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Announcement

The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines.

Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.”

Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.

For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.

wow, everything is closing and going out of business.

maybe now I can get some zombie figs cheap! as we all know not too many people hold on to stuff for a game that isnt supported any more. To bad, over all the figs were not bad and had tons of uses. Sign of the times I guess

if its happening now, It more likely a sign of very bad times over a long period.

The current market troubles likely has little to do with it.

Wizkids fans have been fearing this day ever since Topps bought Wizkids. It's been an expected move.

As with any of these things, the models and rules will still work once the company has gone. There just won't be any new series.

Rush out now and buy up all you can find of the ones you want.

Huh... I haven't followed Wizkids since the first few expansions of Mech Warrior, but I gave them alot of money back in the day... The original Mage Knight is what got me into miniature wargaming. I've got alot of models from that era.

that sucks.. hopefully some other company will pick them up or maybe they can get going on their own or something like that

always a sad day when any gaming store/company closes.

So heroclix is to be continued by the looks of it along with some other viable games.

I'd imagine that the only thing that would change for those is the company logo on the pack.

Marvel heroclix was the only one I got into, and only the first release at that.

Related to this is an announcement from Catalyst Game Labs that states the Wizkidz closing should have no effect upon the ClassicBattleTech line, despite Wizkidz owning the lisence.

BYE

That sucks. I enjoyed Pirates.

I'm sure this is either Games Workshop's fault, If you were trying to make a political joke, you didn't indicate it. Keep all political discussion to the OT Forum. And keep it classy, Hobbs. - Iorek

I only got into Heroclix for the minis. The rules just aren't my cup of tea.

Sucks to be them, but I don't think I'll miss them much

They took active steps to destroy the "speculator" market (reissuing rare/exclusive items so they become common) while designing the games to be "collectable" at the same time. o.O Then they put "dossiers" into the package that allows people to identify the "rare" items and the rest sit unbought on the shelves with crushed packaging. They so loved the dossiers that rather than remove them, they redesigned the packaging, and put blanks in some (but not all) packages, all of which cost more money than the simple solution and in the end didn't really solve the problem.

Then there's the fact that bad game balance and scenario design made it hard to justify continued purchases. Seriously, if you think GW rules + faq implementation are bad, let me tell you they never reached the FUBAR that Mechwarrior did.

They way they ran their properties into the ground, the only suprise is that it took this long for them to go belly up.

its sad to see them go, but normal after a buyout

fact is, topps will continue to produce brands that have positive cashflow, or liscences that have profit potential

NaZ

JohnHwangDD wrote:That sucks. I enjoyed Pirates.

Unfortunately the operative word there is "enjoyed"...

Yeah I really wished that it would continue...it was eventually going to happen, but it just seems so sudden.

Knock them as much as you want but they really introduced me to miniature gaming and things of that sort.

Probably only Heroclix will continue, and it will be mauled.

Hopefully the abomination that is clickie-tech goes away.

I wonder if they'll made Dark Age non-canon and avoid going their with the CBT storyline. Granted, it's only 3076 in CBT, so we're a long way from 3130, but it'll be interesting to see what they decided to change.

BYE

H.B.M.C. wrote:Related to this is an announcement from Catalyst Game Labs that states the Wizkidz closing should have no effect upon the ClassicBattleTech line, despite Wizkidz owning the lisence.

BYE

That's a relief. I mean, not that I actually PLAY Battletech, but it's comforting to see it on the shelf at the gaming store.

I think Wizards really getting into the prepainted minis business killed them. They didn't have the same market that GW, Privateer and the other hobby game companies command so they had to go mono a mono with Wizards of the Coast which is like a bound and gagged Clanrat Slave going up against Archaon mounted on a Warlord Titan.

Eldramesha wrote:which is like a bound and gagged Clanrat Slave going up against Archaon mounted on a Warlord Titan.

the image of this had me laughing for several minutes. kudos

Haloclix! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Game was too easy anyway. An all-Elites group led by the Arbiter whipped Spartan teams real good. And if you could whip Spartan teams, you could whip anything.

Eldramesha wrote:I think Wizards really getting into the prepainted minis business killed them.

I don't think it did.

Mageknight, Mechwarrior and Heroclix were all huge... for a time.

What killed them was (in my opinion, which is completely lacking in any actual factual data) keeping those three titles going well past the time they should have been put out to pasture instead of developing the next big thing.

Collectible games generally have a limited life. As good as a game may be, sooner or later people just lose interest.

Eldramesha wrote:I think Wizards really getting into the prepainted minis business killed them. They didn't have the same market that GW, Privateer and the other hobby game companies command so they had to go mono a mono with Wizards of the Coast which is like a bound and gagged Clanrat Slave going up against Archaon mounted on a Warlord Titan.

If it is possible, try and dig up some Wizkids articles prior to the release of Star Wars Minis. Mechwarrior was referred to as the #1 Sci-Fi Collectible Minatures game. This fact was true because for awhile it was the only sci-fi collectible miniatures game....

Breotan wrote:They took active steps to destroy the "speculator" market (reissuing rare/exclusive items so they become common) while designing the games to be "collectable" at the same time. o.O Then they put "dossiers" into the package that allows people to identify the "rare" items and the rest sit unbought on the shelves with crushed packaging. They so loved the dossiers that rather than remove them, they redesigned the packaging, and put blanks in some (but not all) packages, all of which cost more money than the simple solution and in the end didn't really solve the problem.

Then there's the fact that bad game balance and scenario design made it hard to justify continued purchases. Seriously, if you think GW rules + faq implementation are bad, let me tell you they never reached the FUBAR that Mechwarrior did.

They way they ran their properties into the ground, the only suprise is that it took this long for them to go belly up.

Sadly I must agree sir. A lot of bad business practices exacerbated their problems.

It is sad for me to see them go though. It's what got me started gaming. I still remember my first starter set of MageKnight. Some people in my family still think that is what I go play.

The only clix I have left is my Elite Centurion from the original set, and that's only because I loved the Centurion from CBT.

It won't impact me much, but I'm sad for the clix fans.

Valhallan42nd wrote:The only clix I have left is my Elite Centurion from the original set, and that's only because I loved the Centurion from CBT.

It won't impact me much, but I'm sad for the clix fans.

HCRealms is split down the middle, chomping at each other throats over people who think the game is screwed and they should all jump ship to another game(Monsterpocalypse and WoW being the discussed options) vs diehards who want to collectively purchase the license from Topps(despite having no idea the actual running cost the game needed) and produce it themselves, with the poor, hopeful people who just want to know if they'll get the set that was in production(Hammer of Thor) when Wizkids shut down released as a last hurrah or those who have no idea what's going on caught in the middle.

NNNOOOOO!!! My only way of getting superhero miniatures now gone, what will I do?

Looks like it's someone's big chance to pickup a license for cheap and run with it.

Who wants to start a gaming company?