Rio Grande Games No Longer to Publish Carcassonne!

[Whaleyland]

From Hans om Glück's Facebook feed (translated):

Dear gamers and companies,

With this announcement we want to tell you that from the end of the year on, there will be another licensee for our games in English. Rio Grande will no longer be our English License partner. Zman Games has been appointed our new English License partner. This license includes all new products as well as the older ones, especially all Carcassonne titles in English, which will be available through Zman Games beginning in Fall/Winter 2012 onwards.

We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership.

We wish you all happy gaming,
Your HiG

What will this mean for the future of Carcassonne, I wonder? Most items are created by HiG anyway then simply translated, but it could bring many new or bad things to the future of the game. Speculation abounds! As does the likelihood that Falcon, the Minis, and CCT&P will never get released.

[Carcking]

Wow - this is a real stunner. I suppose RGG will not be featuring Carcassonne at Gencon as they have done in the past. So I wonder if ZMan will have it at Gencon - or what Carcassonne's presence will be??

[Hawkinsssable]

Any idea what this might mean for US and AU distribution of the Minis and Tunnel, Crop Circles & Plague?

[Amorpheus]

Good find Whaleyland.  Likely bad news for us in the US waiting for the minis and CC,P&T.  But maybe not...

With this announcement we want to tell you that from the end of the year on, there will be another licensee for our games in English...

...will be available through Zman Games beginning in Fall/Winter 2012 onwards.

These quotes make it look like the licensee change won't be taking place for several months still (maybe fall at the earliest).  If Jay has already done most of the work on Corn Circles, Plague & Tunnels, it seems there (possibly?) may be a chance for RGG to still release it soon.  Maybe I way off here and maybe this isn't a possibility, but if I were Jay, I'd get it out there as soon as possible before the license expires to make as much $$ as possible.  We may even see it sooner than we would have if not for the change  

[Scott]

I'm hoping that we can look forward to English product releases happening more quickly after the German releases.

I checked the Alliance Distributors catalog, and so far there has been no change in the status of Falcon or CCP&T, and no mention of the minis yet. I agree with Amorpheus that Jay should hurry up and make as much money as possible while the opportunity is there.

Found the following message on the RGG web site:

In an effort to simplify our product line and to better focus on our core business of providing the best games to our customers, Rio Grande Games has been reducing the number of games we co-produce and distribute from other companies. The final step in this process will occur at the end of 2012 when we end our publishing of games from Hans im Glück. We expect to continue our other publishing arrangements with our other partners and will also expand our own line of games. This includes more products to support Dominion and Race for the Galaxy and to add new games to our own line of game. We thank our loyal customers for the support we have received in the past and expect this new direction will enable us to provide even better games in the future.

I'm a little bit surprised that they would give up Carcassonne voluntarily, since it's their second most popular title.

I took a quick look through the Z-Man Games product list, and most of the titles are unfamiliar except Agricola and Pandemic. We'll see what happens.

[Carcatronn]

Just got word RGG will most likely not release any of the Carcassonne expansions... let's hope Z-man Games picks them up by year's end :-/

[obervet03]

Just got word RGG will most likely not release any of the Carcassonne expansions...

Not a big surprise -- seems like it might get messy to have the rights for 6 more months and then have to transfer them. If I were Z-man games, I would want first dibs on anything that hasn't been released yet.

[Hawkinsssable]

In light of this sad news can anybody recommend a good place to pick up the new mini-expansions?

[Carcking]

In light of this sad news can anybody recommend a good place to pick up the new mini-expansions?

Well, I just bit the bullet and bought a set on Ebay...couldn't help it...couldn't stand the thought of waiting another year for them to be released in the States. 

[Whaleyland]

For those of you who have not yet purchased the 6 minis, this was posted on BGG last week:

That said, the six Carcassonne mini expansions already announced by Rio Grande Games will still be released by RGG.

(http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11128/new-game-round-up-more-on-the-z-hansrio-split-iota)

It looks like that will be their last hurrah.

[Scott]

Here's another interesting quote:

As there has been some misunderstanding regarding the discontinuation of the partnership between Hans im Glück and Rio Grande Games, I want to make clear that this was requested by Hans im Glück and accepted by Rio Grande Games.

Jay Tummelson
Rio Grande Games

This confirms my original unvoiced suspicion, that HiG was fed up with RGG. However, as somebody noted over on BGG, RGG is hardly the only game publisher with late delivery dates. Most game publishers are behind schedule lately. Steve Jackson offers the following explanation:

All in all, we are (as usual) choosing to take the time to get it right, rather than to meet a schedule but deliver a sub-par game. I've heard a saying attributed to the Origin Systems team, back in the day: "It's only late until it ships, but it sucks forever." We'd rather be excellent forever.

Anyways, Z-Man Games wants to know what YOU would like to see published by them first?
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=322383177836224&id=170153096392567

[CKorfmann]

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised either.  I am wondering what this could mean for the possibility of our CC expansions.  I imagine if this has been in the works for any length of time, it might have contributed to Jay's putting us off for so long,  but then again, he's had our stuff for well over a year.  I guess we'll have to start from scratch and begin developing a relationship with Z-Man games. 

[meepleater]

Found on BGG:

Asked Jay specifically about the upcoming Carcassonne expansion Corn Circles, Plague & Tunnels, and got this response:

----------------------------
Hello Phil,

Sorry, HiG has decided we will not produce this expansion - nor the other new ones we had planned.

Jay M Tummelson
Rio Grande Games
PO Box 1033
Placitas, NM 87043
----------------------------

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11018/hans-im-gluck-changes-publishing-partners-rio-is-o

Nooooooo!!!!!

[Scott]

That's too bad; although I have the German editions of those expansions, the RGG edition was going to have completely different corn circle tiles.

[Whaleyland]

You're mixing up your information. The Mini's version of Corn Circles has different tiles. Those that are/were to be included in the CCP&T expansion were the same as the original print run from Hans im Glück. Hopefully Z-man will still release a set similar to what RGG was going to release. Actually, hopefully they release a better version since RGG's has numerous errors just on the art design.