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Spartan Closes DOwn

 Post subject: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:28 pm 
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Well ... Sh!t is all I can say.
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There goes my thoughts of an AdMech army now (Covenant of Antarctica walkers). Get anything you need now. Bet Halo boxes are going to go cheap. Sucks for the Dystopian Wars folks that were just getting their KS fulfillment this last week. The main hombre at Spartan, can't remember name, has been away increasingly from the company due to some very serious health issues. I can't help but think that perhaps a turn for the worse has occurred.

Edit: Blog Post (I haven't been able to get it to come up myself)=>http://www.spartangames.co.uk/spartan-games

Edit #2: Those that have read the post indicate the health issue is a main issue. Sounds grim.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:40 pm 
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Quote:
The following statement is issued today, Friday 25th August 2017.
Following a prolonged period of challenging trading and despite the directors’ best efforts to manage through, Rebel Publishing Ltd was unable to continue to trade and the directors have taken the difficult decision to cease. All members of staff were made redundant.
The company, which traded as Spartan Games, is a Somerset, UK based provider of tabletop miniature games which include
Uncharted Seas, a fantasy naval combat game (now retired)
Firestorm Armada, an exciting space combat game featuring highly detailed starship models
Dystopian Legions, a game based in the world of Dystopian Wars using highly detailed 32mm scale figures and vehicles (now retired)
Dystopian Wars– an exciting journey in a Victorian sci-fi world encompassing naval combat, ground warfare and aerial combat.
Spartan Scenics – a range of detailed and easily assembled wargames terrain.
Rebel Publishing Ltd was formed in July 2002 and traded successfully for a number of years. Spartan Games was launched in 2008 and grew rapidly. However, the tabletop games market is challenging and has changed over recent years, and suppliers are predominantly a small number of large well-known names and several small, cottage industry, type businesses.
Initially the business outsourced production but following quality control and production management issues, manufacturing was moved in house between 2009 and 2011. Over this time and since, significant investment was made into machinery and infrastructure. The business also expanded to provide models for a well known video game, moving this into the tabletop games arena. However, significant new development costs, timing issues and the deflection of management time from the core games brands resulted in a significant trading loss for 2015/6. The business was able to continue to trade by raising additional finance and refocusing on core brands, and direct / online trading improved significantly. Results for 2016/17 were significantly improved.
However, despite this it continued to encounter challenging trading conditions and it became clear this month that the company could not continue to service its liabilities, particularly given the burden imposed by the amounts owing to finance companies.
The company was in the process of running a Kickstarter project to raise funds for expansion of one of its successful product lines. This was well supported and positive feedback on the new products was given showing the popularity of the product line and ongoing demand. However, this does not, unfortunately, provide the full range of success and resources needed to sustain the business.
In addition to challenging trading issues, one of the directors has suffered from a long period of poor health which became significantly more serious earlier this year and although now back in the business, requires ongoing treatment. That has inevitably taken a toll on the amount of time available to the business so, along with other challenges, has significantly contributed to this difficult decision.
The directors are extremely saddened by this decision and particularly regret any losses incurred by employees, customers, suppliers or other trading partners. The directors fully committed their time, energy and personal resources to effect a turnaround. Employees will receive redundancy payments through state funds and although efforts have been made to fulfil customer orders, it is hoped that anyone who does not receive their goods will be able to redeem their payments through their credit card or PayPal.
If customers have made a deposit or paid for goods or services by credit or debit card and the goods or services are not going to be received by the due date, they may be able to get their money back by claiming a refund from their card issuer. They should contact their card issuer as soon as possible. Further information including time limits that apply is available from the UK Cards Association: Credit and debit cards: A consumer guide. Similar schemes exist in other countries.
Throughout the years that Spartan Games has traded, it has prided itself on the highest level of product quality and customer satisfaction. This has been delivered consistently and is evidenced though annual customer research that the company has undertaken.
We would encourage anybody who may be interested in acquiring either stock, assets or the business to make contact as soon as possible. Spartan Games and its product lines have a strong reputation in its markets together with an asset base which may be of interest to a number of parties, and a variety of machinery in addition to Intellectual Property.
All enquiries about this matter should be sent to spartangames@mail.com.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:27 pm 
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I'm sorry to hear about that. They always seemed to have a lot of potential in the small-scale games market.


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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:41 pm 
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Wow. I knew it was a bit odd that they seemed to make a game, and then when they moved on to the next one the support and long-term play of the first game seemed to wind down rapidly. However I didn't think they were doing badly. What a shame.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 10:32 pm 
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Hi!

Lamentable.

I understand the hurdles to such a business. Its always sad to see one close.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 11:23 pm 
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I had a hunch things were not going well when I didn't see them at gencon. Didn't think the bottom would fall out this soon though.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 4:35 pm 
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Too bad they made some good products ...

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:35 pm 
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Shame, great models. Ive only ever used the dystopian stuff as proxies, but had just bought the Halo Fleet starter box. Hey ho.


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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 12:09 pm 
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Would there be any interest in proxies for some of their models?

It is indeed a shame to see them go though. :( Sadly enough some will use this as proof that the only way to survive in this market is to copy existing IP's of bigger companies and cater to those fans instead of creating something original.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 2:08 pm 
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Lots of lousy news in the miniature world the end of this month. Tor Gaming, Spartan, and On the Lamb Games all in one week. Its a tough business, I couldn't imagine doing this as my only source of income.

I hope someone picks up the Planetfall stuff, I literally just bought a bunch of Dindrenzi. Now I'm regretting not picking up everything at once.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 8:24 pm 
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malika2 wrote:
Would there be any interest in proxies for some of their models?

It is indeed a shame to see them go though. :( Sadly enough some will use this as proof that the only way to survive in this market is to copy existing IP's of bigger companies and cater to those fans instead of creating something original.

While I hope it isn't true, both Spartan and Tor did both do things in somewhat unique ways. Tor in how its IP and way of playing was very different, and Spartan had a fairly unique scale that not many people used for steampunk/sci-fi before.

I hate to say it, but if spartan was in the 28mm space, it might have done better. I love 6mm, I love companies that do things differently, but it does seem harder for them to succeed.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 8:32 pm 
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thedespot29 wrote:
I hope someone picks up the Planetfall stuff, I literally just bought a bunch of Dindrenzi. Now I'm regretting not picking up everything at once.


A lot of folks (with behind-the-scenes experience/contact at Spartan) have suggested that Planetfall and Halo were two of the three big contributors to the decline (the third being how awful Taskforce turned out to be). There were internal factors too, certainly - very poor health of the Big Cheese™ Neil obviously being a huge one.

Many folks were having a huge downer on the upcoming iteration of the Firestorm rules which may not have encouraged enthusiasm within the company either, but I'm not sure that would've done much to force this unfortunate decision. I'm not hugely surprised, to be honest, but at this point all I can be sad about is to see the games and models go and employees being put through hardship.

@Malika: Yes, a sea wall kit springs immediately to mind!


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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 1:39 am 
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Yeah planetfall was just a terrible idea and even worse execution and let us never forget that aborted inital release and then reboot. [SMDH]

I've been trying to find those uncharted sea walls since they went OOP. About to just hire someone to make them at this point. [hint hint]

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:53 am 
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Skuttlebutt is there's buyer or buyers for some of the IPs. Should hear something soon.

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 Post subject: Re: Spartan Closes DOwn
PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:26 pm 
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I never really followed or understood what planetfall was about. What was so bad about it?

It is good news that there may be buyers for the IP.

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