Thursday, May 2, 2013

BATTLEFRONT MINIATURES TO TAKE OVER DISTRIBUTION OF DUST TACTICS AND DUST WARFARE

 Breaking news on this one, guys! The DUST universe will no longer be distributed by FFG.  Instead, coming to you in 2013, it will be from Battlefront (Flames of War, Gale Force Nine).  Big changes are on the horizon!


BATTLEFRONT MINIATURES TO TAKE OVER DISTRIBUTION OF DUST TACTICS AND DUST WARFARE
Dust Studio today announced that Battlefront Miniatures will become its publishing and distribution partner for the Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare miniatures game lines. Fantasy Flight Games, Dust Studio’s current publishing partner for those games, will transition sales and marketing activity to Battlefront Miniatures on June 1st, 2013.
“Dust has had a wonderful few years, during which we have seen the game’s community grow
exponentially,” said Dust creator Paolo Parente. “Both Dust Studio and Fantasy Flight Games have evolved significantly during our relationship, and we now mutually feel that we are both better served by moving in new directions. Christian (CEO of Fantasy Flight Games) and I have known each other for many years, and I can say that this decision is a truly amicable one.”
Added John-Paul Brisigotti, CEO of Battlefront Group, “we are very excited by the Dust universe, and although it is a first for us to be distributing a product other than our own, the fit with our business model made this partnership something we could not resist. During the last few years, we have been moving into new avenues to expand the breadth of products the group offers, and we see DUST as another one of these ranges.”
“We’ve been fortunate to distribute Dust Tactics since its debut at GEN CON 2010, and we’re very proud of our development work on Dust Warfare,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). “The last year, however, as FFG experienced phenomenal growth across many of our publishing categories, 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. We’re confident that Paolo’s partner choice in Battlefront Miniatures is a
strong one, and we wish nothing but the best to them, to Paolo, and to the fantastic Dust fan community.”
Starting June 1st, Battlefront Miniatures will begin soliciting and distributing all new products for Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare. FFG will ship all of its previously solicited new products prior to that date, and FFG will continue to exclusively sell all current Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare items while its inventories last. While FFG will support the Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare regionals events in May and June 2013, all future marketing and organized play for the games will be handled by Battlefront Miniatures, including the scheduled GEN CON 2013 tournaments.

About Dust Studio:
Dust Studio Limited is a Hong Kong–based company that creates and manufactures the Dust Tactics miniatures line, as well as model kits and scenery together with various books and comic books about the Dust universe. For more information, visit www.dust-models.com

About Battlefront Miniatures:
Battlefront Miniatures Limited is a New Zealand–based company that created Flames of War, the WWII miniature game. Battlefront publishes the world’s premier tabletop gaming magazine Wargames Illustrated, and owns Gale Force Nine, the leading manufacturer of game accessories. For more information, visit Battlefront’s website at www.flamesofwar.com.

About Fantasy Flight Games:
Roseville, Minnesota’s Fantasy Flight Games is a publisher of board, card, miniatures, and roleplaying games. Founded in 1995 by Christian T. Petersen, Fantasy Flight Games has published hundreds of successful titles, including licensed products based on A Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, as well as many original board games such as Twilight Imperium, Arkham Horror, and Descent: Journeys in the Dark. For more information, contact FFG’s Anton Torres at atorres@fantasyflightgames.com.

     Alright, so that's the official copy.  What does this mean to us?  Well, it means that Battlefront now has a pair of successful franchises in their stable,making them a much broader player in the TTG industry than they were before.  It also more-or-less gives them a stranglehold on the "WWIIish" genre.  I think this is a strong move on Battlefront's part- DUST has a great amount of amazing imagery, but I just never felt like FFG marketed it terribly well, or its popularity would have been larger.  If Battlefront can do with DUST what it did with it's startup FoW, we may well see a lot more DUST players in the near future.  

The Second Class Elitist

2 comments:

  1. I don't think it's a good thing for Dust at all. Don't misunderstand me I play flames of war since first ed but Bf will only support event as I understand?
    Their tournament in Europe are pure crap. They don't support their game in european countries, good event are made by players only, and most are very nice, but BF don't support a thing.
    So for the future of Dust, I don't really understand how BF can make the game more famous/

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  2. I think it will because they will have to. I think DUST fans will (rightfully) expect a certain level of maintenance to carry over, and will be a bloody lot of noise if it doesn't. The hope is that FoW tournaments will be better organized as a side effect. FoW is pretty well supported in the US, where DUST honestly isn't, so the hope is that DUST sees some of that as a side effect.

    FFG is very good at making board games... but beyond that they've always seemed to be a bit lacking. They know how to make, but not promote. (subref: Warzone.)

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