Fantasy Flight Interactive, a videogame studio launched in 2017 by board game company Fantasy Flight Games, will close its doors in February. Studio head Tim Gerritsen made the announcement in a message posted to LinkedIn, saying that he's now working to help his employees find new positions. The studio is located in Madison, Wisconsin.

"It's with great sadness that I have to report that the decision has been made to close Fantasy Flight Interactive next month. I'm proud of the team and the game we've dedicated ourselves to for the past few years," Gerritsen wrote.

"It's a been an amazing journey with even more amazing people. I'm going to do my best to get my team placed in new positions. I have programmers, designers, artists, QA staff and a producer to get placed in new roles and will do my best to do so quickly. Additionally, I'm now open to new opportunities myself since I will also be out of a job."

Fantasy Flight Interactive released its first and only game, The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, on Steam Early Access in August 2018. Full release, as The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game, followed a year later, but despite its early promise it was never able to find an audience: It peaked at 226 concurrent players in September 2018, according to Steam Charts, but immediately declined into double-digit player counts. The full launch briefly pushed it back into low-100s, but its highest concurrent player count since September 2019 was just 86.

Update: Asmodee Digital said in a statement that despite Fantasy Flight Interactive's closure, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game will continue to be supported.

"We regret FFI’s closure which will be occurring next month and would like to thank the whole team for their hard work and the fruitful collaboration we have enjoyed these last years," a rep said. 

"The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game - Definitive Edition has been released in December 2019 on PC (Steam) and will be released early 2020 on consoles (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One). We will continue to support the game’s servers, including its co-op multiplayer mode, beyond FFI’s closure, ensuring an optimal experience for players venturing across Middle-earth."

The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game is a singleplayer (and forthcoming cooperative) card game that pits you against the computer, challenging you to build decks of cards to take down narrative quests that are part story, part puzzle, and part challenge. In many ways it’s a standard digital card game, with characters that attack, life pools, and battlefield-manipulating special powers. 

In other ways, it’s not: the quests you go on and characters you play are lovingly voiced, and some are quite well written—if in the Tolkien style. It’s a design that’s influenced by Fantasy Flight Games’ tabletop card game, but takes a new direction by using a smarter AI capable of more choice and updating many of the cards to have wholly new effects utilizing things only computers can do well. We’ve kept our eye on the game throughout this year, last playing it just a few months ago, and it has continued to look good heading into its release on Early Access this week.

LotR LCG is currently in Early Access, with a handful of missions in a single overarching quest available. Each mission lets you take in a deck of 30 cards headed up by three Heroes, with an intense, almost puzzle-like emphasis on figuring out what events will come in the mission and how to counter them in your own deck building. That puzzling, challenging element is emphasized by speed: when a round goes by, Sauron gets points in a Threat meter—as that meter reaches thresholds, it deals out events like a swarm of dangerous enemies or debilitating events. You also only have thirty cards in your deck, so take too long and you’ll not only get hit with nasty powers, but you’ll run out of resources to win with. 

It’s satisfyingly hard, almost requiring you to go into a mission on easy the first time around so that you can see how the mission plays out and what Sauron’s deck is like. The higher difficulties do more and more to hamstring you, adding nastier surprises and more vicious random events. For now you fight Sauron’s forces alone, though in the future another will be able to join you in two player cooperative. 

LotR LCG hinges on playing and replaying specific missions, either to take new branching paths, use new characters, or try out new decks. It’s an emphasis on scenario-driven gameplay that makes the deck building interesting and gives you a reason to keep coming back. If you can’t approach those scenarios in new and interesting ways with new and interesting decks, then why isn’t this a one-and-done experience?

This is not a question I have to answer, because the deck building is pretty good. Each deck is built around three heroes, and each hero is from a Sphere—purple Leadership emphasizes versatility, green Lore focuses on healing and hope, blue Spirit wants you to use tricks and planning to win, and red Tactics hits hard and fast while keeping the enemy from doing the same. The colors of your heroes determine what colors of cards from your collection can be in your deck. 

There’s a satisfying array of strategies and syntheses already in the game. One of my favorites so far is an Aragorn, Arwen & Eowyn deck that focuses on empowering and buffing a few choice heroes while allies take hits and complete quest objectives. Another is a Legolas, Tom Took, and Dwalin deck that doesn’t have much healing but gets a ton of mileage from its numerous allies by rotating them in and out of combat using tricky cards and clever ranged attacks.

Unfortunately, your ability to engage with deck building is quite limited at first. The starter card set doesn’t focus well on combos or clever tricks, instead focusing on solid core cards with decent value for their costs, and saving up in-game currency to get access to more interesting combos obviously takes time.

Both packs of new cards and new missions cost an in-game currency called Valor. As you finish missions in a quest, you unlock the ability to purchase successive missions or unlock them with Valor. Heroes are unlocked by spending Valor or money on a new card pack with that hero and a full set of four cards. Fitting the living card game model, you always know what those cards are. Other cards can be purchased individually using Valor. I never quite felt completely shut off from buying new content I’d unlocked—with one exception.  

Valor only comes in a trickle at first. You can get a few hundred on missions, but that can be hard with the starter cards. You can get a few hundred more for daily quests. But you need nearly 4,000 to unlock a mission or a new Hero pack. That could be hours of grinding the same mission to see the next part of a story. If you fail missions you get nothing, so if you don’t quickly pick up the game’s basics you’re going to get new stuff even slower. Those who want to jump in and play this game for hours on buying it, rather than for an hour each day, would do well to go ahead and accelerate their start with one of those more expensive versions of the game. 

The LOTR LCG comes in $7.99, $15.99, and $29.99 standard versions. There's also a $47.99  “everything and the kitchen sink” bundle, which is literally just the other three bundles put together with a few exclusive cosmetics. Those who buy the basic version expecting a big, sprawling campaign with no grind to unlock new things are going to be sorely disappointed.

That leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and makes it hard to unreservedly recommend what’s definitely a game in an underserved niche on PC. However, the game is currently in Early Access—hopefully the slow start is something the developers will address. Along with that Early Access tag come the usual quirks: visual bugs, hitches, and some annoying slowdowns, though I had no hard crashes and only one gameplay-breaking bug in about six hours of play.

With more quest lines coming in the future and cooperative multiplayer on the way, this is a game I’m definitely coming back to as development continues.

Asmodee Digital has updated their Steam release schedule for the coming months, giving updated times on delayed digital board game releases and announcing some new ones. 

Among the new is Gloomhaven, which we’d previous covered, and a dungeon crawler inspired by long-lived, love it or leave it card game Munchkin. Coming in Q3 are The Lord of The Rings: Living Card Game, Terraforming Mars, Pandemic, and Bang!. In Q4 comes Five Tribes, while an adaptation of Gloom releases on Halloween. In 2019, expect to see Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace, Munchkin, and Gloomhaven. Only a handful of the games have a precise release date.

Coming in Q3 2018:

• The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is an adaptation, rather than a straightforward port, of Fantasy Flight Games’ tabletop card game. It’s co-op, with a non-standard model for getting more packs and a narrative campaign. Last time we checked it looked pretty good. Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game launches into Steam Early Access on August 28th.
• Terraforming Mars is a port of Jacob Fryxelius' much-loved board game from recent years where players compete as corporations seeding forests, altering atmosphere, and filling oceans.
• Pandemic is a port of Matt Leacock's cooperative tabletop classic about fighting disease that has been available for a long time on mobile markets, but is just now coming to Steam.
• Bang! is a port of the social deduction classic by Emiliano Sciarra. It's about shooting the right one of your friends, tricking your friends into shooting each other, and getting shot by your friends. One for the Werewolves Within and Town of Salem crowd.

Coming in Q4 2018:

• Gloom is a port of Keith Baker's gothy, take-that style card game about trying to make your family of people have the worst possible lives while screwing over your opponents by making their families have a good life. It’s fittingly scheduled to release on Halloween this year.
• Five Tribes is Bruno Cathala's weirdo twist on the Worker Placement genre where each round players pick up a fistful of little people off the board and scatter them along a path to another location—only getting a benefit when they reach the last space. It’s chaotic and involves a lot of math, but like any of tabletop publisher Days of Wonder's releases it has a really fun gameplay loop and is still one I’m interested in playing years after its release. 

And the in-development titles slated for 2019:

• Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace is coming to Steam in Q1 2019. Other than that, we haven’t learned that much more about this game since it was announced earlier this year. It’s based on, but not a direct port of, Fantasy Flight Games’ nonstandard “dungeon crawler” based on Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
•  Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin is finally coming to digital next year, but as a “dungeon crawling digital adaptation” rather than a direct port of the card game. We know little of the game other than that is described as cooperative, “but at the end, there is only one winner.” Much loved by some tabletop gamers, much derided by others, Munchkin is a long-time fixture of the hobby and I'm very interested to see where this spiritual sequel of sorts goes.
• Finally, Gloomhaven, another adaptation rather than a port, is coming to Steam Early Access in Q1 2019. It’s co-designed by original Gloomhaven designer Cephalofair Games. It’s a dominant presence in the tabletop community, so any digital adaptation will likely make waves.

There’s not a lot to take away from this other than the dates and games, but there is a notable emphasis on original adaptations based on or inspired by board games and their worlds rather than direct digital ports of board games. It’s definitely a purposeful decision from Asmodee: “We saw a lot of excitement for original games after we announced Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace in April," said Philippe Dao, Asmodee Digital’s CMO, in a press release, "Gloomhaven continues our commitment of expanding our catalog with more original video game experiences based on board game IPs and not just direct 1:1 adaptations of existing board games.” 

Asmodee Digital is the videogames publishing arm of Asmodee Group, a major publisher and distributor of board games. They handle publishing, as well as development, for a wide variety of board and card games across Europe, North America, and China.

We don’t have much in the way of cooperative and PvE card games on PC yet, but tabletop players are spoiled for riches in that department. That’ll start to change this summer when The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game arrives on Steam Early Access on August 28th. Unlike with Hearthstone and Elder Scrolls Legends, The LotR LCG is going to be a PvE focused experience—narrative driven, focused on stories, two player cooperative, and (hopefully) devilishly hard like the tabletop original it’s inspired by. Tim took a look at an early build of the game in January, but at Origins 2018 I got to spend a little more time with a recent build of the game, playing through a mission a couple times to see what’s changed and updated as the game heads towards release.

The basics are familiar to anyone with experience in competitive card games, all about minions fighting minions, trading off with each other while you toss out miscellaneous other card effects to damage enemies or buff your allies. Each turn you take a single action, then Sauron takes one. Once you’ve got no more cards to activate you pass the round, which lets you get more resources, but allows Sauron to increase its power. Cards also have a third stat—Hope—that you can use to progress along and activate powerful abilities on a track that’s dependent on scenario.

The scenario I was in, about exploring upriver from the fords at Cair Andros, saw increasing the hope meter give the ability to find caches of Ithilien ranger supplies and come out ahead on the resource curve. Progressing in a scenario can be about defeating enemies or surviving a fixed number of rounds, but it can also depend on your ability to muster up a few high Hope stats. Objectives can appear in line with enemy minions, and 'attacking' those objectives lowers their counter by a minion’s hope stat. So while Aragorn is a great attacker, Arwen has a hard-hitting Hope stat for pushing the quest forward. That’s important because each round Sauron becomes more powerful, filling his Threat track and unlocking powers of his own. If you take too many rounds and Sauron fills up the Threat track, you lose.

Fantasy Flight Interactive says that the AI is dynamic enough to hold or deploy these abilities based on scenario, and that seemed to be the case in the demo I played. Scenarios are branching, and in the one I played Sauron quickly gained a one-use ability to deploy a bunch of nasty spiders to the battlefield. When I chose one branch Sauron saved that power until I got into the next section, which required defeating all enemies to proceed—I was trapped for overlong in a tough middle section where enemies just kept appearing. While playing again I chose the other branch and Sauron immediately deployed spiders when it got the power—because the second scene on that branch didn’t require me to defeat enemies to proceed.

The build available at Origins didn’t include any deck building or more than one scenario, but it did really showcase a more finished version of the game’s visuals and presentation. Much like Tim earlier this year, I was impressed with the quality of the animations and how they’re used. Lord of the Rings is more understated than Hearthstone, with its bespoke visuals and animations for near every card, but the quality of what is there isn’t far off. It's impressive for a relatively new developer and publisher—Fantasy Flight Interactive and Asmodee Digital. I’m excited to get my hands on the full game in a few months, and I’m even more excited to take a spin with cooperative play when that becomes available. 

At early access release the game is intended to have five scenarios with more in the works. It will release at the end of August. It’s listed on Steam right now. 

Much like hobbits returning to the shire, The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will make it into Early Access before the first leaves of autumn fall: August 28, 2018. A digital adaptation inspired by Fantasy Flight Games’ cooperative card game of the same name, the game has players battling through a series of narrative stories to foil Sauron’s plans either solo or with a co-op partner. The game will only include single player experiences at Early Access launch, but will add co-op in “the coming months,” presumably in time for Frodo to feel ill on the anniversary of his encounter with Shelob. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is published by Asmodee Digital and developed by Fantasy Flight Interactive.

The game will release on Steam with a variety of purchase options. When it launches into Early Access, it’ll be available in $7.99, $15.99, $29.99, and $47.99 packs with increasingly more cards, in-game currency, and cosmetic items. Beyond that, a Collector’s Edition will include a two-player starter edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game alongside a One Ring replica, art prints, cosmetics, and the soundtrack.

The Lord of the Rings: Living Card game is not a direct adaptation of the tabletop card game, rather, it’s an adaptation inspired by the original game. What it does specifically keep is the Living Card Game format pioneered by Fantasy Flight on the tabletop, which does away with randomized boosters in favor of packs that always contain the same cards in the same numbers. The digital adaptation does have an in-game currency, but that currency is either used to directly unlock a specific card directly or for a randomized reward (gazing into a Palantír) that can include a card, but could be a cosmetic item or just more currency. The notable difference between the physical and digital versions of the game is that stories are fully narrated, with branching paths, and that the AI can dynamically react to players’ actions in a way that the random Sauron deck of the tabletop game never could.

We got a look at the game in January, but keep a flaming and lidless eye on PC Gamer for a fresh hands-on preview of The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game in the coming days. 

Let's face it, when it comes to collectible card games, most of us can only take so much ladder before generating enough salt to season every McMeal in America. Having some sort of PvE option helps, because losing to the computer is never quite as frustrating, and playing without the pressure of a turn timer, or some asshole emoting at you, makes for a refreshing break. Hearthstone's wildly popular Dungeon Run mode, and to a lesser degree the lethal puzzles in The Elder Scrolls: Legends, prove that PvE is increasingly core to what makes a good digital CCG.

That must be what the makers of The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game are banking on, because it dispenses with PvP entirely. Due in Early Access on Steam soon, it's based on an existing, and award-winning, physical card game from Fantasy Flight Games. The PC version, which is being published by Asmodee Digital, looks to replicate everything that fans liked about the physical experience, while leveraging the design space afforded by digital. Or in other words: It can do cool stuff with the cards that wouldn't be practical in real life. 

Here's how the game works: It's split into a series of narrative campaigns, each containing five or more quests across different locations, which you must lead your team of heroes through. The card game is officially licensed from the books, so the expected characters are all here, and operate much as expected. Arwen is fragile but can administer a heal during each upkeep phase, while Gimli is purely combat focused.

All decks contain 30 cards and three heroes. Interestingly, damage and buffs—heroes can have up to three 'attachments'—remains persistent on characters between Quests, as do the cards in your hand. That makes for an interesting risk/reward dynamic during encounters. Do you try to end the battle as fast as possible, or do you try to draw more cards and get your team in good shape for the next battle. To prevent you from completely farming the AI, over time the 'threat level' of your party will gradually increase, and if it reaches 50 Sauron automatically wins. So, sorry control players, you can't just noodle around forever.

You can absolutely play a control style, though, as well as midrange, aggro and other deck archetypes familiar from most CCGs. Cards are divided by colour—green, purple, red and blue—each of which has its own thematic personality. For instance, purple represents leadership, which I'm told equates to mostly midrange cards. During my demo I only got to see one deck, so can't comment on what the class diversity is going to be like, but I did like the sound of how they're planning to distribute additional cards and campaigns.

Whilst in Early Access there will be a founders pack to get your collection started, but once the game goes into full release it will be free-to-play and there will be monthly expansions with new quests and heroes. Playing the game will earn you valor points which can then be spent on valor cards. These can't be bought with money, and you also can't get dupes of valor cards once you own two copies (ie the maximum you can include in your deck). 

You will be able to buy hero packs with real money, but the contents of these are guaranteed—each includes a hero card and others that synergise with it. Taking the RNG out of spending feels like something that could interest quite a lot of CCG fans. All of that will only matter, though, if the base game is entertaining. From what I saw, The Lord of the Rings is a fairly standard mix of minion trading and resource management. You're always up against Sauron, and the sly bastard often begins with stuff in play.

Some of the keywords on cards did stand out as noteworthy: Creatures with 'Pursuit' will follow you into the next encounter unless killed, so need to be prioritised before you move on. In addition to attack and defence stats, friendly characters also have a willpower number, which is used to complete quests. These are represented by cards on the board which need to be defeated (but using your willpower stat, rather than the attack one) in order to activate a certain condition. This could result in ending the battle and moving to one of multiple new areas, or returning resources (ie cards) which Sauron has seized.

It's also worth talking about how you play cards in the first place. Each turn you receive three resources to spend (more if you're on the easier difficulty setting), and if you don't use them these carry over to the next turn. Again, that adds scope for planning out your moves across multiple turns. Maybe you take a little extra damage now in exchange for being able to play Gandalf, who comes with a predictably powerful effect, a turn earlier.

It'll require proper playtesting to determine how much depth this ultimately equates to, but apparently the physical game is notoriously hard and so you shouldn't expect to simply blitz the AI. I actually think the most fun way to play is going to be in co-op. Here the second player's forces appear above Sauron, and both of you get your own deck and set of heroes to manage. The opposing forces scale up accordingly to counter being double-teamed.

Lookswise, The Lord of the Rings is surprisingly pretty given the studio making it is just five months old. I imagine it helps that they already have all the art from the physical game to draw on. You can't expect the florid animations of Hearthstone at its best, but at first glance this looks to be a polished experience. I'll definitely be diving in to spend more time with Aragorn and chums once Early Access goes live. Right now I would say the biggest question mark will be over how compulsive building a collection feels without the threat of real players to overcome. Still, a little less sodium in my bloodstream has to be good news.