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For those not familiar with KeyForge, the short take is that each player in this two-player game has their own deck of cards, with this deck containing cards from three factions within the larger game world, and this particular combination of cards does not exist anywhere else in the world, with a unique, computer-generated name and image on the back of each card. (You can find my introductory post about the game from 2018 here.)
So what's gone wrong? Here's an excerpt from that announcement:
Quote:
KeyForge is a game that is dear to all our hearts, so in order to give it a proper chance to shine again, we have decided to put the game on hiatus for the time being, with plans to relaunch the game with new life at a later date. Some of you may wonder why we cannot simply relaunch the game now, and the answer is that we simply do not currently have the ability to make new decks.
The "unforeseen complication" that we mentioned above is the fact that the deckbuilding algorithm for KeyForge is broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. This is neither an easy process nor a fast one, which is why the game will be going on hiatus for a while. We wish we had better news in this regard, but the fact is that, even if the pandemic was not a factor, we cannot currently generate any new decks. We ask for your continued patience as we work to rebuild the unique deck engine in preparation for the game's relaunch. And don't worry, all existing decks will still be valid and playable when the game relaunches.
FFG notes that the game's sixth set — KeyForge: Winds of Exchange — is already developed and ready for production...whenever production can resume. In addition, video game developer Stainless Games is working on a digital version of KeyForge.The "unforeseen complication" that we mentioned above is the fact that the deckbuilding algorithm for KeyForge is broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. This is neither an easy process nor a fast one, which is why the game will be going on hiatus for a while. We wish we had better news in this regard, but the fact is that, even if the pandemic was not a factor, we cannot currently generate any new decks. We ask for your continued patience as we work to rebuild the unique deck engine in preparation for the game's relaunch. And don't worry, all existing decks will still be valid and playable when the game relaunches.
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As reported in The Toybook on September 10, 2021, Ravensburger North America has stated that as of September 17, 2021, it will stop accepting orders from retailers and distributors since as CEO Filip Franke explains in the letter below, "we don't want to risk accepting any further commitments which have a chance of [us] not being able to deliver".
Here is the complete letter from Franke:
Ravensburger will have a booth at Gen Con 2021, which runs from Sept. 16-19, but it will have no games for sale at the show. Instead sales are available only in advance for pick up during Gen Con on either Thursday or Saturday.
As for future releases, Franke notes in the letter that "Our 2022 planning is not impacted by this decision and all new item launches, and preparations are underway as planned and scheduled" — which seems...unlikely given that you would be foolish to proceed with plans for 2022 as if everything will be back to normal by that time, whatever "normal" means any longer.
I'm not Ravensburger's bookkeeper, of course, so maybe I'm off target here. Perhaps the idea is to hit pause for three months, let product arrive in warehouses, fulfill all existing orders, then resume the order-taking process, but with your eye now shifted on the production timeline so that you're taking orders only on what is already in house instead of looking at what's scheduled to be produced and taking orders for that. I'd ask for more details about this plan at Gen Con 2021, but Ravensburger reps won't be on hand other than for the fulfillment of pre-orders, so I'll see whether I can get updates another way...
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