I'd hate to see Monpoc bite the dust.
That would be typical, however.

It's definitely hard to tell whether it is saying they'll be repackaging older figures into a non-blind configuration (perhaps with a view to giving the game a fresh kick start) or whether it will have new figures for already established factions.

Either way, it looks interesting. It's a shame I've already got everything a want from the original factions, as this seems like a good way to buy Monpoc.

If it's repacks then this game is dead. What exactly are they doing? I mean seriously. I think the collector set route is 10 times better then their past structure. They obviously made no money with the way the structure was setup with the boosters not being random. We already had collector sets. A case of each get a full set. I mean maybe I'm ranting, but it seems to me that a really good game has been completely laid to rest IMO. I'll still play every once in awhile, which is all we get to play since there's hardly prize support left to speak of, but seriously no new set in this long? Forget it. I mean I will wait and see, and pray these aren't repacks of sets that you could already get full sets of in the past, but man this is sort of frustrating. PP doesn't seem to care much for this game anymore, and it plain sucks.

I tend to agree with Hair10, this totally sounds like repackaging old stock to get rid if it, but making it more accessible to new people as they will now get to just buy what they want. Also the mention of "core set" implies that you will only get figures from RISE, ICNY & AYB, though this makes sense as the NOW block still needs Series 6 to finish it off. And what of Series 6? Are we ever going to actually see it released? The state of the game is troublesome, especially when you see the SW & D&D Mini games fold.

Anyone know what kind of financial shape PP is in?
I don't even know what other games they make.

PP's main line of games are Warmachine and Hordes, compatible skirmish level table-top minis games. They're doing very well with those 2 lines, enough to support a small line of Bodger games (self-contained, somewhat more family oriented games that are still within their Iron Kingdoms IP), and games like Grind and Monpoc. I think they also still make minis for their Iron Kindgoms d20 RPG set, although I don't think they've release any RPG support material since D&D went to 4E.

As for Monpoc being dead, I think nothing could be further from the truth. The 2-player battle boxes have done more to add new players to the game since launch, and I've yet to see a post along these lines:

"I was on the fence about this game, but hearing that it's going non-collectible has turned me away from it."

Quite the opposite, for every poster I see saying they are done with Monpoc and maybe PP as well, I see at least 5 new posters saying they are happy with the new direction and are awaiting their new Monpoc figures they just bought.

So while this change in format means a delay in new figures for existing players, it also means a significant increase in new players coming into the game...so you should have a better opportunity to get more games and events in.

As for prize support, it's as active as it ever was, so far as I can tell. We just had an event this past weekend for a mega that the hard core collectors still didn't have. We have 2 more scheduled for this month, and PP is looking into ways that it can support the players coming in this summer with DMZ.

Significant increase in players? Really? Where? Sorry bro, I love this game, but it's floundering horribly.

not on this forum.
yes on the official forum
yes on the boardgamegeek monpoc forum
not so much on team covenant, but they're plenty active on their own.

TC is having their biggest tournament yet with over 40 people in a online tournament this round and they are doing their 2nd monpoc convention.