 Wizkids having Problems?, News... |
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 Jun 19 2006, 06:56 AM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 511 Joined: 19-August 02 Member No.: 3,139  |
From: http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=21450 I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of the Wizkids/Fanpro/Shadowrun corp structure - but what does this mean for the futrue of SR? Any thing? |
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Jun 19 2006, 08:03 AM
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#2
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,711 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,716 |
Sounds like the beginning of the end to me for wizkids in general. More specifically it sounded like they were gonna dump all there *clix games. Which includes Shadworun duels.
"What you mean nobody wants to a buy a stupid 16$+ action model to play table top battles??" |
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Jun 19 2006, 09:39 AM
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#3
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,556 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Member No.: 98 |
What part of "will allow us to focus on our core Brands of Battlestar Galactica, HeroClix, HorrorClix, MechWarrior and Pirates" indicated to you that they planned to dump the 'Clix games? My understanding is that HeroClix was the thing that managed to get WizKids into the "nicely profitable" range. If $16 seems like too much to pay for a model for tabletop battles, I hate to tell you what even the beginnings of a decent Warhammer 40k army goes for, and that's a phenomenally successful game.
The failure to list Shadowrun has me concerned. |
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Jun 19 2006, 11:25 AM
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#4
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Mystery Archaeologist Group: Members Posts: 2,906 Joined: 19-September 05 From: The apple tree Member No.: 7,760 |
Wizkids don't produce Shadowrun, people who know more please correct me if I'm wrong, but Wizkids involvement in SR is only as the holders of the license(rights, Int Prop whatever they have), Fanpro a seperate company licensed to produce it, Wizkid cutting back their range won't affect that at all.
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Jun 19 2006, 01:32 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 595 Joined: 12-May 05 Member No.: 7,392 |
A few things:
1) I'm not sure that I'd call this the beginning of the end for WizKids. They went through a similar re-org a little over two years ago and came out of it okay. It's just something that happens in corps on occasion. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm guaranteeing the health of WizKids--just that I'm not guaranteeing its downfall, either. 2) The news certainly doesn't change anything for Shadowrun Duels. Nothing was going on with that game, and nothing will continue to go on with that game. 3) The corporate re-org affects the RPG side of Shadowrun minimally if at all. Ophis pretty much has that right. 4) The one area of SR that WizKids is directly involved in is the novels--they commission and edit them. As part of this re-org, the editor at WizKids who handles their novels (both MechWarrior and Shadowrun) was laid off. I'm not sure what this means for the future of the novels at this moment. I'm almost positive the remaining two novels in the original contract will come out, but future novels now have a more iffy status. I'll let people here know anything as I find anything out. Jason H. |
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Jun 19 2006, 05:52 PM
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#6
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Grand Master of Run-Fu Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,840 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Tir Tairngire Member No.: 178 |
Sort of. Wizkids (more specifically, Jordan Wiseman) owns the Shadowrun RPG rights. They've licensed the rights to publish the RPG to Fanpro, but they kept the miniatures and CCG rights to themselves (even though Duels didn't really do very well). The video game rights are held by FASA interactive, which was bought out by Microsoft sometime in the 90's. What might afftect the Fanpro license is that Wizkids has now contracted with Great White Games/Pinnacle to produce a RPG version of Pirates and Battletech. Since Wizkids also owns the rights to Battletech, which is licensed to Fanpro, this makes things look bad for a rerelease of Mechwarrior. Pinnacle produces the spectacularily popular Savage Worlds game system, and the upcoming Pirates RPG will be running with that system. If they do exceptionally well, Fanpro's continued holding of the Shadowrun license could be jeopardized, and then we'd see an official Savage Shadowrun version on the market. |
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Jun 19 2006, 06:07 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 511 Joined: 19-August 02 Member No.: 3,139 |
Thanks guys.
Any other feedback form 'Those in the know' would be appreciated. |
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Jun 19 2006, 06:18 PM
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#8
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Spectacularly popular in the sense that I've never seen it mentioned anywhere but dumpshock, and usually by Cain. :) I'm not saying it isn't a great game. I've never even seen it on a shelf, so I'm the last one to ask about it. I've just gotten the impression that Cain has some sort of hardon for the game, so you may want to take his statements about it with a grain of salt. |
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Jun 19 2006, 06:57 PM
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#9
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,174 Joined: 13-May 04 From: UCAS Member No.: 6,327 |
Savage Worlds isn't too bad, I play it and there's quite a few folks I know that do use this system.
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Jun 19 2006, 07:04 PM
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#10
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
I'm not saying it isn't well known, just that it probably isn't as "spectacularly popular" as Cain likes to believe. He has frequently shown an ability to confuse his own opinion with Truth, so when I see statements as dubious as that one coming from him I feel obliged to speak up.
That and I like giving him crap. ;) |
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Jun 19 2006, 07:29 PM
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#11
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,479 Joined: 6-May 05 From: Idaho Member No.: 7,377 |
I thought that was the whole point of dumpshock :) |
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Jun 19 2006, 07:35 PM
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#12
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Nah, just most of it. Some small portion of the populace likes to actually discuss things with the openmindedness necessary to change views if they're wrong. :)
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Jun 19 2006, 07:50 PM
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#13
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panda! Group: Members Posts: 10,331 Joined: 8-March 02 From: north of central europe Member No.: 2,242 |
hmm, savage shadowrun. whatever...
seems to me that the only "special" thing about that system is that there are only 2-3 conditions for a combatant. and what keeps the characters standing is some kind of "edge" that allow them for some time to avoid getting those conditions if needed. i see nothing special about it as its mostly the same that i have seen from feng shui, or could basicly add anywhere by applying a saving trow or whatever for the non-important npcs. they fail they fall, out of the game. and unless specificed by the oponent, not dead... |
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Jun 19 2006, 08:11 PM
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#14
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,174 Joined: 13-May 04 From: UCAS Member No.: 6,327 |
fair 'nough :smile: |
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Jun 19 2006, 08:25 PM
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#15
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,008 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
There really isn't anything special about Savage Worlds. It follows the old path of not doing anything spectacularly badly (well, ok, a number of things, especially deviation on thrown items, but nothing too huge) by not doing anything particularly well.
It is, in my experience, not that far from the ultimate beer-and-pretzels game, though. ~J |
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Jun 19 2006, 09:20 PM
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#16
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,635 Joined: 27-November 05 Member No.: 8,006 |
For that to be a possibility it would depend heavily on what the current licensing conditions were. Given that Shadowrun 4 is just out a year and selling well itself, and with a number of products near release, yanking the rights from Fanpro or allowing a duplicate product to be produced by someone else might not only be difficult, but also I'd suggest outlandishly foolish. Of course sillier things have happened, but that senario would have to be quite a longshot right now. |
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Jun 19 2006, 09:29 PM
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#17
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Better than Nuclear War (the card game, not the actual thing ;) )? |
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Jun 19 2006, 10:37 PM
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#18
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,314 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Lisbon, Cidade do Pecado Member No.: 185 |
No worries there, at last notice Wizkids was apparently pleased with Shadowrun's results and FanPro's license... but then again knowing the whole story behind Pinnacle's Mechwarrior, the Dark Ages license (and knowing that an RPG isn't currently on the docket, but rather scenario packs for Wizkid's clicky collectible miniatures game) would have put things in perspective anyway. |
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Jun 19 2006, 10:43 PM
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#19
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Target Group: Members Posts: 49 Joined: 18-June 06 Member No.: 8,734 |
Why is Pinnicle getting a licence for a BattleTech PRG when FanPro already makes the Classic BattleTech PRG?
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Jun 19 2006, 11:22 PM
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#20
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
What's a PRG?
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Jun 19 2006, 11:27 PM
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#21
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Target Group: Members Posts: 49 Joined: 18-June 06 Member No.: 8,734 |
A typo for RPG.
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Jun 19 2006, 11:40 PM
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#22
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Ah, I thought so, but since it happened twice I wasn't sure.
In that case the answer is "so Cain can dance a jig until he finds out they're not using the Savage World rules." ;) |
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Jun 20 2006, 12:05 AM
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#23
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,008 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
I should qualify: beer-and-pretzels role-playing game. Few things can compare to Nuclear War (the card game or the real thing). ~J |
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Jun 20 2006, 04:45 AM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 595 Joined: 12-May 05 Member No.: 7,392 |
Quick update on SR novels--Roc apparently is not interested in publishing more, so with their disinterest and the loss of WizKids' editor, the prospect for future novels (beyond the two more scheduled to come out) is not good.
Jason H. |
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Jun 20 2006, 06:32 AM
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#25
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Shooting Target Group: Validating Posts: 1,618 Joined: 29-January 03 From: Montevideo, Uruguay. Member No.: 3,992 |
Different lines, I guess. MW Dark Ages isn't the same as Classic BT. |
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