WotC buys TSR!

Hi there --

Check it out! WotC is buying TSR!

-- Rick

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http://www.wizards.com/About_Wizards/Press_Releases/WotC/WizardsTSR.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Steven Kam Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
(206) 204-7695

> At 06:51 PM 4/11/97 -0400, you wrote:

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).

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 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.

> I posted this to rec.games.miniatures.misc but forgot to post it to the

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

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

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).