Re: WotC buys TSR!

>I posted this to rec.games.miniatures.misc but forgot to post it to the
>list. WOTC has filed a "letter of intent" to purchase TSR. According to
>WOTC, GenCon will NOT be moved from Milwaukee, though TSR could be
moved
>(presumably to the Seattle area where WOTC is based).

A friend, and fellow shareholder in WotC confirmed with me one of the
top
management of WotC came on-line to the shareholder and informed of this
letter of intent, so it appears that this is indeed the gist of things.

>Of interest to this list, GenCon 97 will go on as scheduled and they
are
>planning to send out the accomodation and programme info in May as
>scheduled. They also state that they have no intention of moving GenCon
from
>Milwaukee for the foreseeable future.

I suspect that this marks another turning point in the corporate
strategy at
WotC, but I probably won't be officially informed of any changes as such
until after the Annual shareholders meeting later this month.

>I was most worried about this year's GenCon, but this takes away the
worry.
>A lot of people are worried about what this will do to TSR's games
(Wizards
>of the Coast had the rights to several roleplaying games, chief among
them
>being Ars Magica, but dropped them to concentrate on Magic: The
Gathering).
>It's too early to tell what this will do to their other roleplaying
games,
>their miniatures games, and their boardgames. I find it interesting
that no
>one has so far discussed the fact that WOTC appears--at least on the
>surface--to be less "politically correct" than TSR.
>
>So GenCon 97 is still a go. A number of us are involved in running FT,
SG2,
>and DS2 games at GenCon so we hope to see some of you there.

This will probably be good news for GenCon, as WotC owns (I believe)
Abdon
(spelling?) Unlimited, the organizers/operators of Origins.  It should
be
interesting to see what happens.

If people are interested, I can keep this news group posted on any
information in this matter, as I hear of it (unless they WotC asks us
not to
- but most of this stuff should be a matter of public knowledge).

Kevin Walker
sage@millcomm.com