First, we would like to thank everyone who has been placing orders for Babylon 5 stuff before it is gone. The sheer level of orders has proven to us that the game is much more popular than what the distributors are willing to admit and/or support. We would also like to thank everyone for being patient in waiting to get his or her orders. The sheer volume has been overwhelming and has caused us to fall behind our normal efficient and fast fulfillment. If you have not yet received an order, it is likely simply because we have not gotten to it yet. We’re working six days a week in trying to fill all the orders. In addition, we need to remind everyone that October 31st will be the last day we will be able to accept any orders. We will continue shipping after that date but will not be able to accept any new ones.
Now to move on to the future of Agents of Gaming. We have been getting quite a few inquiries as to the future of the remainder of our product lines. This has been a subject of a lot of debate and discussion among the partners of the company and, in the end, we all agree that the level of sales for Turning Point will not support the company in its current form. As such, there are going to be some sweeping changes but don’t worry, not all is doom and gloom.
First, Agents of Gaming (officially AoG Inc. as the name Agents of Gaming is simply a dba) is going to close its doors effective October 31st. As noted above, the sales of Turning Point simply do not justify the continued operations as things stand. Each of the partners have decided to move on to other ventures though we are all saddened to see the end of an era like this.
Don’t worry if you have an order in with us. We will continue to fill all the orders that we have received at that point and expect it will take another week or so to get the last of them shipped out the door.
Now, before everyone gets depressed there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have put in far too much work in Turning Point, Maxim and some other projects I have been working on in my spare time to just let everything go away. Because of this, I will be forming Eclipse Games in order to continue supporting these excellent game lines.
Eclipse Games will have two distinct sides to it: mail-order only products and general distribution products. As noted already, Turning Point has not been selling well into general distribution. However, the sales on Babylon 5 Wars in the last two weeks have proven that there are many more customers out there than distribution sales reflect. As such, games such as this will be sold strictly via the internet. Book products will be sold either as PDF or E-Books (I’m looking into both options now). Miniatures will be sold in much the same manner we sell them now. I’ll go into more details on this below.
Eclipse will also be putting out some d20 Modern products that will be sold into general distribution including books and modern character miniatures. It will also sell the internet based products into distribution if sufficient interest is generated by the normal distribution chain.
All of my internet sales will be handled via PayPal similar to the way AoG currently handles it. Initially, PDF files will be emailed once payment is confirmed. I am also looking for possible ways to automate this process but have not yet found a method that is economical given the scale of sales I can expect (this won’t make me rich). Miniatures will be handled much the way they are now. Because these products will not be sold in normal distribution and I won’t have the massive printing bills normally associated with printing a book I will be offering these products for less than I would normally have to. While I have not yet finalized costs, expect around a 25% drop in the prices of miniatures across the board. Books will likely run between $8 USD-$15 USD depending on its size and content. Books will be formatted with the fact that they will need to be printed out in mind (they will be printer friendly).
As for the products themselves here is the plan. There are a number of products that I have wanted to do but have not been able to due to the realities of printing costs and keeping products moving at an expedited rate in order to generate new sales. Because of the business model I am looking at, much of this pressure is relieved. As such, I can look at spreading my efforts over a larger spectrum.
The first thing I will be doing is converting FA2 into the new format. We were originally going to reprint this product and offer free replacements. However, as you all may have guessed, the B5 issue and decisions that had to follow forced us to abort this plan. I, however, plan on coming as close as possible to keeping this plan intact. The first step will be to get FA2 reformatted.
The reformat for FA2 will take the following form. First, I am going to split the construction rules off from the main book. In its place, I am going to put what would originally have been the advanced missions. When I finish this process, I will be posting the book as a free download for 30-60 days in order to help compensate both original FA1 players and those who have purchased FA2. This is as close as I can come to the original promise and for that I apologize. From there, the product line will follow much that same format as I have previously discussed.
In addition to FA2, there are several other projects I would like to do. One of the first of these will likely by Maxim 2. I will be doing much the same thing here that I did with FA2, though I don’t expect the changes to be as severe as FA2 had. I will be reducing the scale of the game to that of microarmor (6mm). The rules are going to be set up to handle combat from WW2 forward. In addition to Maxim 2, I want to do a new starship skirmish scale (B5W style) game. This game will not be Babylon 5 Wars 3rd edition but will draw from what we have learned from that product. Which of these two I do first will depend on what you, the fans, want to see first.
Other games I am looking at include the following: A starfighter combat game, a sci-fi miniatures infantry skirmish game, an ‘epic’ Warmaster-style fantasy miniature game. These are, of course, further down the pipeline.
I’ll be discussing this stuff on the forums over the next couple of weeks.
Finally, the forums and webpages for AoG Inc. will be up through the end of November at least and quite possibly longer. I will keep them up until the new web pages are ready for Eclipse games.
In closing, I want to thanks every one of you for your support and hope to continue seeing you in this new endeavor. Everyone of you have provided me invaluable insight, opinions and criticism in the past even if I don’t always agree with you. The partners of AoG Inc. have had a grand time bringing you the games we have.
If you guys would like more details on Eclipse Games please drop me an email. Please note that I am very slow at responding to emails right now though as most of my time is being spent setting up Eclipse, closing AoG and opening up 4G Enterprises. I’ll also be putting up more information on the forums as I solidify the plans.
Thanks to all of you.
I will be checking this thread tonight when I get home and will try to answer any questions that may arise. Once again, thanks to everyone and I hope to see all of you on the Eclipse forums once they get up and running. | 
