Hace unos días Pete Walsh, el mejor diseñador de IDW Games; publicaba por el grupo de Adventures Universal Games System (AUGS) de Facebook que dejaba la empresa en dos semanas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TMNTShadowsOfThePast/
Pete ha sido el diseñador de los juegos mejor valorados de IDW Games como: TMNT Change is Constant, TMNT City Fall, y BTAS Shadow of the Bat del sistema AUGS que espero como agua de mayo.
He aquí su despedida:
"Hey there Sewerbrewers and Gothamites,
It’s with a heavy heart that I let you know that the coming weeks will be my last working with IDW Games. I'm super proud of what we accomplished with the AUGS game, most importantly the AUGS community in the past 5 years. I had a blast working on it with Daniel Lansdown
and you all.
I can't wait for you all to receive Batman, it really takes the game to the next level. I have spent the past few days pouring over the final files for production. It looks amazing.
For those of you in the gaming community, let me know if you need, hear, or know of any development and design gigs. Eager to talk to you about cool projects!
Finally, I just want to say that I created this community to bring all of us like-minded nostalgic fans together. I have no intention of disappearing, I will always be here for questions, support, and some killer homebrew.
Cheers!
Pete"
Además, hay rumores de que IDW Games puede llegar a cerrar.
IDW Games es una división de IDW Publishing, editorial de cómics que maneja un dilatado número de licencias, y cuyos ingresos principales no vienen de los juegos, sino de los cómics. Por lo tanto, no sería de extrañar que le afectara si no ofreciera los beneficios suficientes para justificar su continuidad, o si tuvieran que prescindir o reorganizar algo dada la coyuntura actual.
Por otra parte, los continuos retrasos de lanzamiento que han sufrido Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game y DBZ, no hacen más que aumentar la incertidumbre.
Ahora, tanto los fans de AUGS como de los juegos de IDW en general, nos preguntamos qué es lo que significa la salida de Pete para la continuidad de AUGS, y para IDW Games. Recuerdo que AUGS tenía pendiente lanzar el tercer título del sistema (Avatar) este año. Y si se lanza, Pete no estará detrás.
@RamonRa (https://www.darkstone.es/index.php?action=profile;u=5104) espero que salga Avatar, que como no salga te va a tocar ebay, BGG Store, o pasar de BTAS.
Sobre este tema también se ha pronunciado King of Average en su vídeo de hoy: https://youtu.be/Hg6daxQlatw?t=1042
Segundo capítulo en el panorama cada vez más intrigante del futuro de IDW Games.
IDW Games da carpetazo a Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game
El diseñador de MGS, Emerson Matsuuchi, acaba de anunciarlo en la BGG:
"MGS Project is not moving forward with IDW
The decision was made back in December not to move forward with the MGS Project. Since that time, I have been pursuing a myriad of options to keep the project going. I have offered to put in capital from my company to help fund the last leg of the project, and even to buy out IDW’s interest in the project along with purchasing all of the assets. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any traction with those options.
The rights to the design were finally given back to me a few weeks ago. So I have reached out and enlisted the help of a friend that is a bonafide expert in licensing and has connections with Konami. We’re working to keep this project alive and exploring possible options. While there are no guarantees that our efforts will bear fruit, I’m still optimistic that we will be able to get the MGS game to market, to the patient fans that have been kept waiting.
I also want to thank the team that worked with me on the MSG project at IDW. It was an incredible experience working with the talented folks there. It has been an honor to be given the opportunity to work on this beloved IP.
“Now go, let the legend come back to life!”
-Ocelot"
Fuente: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2602729/mgs-project-not-moving-forward-idw
Tercer capítulo en esta historia. Los compañeros de Bleeding Cool escribieron hace un año un artículo en el que indicaban que IDW está perdiendo dinero (english only): https://bleedingcool.com/comics/idw-loses-17-1-million-in-2019-projects-profitability-in-2021/
Capítulo 4: Parece que el juego Bomberman también estaría en peligro según uno de sus diseñadores.
"As a fellow board game designer that worked out the still unreleased Bomberman board game for IDW Games I will say the issue is more complex than it appears. IDW made some big bets in their media side of the company doing tv shows for streaming services and it cost them in ways that affected the other divisions of their company. IDW Games is now a skeleton crew, former staff Emerson and I dealt with initially were let go of the company, and then the people that replaced them. Further, this is anecdotal, but Konami has proven too difficult to work with, while also at the same time not giving them the time of day.
Will the Bomberman board game be cancelled next? I guess we’ll find out as my contract also expires this year. Things are looking dire though.
A shame, they were both dream IPs to work on for Emerson and I."
Fuente en los comentarios del siguiente enlace: https://kotaku.com/metal-gear-solids-board-game-has-been-cancelled-1846283342