Will Shick: There was a ton to be excited about that this is a tough question. If I had to narrow down to one thing it would likely have to be our announcement about the future of Star Wars: Legion. Not only did we get to show off the brand refresh that we will be rolling out in 2025 as we move the product from single language to multi-language format, but we also got to reveal the significant rules and unit rebalance we’ve been working on for nearly three years now.
It’s been really awesome being able to watch the excitement in the Legion community as they have been putting the rebalanced units and rules through the grinder, discovering exciting new strategies and synergies with some of those original units that might have been sitting on the shelf in the last couple of years as meta of the game and new development left them a bit behind. Overall, what we are seeing from the community has been such a great payoff for all the work we poured into it.
As is so common in game design and development I think one of the most enjoyable things has been seeing how the community has taken the game and moved it in ways we never expected or thought about. Living games are always so interesting from a development perspective in that they are really are living things. They grow and develop in ways that you can’t always predict or even imagine, as more and more people put their creativity and reps into the game, coming up with surprising synergies and play patterns.
Additionally, I think it has been really fun to see how people have approached a Star Wars miniatures game that really lets them make the Star Wars galaxy their own. Players aren’t just mixing and matching characters to create strong in-game combos, they are taking the opportunity to tell their own personal Star Wars stories around the combinations they make. I love seeing all the alternate takes on characters; what would Ahsoka look like if she had followed Maul instead of opposing him in Season 7 of Clone Wars? What if Obi-Wan had redeemed Anakin at the end of their battle on Mustafar? What if the Bad Batch had teamed up with the Mandalorian and IG-11? Our goal with Star Wars: Shatterpoint was always to give players the tools they needed to be able to carve out their own segment of the Star Wars galaxy and seeing the imagination and creativity of the community has really been inspiring.
How will Atomic Mass Games continue to support Star Wars: Shatterpoint?
We have a number of new initiatives to continue to build on the last year. Of course, we have plenty of new releases featuring fan-favorite characters on the horizon, but beyond that we’ve really jumped into the second year with looking at ways to expand the game experience beyond just the base game found in the Core Set.
We’ve released a brand-new game mode called Key Operations, which introduces asymmetric narrative missions to the game that seek to help players recreate iconic story beats found throughout the various Star Wars media. From jailbreaks, to depowering tractor beams so you can escape the hanger bay in your shuttle, to starting a chain reaction in the main power generator to destroy the enemy superweapon, Key Operations really bring the Saturday morning animated adventure narratives to the tabletop.
In addition to Key Operations, which are available for free right now as print-and-play expansions on our website, we also announced a new semi-cooperative multiplayer game mode Galactic Legends. In Galactic Legends, two players team up to take on a third player who controls the Galactic Legend (i.e., many of the most iconic heroes and villains from the Star Wars galaxy). While the Anakin Skywalker in the standard game may be powerful, they are of course balanced against everything else.
Galactic Legends is our chance as game developers to really make these iconic characters as powerful and imposing as we see them on screen. The game mode plays out a bit like a classic raid boss in MMORPGs, with the Galactic Legend amped up to 100 while the other two players must work together to overcome and defeat them. Not only is this a really great multiplayer experience, it gives players the chance to experience the game in a very cinematic way with characters we know and love showcasing just how powerful we think of them when they are the main character of a movie or show.
The ultimate goal with the Retailer Support Kits is to provide stores the means to tie into our big product release events, things like the arrival of the Crew of the Ghost from Star Wars: Rebels to Shatterpoint or the emergence of an icon like Apocalypse to Marvel: Crisis Protocol by providing them with unique giveaways and promotional material to celebrate these events in their stores with their communities.
In order to make something that allows a wide variety of retailers to participate, we really stuck to keeping these kits simple to use but desirable in content. Overall, a store can use the promotional cards and other items in them however they feel best supports their business and their community. Anything from using the unique promo cards to support pre-orders, as a reward for taking a demo, or using them as participation awards for a launch event or specialized tournament. In the end, what we really hope these will do is allow the excitement we see among the online communities around new product releases to also have a physical grounding within the local stores as well, by simply rewarding people for doing what we expect they were always going to do, going out and supporting their local retailers and communities.
Star Wars: Legion received a huge update with the rules refresh, new product previews, and gameplay modes at Ministravaganza. What should retailers be focusing on in the coming year for Star Wars: Legion?
The big thing for Legion right now is getting prepared for a huge 2025. While we showed a lot off and even released some big things during Ministravaganza, all of that was really just the start of a major Legion Initiative that we will be revealing the full picture of at our big AdeptiCon 2025 Roadmap panel.
As we move forward into next year, I think the biggest place retailers can focus on is bringing back lapsed players into the Legion community. Anecdotally, since the refresh and rebalance announcement, we’ve seen and heard about a large number of former players returning to the game. People who might have stepped away from the game for one reason or another now have a really strong reason to come back and try out all the new changes and pull those Legion armies off the shelf they might have been sitting on for a while.
And since all the updated cards and rules are all available for free on our website, there’s really no risk (outside of some home printer ink and paper) to anyone who previously played jumping back in and giving the new update a test drive. The biggest thing is likely just continuing to put out the word, maybe hold some Legion 260 (as the kids on the internets call it) game nights and help point people to the free updates that are available to get them back in the fight for the Star Wars galaxy.
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