Star Wars: Starfighter — A New Hope for Star Wars Miniatures Games

As we move past Adepticon 2025 and the official end of support for Star Wars: X-Wing – The Miniatures Game, we find ourselves — for the first time in over a decade — without any kind of space combat miniatures game set in the Star Wars universe.

The genre as a whole is fairly sparse right now. Titles like A Billion Suns, Dropfleet Commander, and Star Trek: Into the Unknown remain niche compared to the popularity X-Wing and Armada once commanded. Even Aeronautica Imperialis has recently been folded into Legions Imperialis, and when a game like Battlefleet Gothic — last released in 2010 and unsupported since 2013 — still garners attention, it’s clear: there’s a gap in the market.

“it’s clear: there’s a gap in the market.”

Then came the news from Star Wars Celebration. Star Wars: Starfighter, a standalone film set five years after The Rise of Skywalker, is set to release in May 2027. Slated to follow The Mandalorian & Grogu film, Starfighter will introduce new characters, new ships, and potentially a new era in the galaxy far, far away.

The upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter film, releasing in 2027, could mark a new chapter in tabletop space combat.

It’s been five years since The Rise of Skywalker hit theatres. The burnout many fans felt is likely fading. And the generation that watched The Force Awakens as kids — who grew up with Disney-era Star Wars — are now entering that coveted 19–24 demographic: old enough for nostalgia, young enough for hype, and, importantly, beginning to have disposable income.

So, could Atomic Mass Games be taking a page from Games Workshop’s playbook — and planning a strategic reset at exactly the right time?

I think so. And here’s why.

Reflections on X-Wing’s Legacy

I owe a lot to Star Wars: X-Wing—the companies behind it, the game itself, and most of all, the community that welcomed me all those years ago.

It’s been a journey I’ve been privileged to be part of; from the lows of just missing top cut at Worlds, to the highs of judging at Adepticon for the past three years.

Hopefully, in my own small way, I’ve helped cement the legacy that X-Wing deserves as one of the standout games of the 2010s.

One of the key pillars of that legacy was its Organized Play.
Fantasy Flight Games truly led the way, standing head and shoulders above the competition—and building what became one of the most successful competitive scenes in tabletop gaming.

Players competing in a Star Wars: X-Wing event — the game’s community was one of its greatest strengths.

I don’t think even Fantasy Flight could have predicted the breakout success they would have when Disney acquired LFL and they got to ride The Force Awakes hype all the way to the bank.  The movie tie in relaunch of the starter box, that broke through the glass ceiling and was stocked in department stores and supermarkets around the world placed them squarely at the top of the pile, being the top selling Miniatures Game Starter Set for Q4 2015 and into 2016, dethroning Warhammer 40,000 and other industry monsters like Warmachine: Prime at the time.

That initial success led to further development. The game rapidly expanded with new ships, additional factions, and deeper dives into Star Wars lore to keep the content fresh and engaging. Over time, we saw the arrival of versions 1.5, 2.0, and eventually 2.5. However, mounting production costs, waning retailer confidence, and a steady decline in sales—compounded by the devastating impact of the global pandemic on X-Wing’s in-person play scene—ultimately forced key business decisions. Like Imperial Assault, Star Wars: Destiny, and Armada before it, X-Wing has now transitioned to a complete game, with its future resting firmly in the hands of the community to support and carry forward.

The Warhammer Parallel: AoS and The Old World

Going through those emotions, I can’t help but be reminded of the late stages of Warhammer Fantasy.  Summer 2015 saw a huge shake up as Games Workshop literally Blew Up the world that was and hit reset with he launch of Warhammer: The Age of Sigmar.

Warhammer 6th, 7th and 8th edition shared something in common with X-Wing, they had a thriving competitive scene.
In fact, competitive scenes like the WTC owe their roots to Warhammer Fantasy Battles with its dedicated competitive community, having been the launch pad of the ETC (European Team Championships) in 2006. 
However, despite a dedicated competitive player base, Warhammer Fantasy Battles struggled to match the commercial success of Warhammer 40,000. A frequently cited anecdote from the time suggests that the entire Fantasy range was outsold by the Space Marine Tactical Squad alone—highlighting the stark disparity in popularity.

While it’s easy to make the business case for the sunsetting of Warhammer Fantasy Battles—and, by extension, the retirement of other game lines like X-Wing and Armada—it remains an emotionally charged topic. At the time, some players literally set their armies on fire, and many felt that Games Workshop was actively distancing itself from the competitive Fantasy community.

Age of Sigmar marked Games Workshop’s bold reboot after retiring Warhammer Fantasy — a move some called “The End Times.”

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar launched in 2015 with no points, no limits—you could bring a single model or an entire collection. The core philosophy was simple: "Bring whatever you like. You and your opponent decide what's fair or fun. Go nuts—this is the Age of Sigmar."

It wasn’t until 2016, with the release of the first General’s Handbook, that the game introduced Matched Play, points values, and structured army composition guidelines.

This approach gave Age of Sigmar the space to develop as its own entity, free from the mechanical baggage of Warhammer Fantasy. Though the two settings were narratively linked, AoS was designed to be a fresh start, not a direct continuation. Over time, it evolved into a highly successful system—and at various points during its lifecycle, it even outshone Warhammer 40,000 in terms of community energy and growth potential. Games Workshop has gone on record in Warhammer TV Q&A sessions saying that AoS was performing “better than expected” and helping the company expand into new markets.

As we moved through 2019, Age of Sigmar had the Soul Wars box and was a year into its second edition, having shown dynamism in moving its IP forwards with an evolving story, and was established with Matched Play rules and a growing emergent scene. 

Then the unthinkable happened, Games Workshop began a teaser campaign on Warhammer Community, offering early glimpses of Warhammer: The Old World. Though advertised as “a long way off,” it signaled a return to a space that had been left vacant by the removal of Warhammer Fantasy Battles—the classic rank-and-flank fantasy wargame.

In the years since, titles like Kings of War, the fan-driven 9th Age ruleset, and A Song of Ice and Fire: The Miniatures Game had stepped in to fill the gap, each finding varying degrees of success. However, none had matched the popularity or presence once held by Warhammer Fantasy, even in its declining years.

Then… nothing happened.

We had to wait until January of 2024 for the launch of Warhammer: The Old World.
Games Workshop let the dust settle on Warhammer Fantasy, gave it long enough for nostalgia to grow, and slowly built hype with their teases.

All the while, Age of Sigmar continued to grow on its own separate path. And now, we have a whole new game—one with roots in something great, but standing proudly on its own.

Could AMG be doing something similar?

The Case for a New Space Combat Game

There is an obvious desire for a game in that Space Combat genre, and a Star Wars: Starfighter tie in could fill that void.

Both technology, and consumer expectations have moved forwards since X-Wing launched in 2013.  Games Workshop, through Aeronautica Imperialis, have shown the roadmap for doing the smaller scale kits for Aircraft and Spaceships, and a studio like Atomic Mass Games, with their focus on IP driven games where you take your favorite characters to tell your own stories could really explore some interesting design space in this new unexplored area of the Star Wars Universe.
Imagine a launch directly tied in to the release of the movie, where we have a narrative driven game that explores aspects of this new era, and then follow it up with Star Wars: Starfighter’s other namesake, a campaign or box tied around the Naboo N-1 Starfighter, and other ships of the Clone Wars Era and you immediately set it apart as something different from what has come before.

The 2001 Star Wars: Starfighter video game introduced fans to high-speed dogfights in the prequel era.

Something with a smaller-scale, and more of a Squadrons feel, think of how Shatterpoint functions with its objective packs and potentially tie that in to an Armada style Corellian Conflict campaign release, where you are having distinct seasons for competitive play, with varied mission packs, and a progressive campaign like they have been hinting at for Star Wars Legion and you could have the bones for something really special.

Designing for the Future

Launching a game like this, built from the ground up with a hobby element and a bespoke rules system, would allow it to acknowledge the great games that came before it, like X-Wing and Armada.

But in the same way Age of Sigmar has roots in Warhammer Fantasy, it would need to stand in its own right as a game.

The Takeaway

Sure, none of this is confirmed, but let's look at what we know:

There is a clear desire for a Space Combat game set in the Star Wars IP, and the wider market has space for such a game.

AMG development timelines match up with the proposed release dated for the Star Wars: Starfighter movie, so now would be the time to be working on the core gameplay elements.

The path to tooling smaller, more detailed aircraft also presents technical and production challenges—particularly if the goal is to maintain the high standards seen in other Atomic Mass Games kits. This is evident in the studio’s move to more intricate, hard plastic sprues for Star Wars: Legion, despite the higher production costs.  That path has been shown by Games Workshop with the move from Resin sculpts from Forge World to the Plastic kits for Aeronautica Imperialis, and now Legions Imperialis.

Movie tie-ins have historically been successful for Star Wars tabletop games. The release of the Force Awakens Core Set for X-Wing is a prime example—when the right product hits shelves at the right price point, and lands in the hands of the right retailers, the potential for growth is sky-high.

Whether this is a calculated move by AMG or just wishful thinking on our part, it’s a conversation worth having — especially as the space combat genre searches for its next flagship game. What would you want from a spiritual successor to X-Wing or Armada?

“Whether this is a calculated move by AMG or just wishful thinking on our part, it’s a conversation worth having”

It’s not much, and it may be wild speculation based on nothing more than hope, but if Star Wars has taught us anything, it’s that hope is a powerful force in the galaxy — and Star Wars: Starfighter gives all of us looking for our next space combat miniatures game A New Hope.