This may be the end of an era. Star Wars X-Wing, once the hottest growing property in miniature wargames, and the most exciting representation of Star Wars in tabletop gaming, launches its final, officially supported World Championship at the Adepticon gaming convention on Saturday. Fans may carry the torch on in the years to come, but after this weekend, developer Atomic Mass Game is ending all support for the game.
This is something that Star Wars X-Wing fans have long known was coming. AMG announced it was ending development of both Star Wars X-Wing and Star Wars Armada back in June 2024. The firm pledged to support both games with official tournaments and organised play kits for stores until the end of March 2025, and the World Championship hosted at Adepticon.
The World Championship is an invitational open to players who have amassed at least ten event points from earlier tournaments this year, or during two days of heats on Thursday and Friday. The event starts with a five round Swiss tournament on Saturday, with a cut to the top sixteen who will play off in a seeded single elimination event on Sunday to decide the winner.
X-Wing is a rare wargame. Released in 2012, it quickly attracted a hardcore player base and dedicated competitive scene, while achieving mass market appeal to rival the best board games.
The core innovation of the system, adapted from the earlier historical dogfighting game Wings of Glory, was a maneuver programming system that has both players secretly plot out the moves their space fighters will take during the turn, forcing them to second guess their opponent’s actions.
It delivered on the core fantasy of Star Wars space battles perfectly, while creating incredible opportunities for clever competitive gameplay.
While AMG hasn’t expanded on why it discontinued the game, we have to assume it comes down to money. Miniature games require constant expansions to excite existing players and convince new players to jump on board, and over its decade and a bit lifespan the developers released every appropriately sized ship in the Star Wars IP – there was nothing more to add.
There wasn’t even room to release resculpts of existing models, because X-Wing models have always been perfect replicas of their movie counterparts.
Though Sunday will mark the end of officially supported X-Wing tournaments, it may not be the end of the road for the game’s competitive scene. Many miniature wargames have enjoyed long afterlives with thriving fan communities. Blood Bowl went for decades with essentially no support from Games Workshop prior to the release of the 2016 edition, and it maintained a global circuit of leagues and tournaments, including a world championship.
We’ll end this article with a left-field suggestion for dispirited former X-Wing players, particularly ones who have kids, or who like to play big group event games: check out our review of Snap Ships Tactics. It’s like the lovechild of Star Wars X-Wing and a construction toy, it’s even goofier than that sounds, and it’s also kind of brilliant.
Want a new Star Wars tabletop challenge? Check out our guide to the best Star Wars board games.
Source: Wargamer
