Board game publisher Avalon Hill has announced that the crowdfunding campaign for HeroScape: Age of Annihilation has failed to meet its target. A Hasbro Pulse blog post from November 16 says “we are short of the goal needed to start production on this wonderful game”. According to Avalon Hill, the series reboot “will be shelved, and there are no current plans to attempt a resurrection at this time”.
The revival of the 2004 modular miniatures game was announced at Gen Con in August, and its Hasbro Pulse crowdfunder ran from October 1 to November 15. Avalon Hill needed 8,000 fans to back the $250 Vanguard Edition of the game, meaning it hoped to raise around $2 million before production began. Age of Annihilation got just over halfway to its goal with 4,353 backers.
“No doubt you are disappointed in the results,” Avalon Hill says. “We are too. The anticipation for this project among the Avalon Hill staff was great – we spent months preparing for the campaign, and once launched we worked hard to gain the support of every single backer who pledged.”
The blog post offers a thank you to supporters of the game. “Your involvement in this project was incredible, and we feel lucky to have found such an amazing community of folks who all share the love of this unique and thrilling skirmish battle game”, it says. “The passion we felt from you was truly an inspiration that kept pushing us to improve the campaign as best we could.”
Chris Nadeau, Avalon Hill’s head of design and development, told Wargamer in early November that the HeroScape reboot had plenty of potential for board game expansions. However, he also warned ahead of time that the game would go “back in the vault” if it missed its crowdfunding target.
“What we did take away from this campaign was a great deal of learning”, says Avalon Hill. “And for that, we have you to thank. We hope you remain as passionate, as devoted, and as vocal with all our future endeavours so that we create to the best of our abilities the games you love.”
Read the full Avalon Hill statement in the Hasbro Pulse blog post.
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