In 2014, Fantasy Flight Games’ Living Card Game® (LCG) category is the strongest it has ever been, and the astonishing success of Android: Netrunner, introduced in 2012 as our fifth LCG, has been a massive part of the category’s recent growth.
Since we first introduced the LCG model in 2008, we have learned much about how these games function differently than collectible card games, and we have taken many steps to apply the lessons we’ve learned. We have established the standard that our monthly expansion packs offer a complete playset of each new card within them. We have grown our Organized Play programs, introducing Restricted lists when necessary to balance the evolving metagames. We have introduced different publication models for our different LCGs. And we have extended our outreach efforts by introducing events like the Plugged-in Tour and Chronos Protocol Tour.
As a result, Android: Netrunner and its audience are healthier than ever, and fans have much to which they can look forward. While we are currently plugged into the Lunar Cycle, the next deluxe expansion, Order and Chaos, lies just a short way down the net as do the Data Packs of the upcoming SanSan Cycle. Simultaneously, Android: Netrunner Draft Play continues to thrive, and attendees of the 2014 FFG World Championship Weekend will be among the first to enjoy the game’s third draft pool, System Crash.
Android: Netrunner is already our largest LCG, and its audience continues to grow. Here we see players from the 2014 North American Championships at Gen Con Indy.
Rotation and Android: Netrunner
Our LCG department hosted an LCG State of the Union and addressed those players who arrived early to our World Championship Weekend. In the address, our LCG team acknowledged the category’s growth and its increased importance to Fantasy Flight Games as a key business category. However, in order to ensure that our LCGs continue to grow and remain healthy, we also looked toward the future. We realized that our LCGs would suffer if we were to let them continue to grow unchecked, so we decided to introduce rotation to our competitive card games.
For more about rotation and why we’re introducing it to our LCGs, see the article, “A New Stage of Growth.”
Our new rotation policy dictates that each game’s standard play environment consists of the game’s Core Set, its deluxe expansions, and its five to seven latest cycles of monthly expansion packs.
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Rotation keeps an LCG's card pool at a healthy, manageable level. |
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What does this mean for Android: Netrunner?
It means that you still have a long time to enjoy all the cards in the game’s card pool. At this point, we are still only in the middle of the game’s third expansion cycle, the Lunar Cycle, and even if our scheduled releases meet with no unforeseen delays, we won’t retire the cards from the Genesis and Spin Cycles until the first Data Pack for the game’s eighth cycle arrives in Spring 2017.
Moreover, because all the cards from the game’s Core Set and its deluxe expansions will remain available in standard play, along with all the cards from the Lunar Cycle through the game’s seventh cycle, when the Genesis and Spin Cycles do rotate out of standard play, they’ll represent a small fraction of the entire card pool. At that time, their departure won’t impact long-time veterans too much, but the thinning of the card pool will make the game significantly more attractive to newer players and will help prevent the game from breaking down, easing the potential need for any restrictions or bans of existing cards.
Rotation will eventually become necessary for the continued health of Android: Netrunner, but it’s not coming anytime soon. You’ll have years to enjoy the cards you currently own, as well as those coming down the line, and we believe this is the solution that best ensures you’ll have many more years to enjoy the cyberstruggles of Android: Netrunner!
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