Monday, October 12, 2009

It'll be Twilight: Dune. Wait, no, it won't! Hmmm ... yes, it will! Gah! I can't decide

Some out there in gamer-land might remember that Fantasy Flight Games ended its annual GenCon "state of the nation" address with a mysterious graphic showing three large black boxes. These served as teases representing three larger products — apparently, two huge "coffin box" games and one game of "standard" FFG size — that the company had in production, but was not prepared to announce publicly.

Now, two months later, the boxes are back.

Pictured above is a screen capture from FFG's home page, heralding the return of the three black boxes and promising that details are forthcoming. Being basically the same person I was two months ago, I'm still wondering the same thing I was back in August: will we be seeing Twilight: Dune (or Dune: Imperium, or Dune with Dinosaurs, or whatever) in one of those boxes?

I think we might. Being a gamer has taught me that wishful thinking is often a disappointing road to travel, but there's a few reasons to believe that there might be a new Dune game announced soon. For one thing, the original announcement that FFG would use the Dune mechanics for a new Twilight: Imperium-themed game came in 2007, so they've had plenty of time to work on it. For another, FFG
has lately shown a willingness to go into stealth mode concerning some upcoming projects (Android, I'm looking at you), and I think Dune: Imperium would fit in with that concept quite nicely. Lastly, Twilight: Imperium will always be important to FFG and founder Christian Petersen — the first edition essentially launched the company — and I'm just having a gut feeling that it's time to announce something that involves the TI universe.

So, my official prediction: yes, there is a new Dune somewhere in one of those boxes. Some other guesses from throughout the interwebs can be found here and here.

Anyone else have any strong feelings? Hunches? Complete guesswork?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

The small one is Gears of War.
The big ones are two Cosmic Encounter Expansions, released simultaniously.

littlemute said...

Twilight 3rd was a fail of a game, but financially seems like it did great. I'd like to see a new edition that isn't marred by the poorly implemented Puerto Rico roles overlay (and broken 'go for the IP role card FTW every game), as well as an update to the rather useless political phase (or role if you're stuck with 3rd edition).

pgocosmic said...

One could be Cosmic Incursion. The timing seems possible, but keep in mind that FF releases lots of stuff. So...

Twilight Imperium? My guess is not yet.

TheDukester said...

I'm actually guessing AGAINST CE:I, at least in terms of those three mystery boxes. Only the third, normal-sized box would be appropriate; those coffin boxes are meant for huge-ass games like TI:3 and Descent.

Of course, nothing says they can't announce the three mystery titles AND still release other stuff. In fact, they've had quite a few releases just since GenCon.

Adam said...

Cosmic Incursion in the little box seems likely. It seems like it should be ready by now, and the year is coming to a close. I would not be surprised at all if we saw a reveal and a release the next week.

Why reveal the Rex box now though? I didn't even think development had begun yet, and the box would surely be the last thing designed, no? I'm really not familiar with how the business works.

My prediction: Cosmic and two games I probably won't care about.

The Warp said...

I think CI will be in a box even smaller than that one.

Big Head Zach said...

I agree with Jack. Given what we're expecting the expansion to be, there'd be little reason to devote an entire box to it if it wasn't necessary. One set of planets and ships, 20 aliens, and perhaps one additional deck of cards would create quite a hollow echo in a square box.

TheDukester said...

I also don't think it's an expansion (for any game) in one of those boxes -- not with all of the "secret black box" hyping that's about to start. That would seem like a bit of a letdown to most of their fan-base: "HUGE game! HUGE game! Oh, and here's a CE expansion."

Adam said...

But we are the important part of the fan base.