We at WildFire have been joking for an unfortunately long time that the unofficial company motto is: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” If only that weren’t so very true.

Our most recent publisher, Sandstorm, is no more. They dropped RPG’s last year and have officially closed up shop. WildFire is, once again, on its own.

This is the fourth publisher through which we’ve gone, not including implosions such as Osseum – a prominent sales and distribution operation that blew up spectacularly. Let’s review.

• Publisher #1: EOS Press – a small start-up publisher who needed to focus their efforts and limited resources on the Weapons of the Gods license at the time.
• Publisher #2: Mongoose Publishing – relationship ends amicably due to a misalignment of business vision and goals.
• Publisher #3: Catalyst Game Labs – relationship ends in a hostile termination of contract on our part with a subsequent lawsuit initiated by us and other related parties. More cannot be said for legal reasons, but you can find tons of speculation on the internet.
• Publisher #4: Sandstorm – relationship ends due to too aggressive expansion strategy and subsequent termination of business operations. They tried to fly before they crawled.

So here we are again – all alone in the world. There’s an important difference this time. We’re not looking for a Bigger Brother to help us in our efforts. It’s time to be what we are – a small independent company who wants to produce the products we love, regardless of scale.

What does that mean for our fans?

If you’re a fan of our roleplaying games, such as CthulhuTech and the upcoming Void, you’ll see a leveraging of digital delivery. We’ll still publish print expansions, but we’re going to be focusing on eBooks and Print-on-Demand products to service our fan-base. This means there will be more and regular material, which will be less content dense and easier to absorb and utilize, including ready-to-run adventures to help ease the burden of GM’s.

If you’re a fan of our card games, such as Poo or Nuts, we’ll be pushing forward with those through Publisher Services, Inc (better known as PSI). These guys are game industry vets who have been handling a good share of the WildThing expansion into new markets, so honestly little will change there – with the exception of a slowing down of development of new products.

To go along with this, we’ll be working to be more engaged with our community, exploring freemium and Creative Commons models, and other new frontiers.

In all this, we’re just looking to make enough money to continue to develop new and exciting products and for a little consideration for our time. We’re passionate about what we do and these days WildFire is a part-time business for all of us – and frankly, passion is the only thing that will keep a diverse roleplaying industry going forward into the future. It is a shrinking industry in which it is very difficult to make money, so it must be sustained by those who aren’t looking to make money.

We want to thank each and every one of you who have supported us through the years. It is because of you that we soldier on, when it would be far easier for us to simply close up shop and go on to pursue other things in our scarce free time. You’re passionate, we’re passionate, and that may just be enough to keep us and this hobby alive.

We would love to hear what you have to say and what you want. Head on over to our forums and speak up – we’re watching and listening. Your opinions may very well help guide us into our mutual future.

Regards,

Matthew Grau

Vice-President

WildFire LLC

This entry was posted on February 12th, 2012 at 17:48. Pinging is currently not allowed.