In a mailshot today to backers of Mythic Battles: Pantheon, Monolith announced an amicable split from Mythic Games:
Although our collaboration on Mythic Battles: Pantheon was a success, Monolith and Mythic Games jointly decided to bring it to an end.
This conclusion appeared obvious after a common reflection. It has been clear that, for the good of both companies, they must be free to fully commit themselves to their own product ranges, by deciding the entirety of their editorial and commercial policies.
That is why we came to an agreement on Monolith acquiring the rights for the Mythic Battles range (Pantheon, Ragnarök …) in full. From now on, we will take charge of the management of the whole range (development, marketing, communication, after-sales…).
After the success of the Conan board game in 2015, developer Monolith teamed up with Mythic Games to launch Mythic Battles: Pantheon on Kickstarter in late 2016.
The campaign was a great success, with backers pledging almost $2.7M, and unlike many crowdfunded projects, Mythic Battles: Pantheon began shipping on time.
This Kickstarter campaign, launched in late 2017 gained over $2.1M in pledges and caused a considerable stir in the community on the decision to produce the game in 15mm (dubbed “Legendary” scale by the Mythic team) rather than the more common 28mm/30mm standard in miniature tabletop games.
Also causing a stir was the size of some other “miniatures” in the game. Particularly a dragon model with a roughly half-metre wingspan.
Despite this solo venture, it appeared as though both developers would continue to work together on future projects, in particular the next game to follow in the Mythic Battles series: namely Ragnarök. Thus Monolith’s announcement to sever the partnership came as a surprise to many.
The mailshot contained several more announcements in connection with this decision:
- The planning of a reprint campaign for Mythic Battles: Pantheon this spring.
- The launch of the Ragnarök campaign in 2019.
- The immediate welcome of the English and French-speaking community on the website www.the-overlord.net and the publication of a set of free tools and graphic assets for Mythic Battles.
- The addition in the future compendiums (a series of free booklets gathering the best contributions of The Overlord community) of scenarios and articles for Mythic Battles.
- The creation of a FAQ – Monolith have already started to gather the feedback and questions on various forums. A thread has been opened on that matter on www.the-overlord.net.
As a final tantalising taster, Monolith included an image of what looks like a forthcoming miniature for Ragnarök. What’s interesting about this miniature is that it appears to be traditionally sculpted, as opposed to utilising the digital methods so common in miniature game production these days.
This would follow the same route as Mythic Battles: Pantheon where models were both traditionally and digitally sculpted. Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is taking a solely digital path due to the practicalities of maintaining high detail at such a small scale.
Whichever route Monolith decide to take, if this model is anything to go by then Ragnarök should be as visually stunning as both Mythic Battles: Pantheon and Conan.
We wish both Monolith and Mythic Games all the best for their future projects.
Update: Mythic Games Response
Léonidas Vesperini, the familiar face of Mythic Games through both Mythic Battles: Pantheon and Time of Legends: Joan of Arc campaigns, issued this statement to Time of Legends: Joan of Arc backers shortly after Monolith’s announcement:
You may have seen the announcement about Mythic Battles: Pantheon, and the fact that it is now solely owned by Monolith. You may have wondered what this means for Mythic Games as a company, and the Time of Legends: Joan of Arc game you pledged for. The short answer is that it makes very little difference to JoA, and what changes it does make are all good for the project.
What difference it makes for the future of Mythic Battles: Pantheon backers is up to Monolith as that game is now theirs to develop as they see fit. I know as much as you do about their plans. It’ll be intriguing to see what they do with it. For the current fulfilment process there is no change: everyone gets his or her games. The last few copies are being shipped out to backers now, and we really had very little involvement in that process anyway. Monolith have been copied into all the same emails I was and can update you on any new developments in future weeks via the usual update process.
Mythic Games itself is very healthy, and has recently hired some new staff. Benoit and Leo continue to work for Mythic Games, as do I. No change there except that we now have more help. The Ben you see in the comments now is one visible aspect of this.
Joan of Arc continues to wend its merry way through production and we will keep you updated on that progress as always. Nothing has changed for this Kickstarter campaign. Your game is coming.
It’s all good.
