Parker DUNE board games re-released?
No plans. The rights for DUNE games are currently tied up. |
Instead, the design for Dune will be placed in the Twilight Imperium universe. “Dune is one of the most requested games to be reprinted,” says Stomberg, “and we certainly knew that people would have problems with us doing not-Dune Dune. We figure it’s better to have the game and the mechanics that people really enjoy rather than not release it at all.”
Asked about the uproar over the need to “dedune” the design, Stomberg says, “I’m surprised that the reaction was as positive as it was. There are people who will say ‘I’m not going to buy it because it’s not actually Dune,’ but some people will buy it becuaase it’s different from the Dune they already own.”
Besides, Stomberg continues, “By us publishing the game in the Twilight Imperium universe, it doesn’t mean that all the copies of the Avalon Hill and Asmodée Dune are going to disappear. They’re still out there, and it’s not like they cost thousands of dollars. You can get one for a hundred dollars, which is almost the price for some of our newer games.”
Release dates are tentative at this time, but the current plan is to release Cosmic Encounter in the summer of 2008, “Dune” at the end of 2008, and Borderlands in the summer of 2009.
Source: Jeremy Stomberg, Fantasy Flight Games
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Aug 22, 2007 at 12:00 PM in News, Gone Cardboard News / 2830
Comments:
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"There’s speculation that we weren’t willing to pay for the license, but we heard from Kim Herbert herself that the license isn’t available.” ---------------------------- I smell a petition brewing.... Posted by Anthony Rubbo on Aug 22, 2007 at 11:22 AM | #
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Borderlands is one of only five games I rate a 10, so you know I’m excited about this. Of course, now I’ll probably have to wait two years for the release! I hate waiting. Posted by Larry Levy on Aug 22, 2007 at 11:39 AM | #
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This is great news, hopefully a whole new generation of gamers will now be able to experience these great games.
Posted by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on Aug 22, 2007 at 02:57 PM | #
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I’m very happy to hear that these three gems will re-appear. They’re all classic titles and really deserve to be in print. If I say, however, that I am guardedly optimistic, does it make sense? I really do have some reservations about this announcement. I am certainly disappointed to hear that the best of the titles (Borderlands) will have to wait the longest. Especially with the way game release dates slip, I fear that we’ll wind up seeing it in 2010! I also have to admit to being worried about the “Fantasy Flight treatment”. I have not been 100% thrilled with all of the games that have been redone by them, and some of them have been marked failures from my standpoint (adding lots of plastic sculpted pieces does not make up for muddled rules and balance problems...). Hopefully, the involvement of the Eon team will prevent excessive tinkering with the rules. The best of both worlds will be the gorgeous Fantasy Flight bits with Eon’s ideas and rules. I hope that this is what everyone at Fantasy Flight and Eon has in mind. Finally, in my opinion, having to re-theme Dune into the Twilight Imperium universe seems criminal. I certainly understand that there are legal problems, especially when the author of the original book is deceased. The possible involvement of the movie studio just makes things even more convoluted. Still, it just doesn’t seem right - the factions and theming are perfect for Dune and making them work in another setting will seem… artificial and forced. Not being a fan of Twilight Imperium just compounds the wrongness of the re-theming to me. Still, I’ll certainly take a look at all of them. I’ll be very interested to see what the Fantasy Flight design team comes up with when refreshing these classic designs. I hope that I am wrong and that each of them comes out as the ultimate editon. Posted by David Reed on Aug 22, 2007 at 08:58 PM | #
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The decision to release a version of Dune based in the TI world seems to me a little bizarre, I must admit. Ask people what they like about AH’s Dune boardgame, and the first answer most anyone will give is how splendidly evocative it is of the book. So why would you want to republish it without its #1 asset? It seems rather dicey to me. I’d buy a Dune reprint. I’d have no interest in the Dune game system applied to some made-up setting. As for CE, as much as I love Dune, and as much as that game is a clear descendant of CE, if I never play CE again I’ll count my blessings. I played the AH version once, and it was 10 minutes of game followed by 40 minutes of bickering over how two powers were supposed to interact (Macro and Virus I think it was ... we went online afterwards and found that the two were fundamentally incompatible and should not be used in the same game. Would have been nice to mention that in the rules; the game’s only been around for what, 20 years?). Posted by Chris Farrell on Aug 24, 2007 at 12:41 PM | #
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---- I smell a petition brewing.... ---- ...and, here it is: http://www.petitiononline.com/36s45pf6/petition.html Sign to save Dune! Posted by Anthony Rubbo on Aug 27, 2007 at 08:28 AM | #
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