Ghost Galaxy Games is ramping up for the launch of its first KeyForge set at a time to be announced, hopefully late this summer, Ghost Galaxy founder Christian Petersen told us at GAMA Expo. The Ghost Galaxy launch of the game, which follows its acquisition from Fantasy Flight Games last year (see “Christian Petersen Company Acquires ‘KeyForge’“) will feature a prerelease event one to two weeks prior to the commercial release. The product line will also incorporate a new format, KeyForge Adventures.
The prerelease weekend will offer retailers a special, “very limited” prerelease pack for “…a sealed deck prerelease, sort of a celebration to get the game back after a long hiatus,” Petersen said.
The regular release will feature two SKUs: a new format for the Starters, and the same deck pack display as in the Fantasy Flight incarnation.
Petersen described the rationale for the two-player starter configuration. “The way that differentiates itself from the old starters is that for the old starters, they tried to make a starter for every expansion release,” Petersen explained. “My own personal opinion is it creates too many starters, too many starters left on retailers’ shelves, and a little bit of confusion when a new player comes in saying, ‘I want to start, where do I start?’ I’ve always believed very strongly in the single entry point to a game, so we made this new two-player starter that has all the stuff you need to start.”
Petersen also noted that the Ghost Galaxy starters will likely not be something that experienced players will want. “A lot of the other starters had elements in them that attracted the existing fan base, so they felt obligated to buy these starters, which weren’t really all that valuable to them but they had elements that they wanted. We’re trying to clean everything up a little bit. With the two-player starter, we tried to streamline it in a way that it’s really good for new players. If you’re an existing player, don’t buy it. This is for new players.” The Two-player Starter Set will retail for $39.99.
The new sixth set, Winds of Exchange, which Fantasy Flight had been developing prior to the acquisition (see “Fantasy Flight Teases Sixth ‘KeyForge’“), will be sold in 12-deck displays, each deck at $12.99.
Fantasy Flight also debuted a new product configuration during Covid, KeyForge Adventures, which Ghost Galaxy will be continuing in a trade release format at $24.95 MSRP. These are puzzles or challenges that are solved by playing together, “effectively collaborative campaigns,” as Petersen described them. Fantasy Flight made them as print and play products; Ghost Galaxy has now made commercial products with more elements. The two originally released by Fantasy Flight, KeyForge Adventures: Rise of the KeyRaken and KeyForge Adventures: The Abyssal Conspiracy, are available now from Ghost Galaxy. A third, Fall of the House of Gormangeist, created by Ghost Galaxy, will be released with Winds of Exchange.
The trade release will take place after the fulfillment of crowdfunded orders; the project raised $1,101,183 from 6,172 backers on Gamefound.
Source: ICv2
