On the 21st of October Fantasy Flight Games posted this announcement on their web site:
“Fantasy Flight Games is delighted to announce the upcoming release of Merchant of Venus, a board game of space traders and alien riches. Two to four players race through the galaxy on a wild dash for cash, locating and establishing vital trade lines to transport goods from the planets where they’re common, to the planets where they can sell for maximum profit.”
Then on the 22nd of October Stronghold games posted the following announcement on their web site:
“Stronghold Games, in conjunction with the Designer and license holder, A. Richard Hamblen, announced yesterday that we will reprint “Richard Hamblen’s Merchant of Venus“. We look forward to bringing you this great game during 2012 !”
If you care about this publishing fiasco then read on …
Naturally we don’t own Merchant of Venus. For all of you who were born after or around the year 1980; it is a classic science fiction board game with beautiful artwork and unprecedented rules of play. Trading in space while equipping your space faring bucket with lasers, shields, engines, additional cargo space … we are thinking about Elite, how about you? Perhaps Privateer if you aren’t as ancient as we are. Anyway, we will leave the review for a another post. The game was published by Avalon Hill; designed by Richard Hamblen and it all happened in year 1988.
The game has been out of print for some time and we would love to get our hands on a copy but eBay prices are to steep for our pocket. Both announcements gave us some positive love towards owning a copy; but on the other hand they generated a lot of fear that we will have to wait for some time due to possible lawsuits that both FFG and Stronghold Games could face.
In the light of developing events Stronghold Games clarified that they have come to an agreement directly with Mr. Hamblen for a license to reprint the original version of Merchant of Venus board game. It seems that Stronghold Games and Mr. Hamblen believe they have exclusive license over the game. Unfortunately FFG also bought the exclusive license from Hasbro and they also believe they have the exclusive thing. Hasbro owns Avalon Hill company and all their licenses, which probably include the original Merchant of Venus license since they already released the game in 1988. Fantasy Flight Games CEO, Christian T. Petersen, posted on the BoardGameGeek forums his side of the story. We are wondering who got the most $$$ from the whole shady deal? Right now we known that the only one who will surely gain is Mr. Hamblen. It seems that he knew about both deals and he is turning out to be the master manipulator in the whole situation.
Both companies claim to have license to publish this long lost marvel. We would prefer that only one company prevails. We really don’t care if it is Stronghold Games or Fantasy Flight Games as long as Merchant of Venus gets published in due course. We believe that two versions of the same game would create a chasm in the market and divide player base. For now all parties seem to have valid claim to publish the game and the question which arises is, which side to back up?
Backing your side
There are some arguments which tell that Stronghold Games will make more accurate game. For example, they will do a reprint of the original game with support for six players while Fantasy Flight Games is thinking ahead and they are planning to release a four players base game, hinting to further expansions.
Then, there are actual session reports which tell us that the game of four players is an optimal group size for the game in terms of game time, components used and optimal fun. Fantasy Flight Games will surely do an expansion at a later stage of development allowing 5-6 player game. It would be the natural course of action.
Information available about rule set is scarce, but enough to push the original fans toward Stronghold Games. Fantasy Flight Games already announced changes to the original rules. It is unclear at this point if the additional rules will be optional or required.
From the manufacturing standpoint we feel much better with Fantasy Flight Games since they have an enormous amount of resources in designers, developers and money which they can throw in the production of the game. Stronghold Games just does not give us the same vibe.
While religious wars are being fought on the BoardGameGeek forums we feel that it is time for the gamers to decide for themselves what is best for them. Forum wars will clean all the dirty laundry of both companies and all fans who feel the urge to raise voice can speak up. The real losers here will, again, be the players. For now, let’s wait for the lawyers to get to the bottom of this licensing issue, stop the speculation and start to plan the strategy for your victory.
I can not wait for the Venus to rise
If you find the game interesting and can not wait for the war to end then go to BoardGameGeek site search for board game Merchant of Venus and in files section search for files from user Dathkadan. He has recreated the game art with expansions. Print the game components, and recreate your own copy of this old gem.
