The world of official tabletop adaptations of popular videogames just got a little bigger recently. Developers Funforge have officially partnered up with Ubisoft to develop a Far Cry board game.
In an official press release, Funforge made the announcement. According to it, the game will be a spin-off titled Far Cry Beyond. Aside from a logo and a board release date of 2022, no other information is currently available at this time, but updates will be made available across social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
This does mean we can speculate on what form the Far Cry board game will take given the talent involved. First and foremost is the source material itself. The Far Cry games have mostly been recognized as open-world action titles. They usually involve a protagonist thrown into a hostile environment like the African Savannah, the Himalayan mountains, or small remote islands far away from civilization. Gameplay involves gunfights with bandits or terrorists, hunting wildlife for food and materials used for crafting upgrades, seizing strongholds, and attempting to take down a highly charismatic villain bursting at the seams with raw force of personality. The settings have ranged from grounded and realistic depictions of modern terrorism and civil uprisings to prehistoric eras with early man fighting mammoths with clubs, post-apocalyptic near futures to neon-drenched cheesy 80s action movie homages. As the name implies, nothing is beyond the reach for a board game spin-off in this series.
It must also be noted that publisher Ubisoft is currently undergoing serious lawsuits by the French Union regarding serious allegations of harassment and assault by several members of their executive board, while employees have accused the publisher of avoiding the issues they have raised.
Alternatively, the France-based Funforge's body of work appears to be more laid back. Their biggest and most notable release is the board game Tokaido. It's basically a road trip experience with players traveling across the famous east sea road in Japan, encountering unique experiences along the way. It is a prime example of a board game more about the experience than winners and losers. In addition to multiple physical expansions, there's even a mobile version of Tokaido for iOS and Android devices. Otherwise, Funforge has mostly been involved in localization and distribution of board games including Agricola and Patchwork, as well as video game adaptations like Dark Souls: The Card Game, and Bloodborne: The Board Game in France.
So what can this mean for a Far Cry board game with these creatives behind it? Given their respective bodies of work, it's anyone's guess, and we're interested to hear your ideas in the comments below.
