Back in early 2020, after massive layoffs, Steve Horvath gave an interview with Team Covenant at the GAMA Trade Show to address the future of Asmodee North America and FFG. He talked about Atomic Mass Games, the RPGs moving to Edge, and gave the first hints of FFG separating it’s board and card games and it’s miniatures games. The Miniatures games were separated into a new studio called Fantasy Flight Miniatures.
They worked for nearly all of 2020 on products for games like X-Wing, Armada, and Legion. Many of the expansions that are coming out now, have John Shaffer listed as “Head of Studio”. This might have surprised some as FFG’s Head of Studio has been Chris Gerber since Andrew Navaro left at the end of 2019. John Shafer was in fact head of studio for Fantasy Flight Miniatures, a dedicated gaming studio.
It is strange, that in November of 2020 this studio was dissolved and everyone was told that they were merging into Atomic Mass Games, under the guise of “Needing a dedicated miniatures studio”. Why not simply have FFM absorb Atomic Mass Games? We talk about this in the latest episode of Double Crit!