There's a new print edition of Cosmic Encounter on the event horizon. According to Peter Olotka, Cosmic Encounter designer at Future Pastimes, a new edition of the game will be released by Fantasy Flight Games in Summer 2008.

"Fantasy Flight Games has a stellar reputation for quality production, exciting properties and a dedicated following of sophisticated gamers", said Olotka. "Their system of global mer! chandising and localization with multi-language editions is perfect for Cosmic Encounter's worldwide audience."

Fantasy Flight contracts for production runs in many of these languages: German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Scandinavian (Dk, Se, Nw), Korean, Japanese, Chinese (various dialects), Dutch, Russian, Czech, Croatian and Hungarian.

Early discussions between Future Pastimes and Fantasy Flight ! Games have produced some intriguing possibilities for the! new Cosmic Encounter. The new board game will include some aliens from Cosmic Online which have never been in any printed version.

Every effort will be made to also include aliens and other game ideas submitted by players according to Olotka. Fans can add their ideas and wishes for the new Cosmic to the Cosmic Encounter Online forum thread Fantasy Flight Cosmic Board Game Wish List at http://forum.cosmicencounter.com/. Details will be found on the Fantasy Flight and Cosmic Encounter Online websites as development progresses.

I played the Avalon Hill edition of Cosmic Encounter at GenCon 2002, and meant to pick up a copy of the game then. I've played a few rounds of the online game since then, but it's just not the same experience as sitting around the gaming table with my friends. I'm looking forward to this new edition and it'll likely make my play list at GenCon 2008 (and possibly my "buy" list as well.