Big News out today from Alderac Entertainment Group on Social media. I’m not sure how I feel about it so here it is. It has been talked about for a while and the ‘Print on Demand’ service is here. There is extensive information in the bio links about what is going on.
Their first note.
“Have you been long on the hunt for a missing faction in your collection? Have you been waiting 84 years for us to release a faction that we said we were going to release and then never did? Have you been waiting for us to fix factions because they sucked?”
Players can now just purchase to print their own cards. Just the factions they want and ignore the rest. AEG doesn’t need to produce large amounts of sets either and ship them around the world to retail outlets. These cards will be slightly smaller than originally produced cards, apparently sleeving them sorts this out. This makes no sense to me as why not produce the cards in the original size, they no doubt have their reasons. Can they stop people sharing these files also? I don’t even own a printer. It feels like there is a lot to unpack here and not least the $7.99 per faction to print. That is expensive for me when a base expansion set is £20-£25 ish.
They have also acted on community feedback and amended the rules of 10 factions that have been underpowered and underwhelming. I’m looking over the list and I am a little saddened to see this. I’m no doubt not the biggest fan of Samsh up but do love the game and I do not align with this thought. The random nature of the game is its brilliance. We randomly decide the decks we play with as well so it really doesn’t matter how the factions come out, not all gel well together and some gel fantastically well, that is just part of the charm of the game for me. So seeing fixes like this must mean some people have had serious gripes and that is just unjust for me.
Then there is Errata, I believe this is some clarity on wording from earlier sets and smoothing out some of the terminologies. Fair enough but having played the original sets recently, I do not see this.
This Print on demand service also includes the new ‘Half the battle’ expansion coming to kickstarter. Players can gain early access to these new factions and print very soon. The good news from my point of view is you can back the kickstarter and get original sized cards next year which is a relief for me. I would be devastated if this was not an option.
Then there is the all in deal that for $199 you can pick up all decks/factions in one hit. That’s pretty cool if you are late to the Smash Up party and working it back is a very good deal I feel. Something that would deserve serious consideration, hopefully coming with a nice big box.
I know we are living in challenging times, tariffs are high and the cost of living is incredibly high at present. AEG are a big player in the gaming world and I feel this print and play style of games is coming about more and more. It may be ok for some people but it is just not for me. I am all for environmental benefits and reducing plastic and waste is a must, but I have seen huge strides in the games to reduce this and nothing beats opening a brand new board game box. It just cannot be beaten. I really hope this is not the future of the industry and AEG reflects on this project as to its success. I’m not backing a print and play though, the new kickstarter, almost certainly.
