Hello, fellow Star Wars: Destiny fanatics. Today we’ll be tackling quite a different topic than usual. I want to tell you something about the history and state of Star Wars: Destiny in my local area, which also translates to most of my country, Poland. It’s different from US and similar markets, and you may find it to be an interesting read. But first, let’s get some background.
A bit of history
Collectible card games and also Living Card Games (LCG) have a decent following here. Unfortunately, not all of them are popular and selling well. Magic: the Gathering is, of course, the big player, and Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon have decent player bases. In terms of LCG, A Game of Thrones and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest are holding well, but other than that, it never was a profitable market in Poland. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Polish distributor of Fantasy Flight Games products, Galakta, from the beginning invested in translating all the LCGs to our language. It meant additional investment in translation and independent manufacturing. In most cases, as stated by the company president, it just wasn’t sustainable.
And most of the card games slowly died. Those interested in playing them and following current meta had to switch to English-language versions to keep playing with the newest sets. The monthly system of expansion packs just wasn’t suited for Poland’s much smaller and not-that-wealthy player community.
Pre-release hype
Then the Star Wars: Destiny announcement happened. We all got pretty excited, but we also, of course, had our doubts. The CCG model was not something that was expected from Fantasy Flight Games, and many people were disappointed because of it. I myself was not very compelled by the idea, but love for Star Wars and card games won me over, and as soon as my FLGS announced a pre-release event, I signed up. And I saw that many people in my area were also interested. The list of players filled up quickly. Finally, the pre-release happened and we had an opportunity to try the game and talk about it. It was a pleasure to hear many players excited for the game and already trading, thinking about buying boxes, and building decks. This gave me hope for the future of the game here in my local area.
Game hits the market
The next big point was, of course, the final release. Product hit the market and the game got its momentum. My LGS almost immediately started organizing weekly tournaments, and the player base grew healthy. It all looked promising. During this time, I was heavily following fan podcasts and groups about Star Wars: Destiny. The news about product shortage and some stores not getting the product were all over there. This was most unfortunate, and started a discussion about the longevity and the future of the game. The fact that many people in the US couldn’t even get the starters and a few boosters was alarming. Some people brought up the idea that this situation can actually help the game, because of the higher level of hype and anticipation. This may be true, but here I want to show you a perspective of my local area.
The fact is that… here we never had a product shortage! The boosters were always available, the same with starters. Even if some product would be unavailable in physical stores for some time, online they were always in stock, and for good prices. Previously, I mentioned weekly tournaments in my FLGS. The fee to enter is always 1 booster pack per player, from which later we redraft rare cards and dice, and the rest of the pack is for the player. This system always worked well for the guys in the store, they’re also using it for drafts of Magic the Gathering.
With player counts each week between about 12-20 players, it’s a lot of booster packs flying around. And there were never any shortages, as I said. Our local player groups are still growing strong. I think we overshadowed even Magic players there, with a number of tournaments and players just casually hitting the store to roll some dice.
Conclusion
The conclusion for all of my arguments would probably be this: Star Wars: Destiny came out as a really well-fleshed out and fun game, which does many things well and appeals to a lot of players, casual and competitive alike. No matter if you experienced the product shortage or you are able to play and buy packs whenever you like, the game grows stronger and stronger every day and generates much hype. I’m really happy that this is the case and hope it will continue to flourish.
The future of the game seems bright in my area. The latest tournaments in my LGS gathered well over 20 players, and Galakta also finally launched a ranking system in Poland. When registration for the pre-release of Spirit of Rebellion opened, all 32 places in the store were reserved in under 2 hours. Even I didn’t manage to get a place. Fortunately, another store in my city will be hosting the event and I managed to grab a spot there. Super excited to try out the new set.
I hope this is a bit different than the usual article, and was a fun read for you, and that you are also as excited for the future of the game as I am. Happy rolling dice, and may the Force be with you all.
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