Where is AMG?

@Cpt ObVus FFG is releasing all the articles for Wave 10 I think. After that though, I hope that AMG restructures their website and makes it easier to find information on the Star Wars Games.

They are on Facebook. Twitter. Twitch.

Now that AMG has started doing SW content, they are interacting way more with the player than FFG ever did. The recent Ministravaganza is the best example.

I personally hate watching videos too, but I’m afraid we’re old dogs when it comes to that. The whole idea of printed word articles is getting pushed out by YouTubers and Twitch streams. It’s a big problem in the video game press as well.

And I also agree that there should be far more information flowing from Asmodee/AMG/FFG/someone, anyone, about the transition plan. But FFG is, from what I can tell, desperately short-staffed and has ALWAYS sucked at marketing Armada anyway, AMG is hot to show Asmodee that it can make Star Wars games with a better margin than FFG, and earn more money (so they aren’t gonna spend much on marketing and advertising products which they didn’t even create—Armada products are still FFG’s babies right now), and even if they wanted to, asking Asmodee for that budget right now might be a bad idea. Asmodee itself clearly has no clue how to run game companies. They’re just a bunch of wealthy people who wanted to buy a bunch of companies and make money off of someone else’s good ideas in an industry they neither understand nor particularly care about. It shows in their work. If you don’t understand your product, you don’t understand your customer, and you don’t understand how important information and customer relations are to a player community like this one. So those things are not a priority for Asmodee.

It happens all the time, in every industry; artists and creators and innovators and inventors end up having great ideas, and then the money men get involved, and under the guise of “investment” and “capital,” they buy out the guys who actually know what they’re doing, promising “creative freedom” and a “supportive environment,” and the moment things look a little tight, they slash budgets, fire all the expensive talent, and hire newer, cheaper talent to take over.

Sometimes it works out, and the new guys do a great job, and the products keep being awesome. And sometimes things limp along for a few months or years, and then die, and the company gets sold off again, or liquidated, and everyone stands around shaking their heads at what a shame it was, and then the money men go buy some other company and the cycle continues. I’m optimistic about the former being the case; the games AMG inherited are fundamentally strong, with perhaps the world’s most famous IP (and most ardent fan base) behind them. There’s a good chance AMG will take that and run with it, and absolutely knock it out of the park. But the latter is a possibility, and as always, the money men will squeeze every penny they can out of anything that looks even slightly expendable, and we just have to hope the game survives anyway.

Wasn't there something about a new website rollout coming soon?

Yeah, I personally never watch anything in a streaming format. Ever. If you want me to pay attention to your stuff, learn to write, and post something. Even GW does that. It takes a couple hours to write an article and do layout, which is not a lot, and we can see the details and take screenshots/images and it's just far easier to consume.

If it were not for the diligence of the members of this forum and those on fb, no one going to the AMG site would know any of the new stuff existed. No active links to anything. They claim this is a big deal and it should be but you can't find it easily anywhere on there site. Feels more like a bunch of comic book fans got stuck babysitting their little brother. I cannot watch oll the twitch feeds at work but I could look at a website article if they were ever posted to the general public. I dom't really care if it is Asmodee or AMG responsible for this cluster of a transition but that is what this is. As for the comment that Asmodee is only out to make money, this is a great way to lose it. Hide what should be one of your biggest IPs from the general public. Brilliant move.

Expect nothing from Asmodee proper. They’re not a game company, they’re a company that owns companies who make games. Which is... fine, as long as they give the game companies enough budget and freedom to do what they do well. I do think there’s something of an uncomfortable tension there, though... AMG making forums and having marketing departments to make announcements and things aren’t direct, short-term money making initiatives, and it’s apparent that Asmodee’s primary concern is short-term gain. Companies like Asmodee buy small companies, trim the fat, and sell them. Things like marketing and customer service are, in this context, “the fat,” and therefore expendable. It’s a short-sighted view, but Asmodee isn’t in this for the long haul.

All I hope is that AMG continues to make quality products for Armada and X-Wing despite their corporate overlords.

Considering that they only have 4 games to their company name, I'd say there is a good chance for some Armada news.

They've announced a 3-day "AMG Mini-stravaganza" from March 18-20. I don't know if they'll reveal any Armada news, but maybe? We know that Legion is getting some screen time. Their Facebook says they'll give us a schedule soon, but I haven't seen one yet.

@GrandAdmiralBuford AMG seems to be a very stream-oriented company. Multiple times a week they have livestreams where they paint and talk about up coming products. Normally it's Marvel Crisis Protocol or Legion, but recently they were painting Armada squadrons. They have a rules forum for Legion now, were people can submit questions and get responses from the devs, I imagine something similar is coming for X-Wing and Armada. This was announced during a painting stream. The lack of a proper forum is disappointing, but AMG certainly is vocal about their games and very interactive with the community. It's just in a different format.