So I causally checked the news page at EN World today, and noticed the story about WOTC not having any events listed for Gen Con. I didn't think this was big deal at first, until I ready WOTC's reason for not submitting any events yet:
Q: Why are there no D&D or Wizards events on the schedule posted for Gen Con at www.gencon.com?A: Wizards had not submitted a schedule of events by the Gen Con deadline. Since we hadn't submitted our own schedule, none of our events are in the official Gen Con schedule at this time.
Q: Will Wizards attend Gen Con in 2008?
A: As you may be aware, Gen Con is currently in chapter 11 bankruptcy. Wizards' plans relative to Gen Con are dependent on the course of proceedings in US bankruptcy court. While we hope to participate in Gen Con, we must await further proceedings in the bankruptcy matter before we are able to confirm our plans.
And you can look for yourself on EN World's page:
Now, what gets me about this is, plenty of businesses recover from being in Chapter 11. Marvel comics was in Chapter 11 at one time, and look at them now (of course that took Joe Quesada selling his soul to Mephistophiles, but that's beside the point).
However, WOTC not officially supporting Gen Con could cause the event to tank. I've seen no indication what so ever that Gen Con wouldn't go off this year, so I'm really perplexed as to why WOTC would potentially create a self fulfilling prophesy by doing this.
I'm trying not to put on the tinfoil hat and say that they already assume that they are the industry, so it wouldn't hurt them if the biggest industry show of the year tanked and kept other publishers from having a venue to show their wares, but honestly, even I don't think this can be their main reasoning.
Has anyone else heard anything about this?
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However, WOTC not officially supporting Gen Con could cause the event to tank. I've seen no indication what so ever that Gen Con wouldn't go off this year, so I'm really perplexed as to why WOTC would potentially create a self fulfilling prophesy by doing this.
I'm trying not to put on the tinfoil hat and say that they already assume that they are the industry, so it wouldn't hurt them if the biggest industry show of the year tanked and kept other publishers from having a venue to show their wares, but honestly, even I don't think this can be their main reasoning.
Has anyone else heard anything about this?
Hasbro own WotC.
WotC publishes D&D.WotC also publishes the current version of the Star Wars RPG, which makes it a licensee of Lucasfilms.
Hasbro is also a licensee of Lucasfilms, producing various Star Wars toys.
George Lucas owns a significant minority stake in Hasbro.
Lucasfilms is suing Gen Con because of issues related to when Gen Con ran Star Wars Celebration a few years ago.
Everything should follow rather directly and reasonably from there.
There is a conspiracy theory element you could add, but I think that is more a case of opportunity knocking than anything planned.