Catalyst Game Labs Submits Offer for WizKids Properties
Catalyst Game Labs has tendered an offer with The Topps Company, Inc. to acquire various WizKids’ properties, including such dynamic game lines as HeroClix, the Pirates Pocket Model Game, BattleTech/MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. After carefully reviewing options, Catalyst firmly believes that to protect the properties and ensure the best possible continuity for all communities, acquiring all brands will ensure the on going success of these game lines.
Loren Coleman [majority owner of Catalyst Game Labs] recently met in New York with Topps senior management to further explore the acquisition of these properties. “Catalyst has demonstrated our ability to manage large and important intellectual properties, “said Loren. “We will bring the same excitement and care to the HeroClix, Pirates and other WizKids’ brands. We’ve made our initial offer, and look forward to a successful resolution.”
“HeroClix represents the most popular Collectible Miniatures Game on the market, due to its superb Envoy program and a powerful community” said David Stansel-Garner, Operations Manager [himself a former WizKids employee]. “Meanwhile Catalyst Game Labs continues to grow the BattleTech and Shadowrun properties, each with their own vibrant, dedicated communities. While we would be new to the collectible miniatures market, we have proven experience in quickly acquiring the talent and infrastructure needed to produce high quality games. We’ve already begun the process of contacting top industry talent to bring on board should Topps accept Catalyst’s offer.”
Catalyst Game Labs publishes the perennial Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun game lines and co-publishes (with WildFire LLC) the recently launched CthulhuTech RPG. Next year will see the publication of a new RPG line, Eclipse Phase, numerous casual games (such as Paparazzi!, High School Drama and others), as well as the launching of a novel publishing program.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Interesting news. I wonder how familiar your company is with the current HC product and HC fan community. Fans of the game are really interested in insuring its survival.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Very very interesting. And the pieces continue to fall into place. I like Catalyst Games. I would not mind it if you had the WK properties.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I am a diehard Mechwarrior: AoD fan… any chance of that game ever returning from the grave it’s been in for past two years? I’ve still been playing in local tourneys with a few other diehards… we’d all love to see some new product.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Best of luck to Loren and Company in this venture. These are hard financial times to be making this sort of expansion, but I agree that an opportunity like this may be too good to pass up.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hopefully this will go through. Having played all of the games mentioned and being an avid Classic BattleTech fan I must say Catalyst Game Labs would be just the right owner for these games. Tomorrow, I will go out and by a bottle of something expensive to be opened if all goes well. Good luck Catalyst!
November 17th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I would love for this to go through. As the former Level 5 Envoy for Wizkids in Germany, as well as a immense CBT and SR fan, i seriously couldn’t think of a better company to preserve these IPs.
And who knows, in the current financial climate, you might get a good deal that will reward you down the road for being willing to take a risk!
November 17th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I’m very glad to see that CGL is intrested in aquiring Mechwarrior, Shadowrun, Battletech, and some of the other Wizkid Properties. I’m hope it works out. Deal not done yet. Thou I’m mystify if CGL will be able do HeroClixs. CGL has many exWizKids people in the company, however, production of such products like Heroclixs in its original form…will be intresting to see.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
They should just buy the heroclix licenece only, the othe other crap that just stragled like race day and so forth only sank, only heroclix was making money for wizkids.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Well, I am doubting that CGL will get HeroClix, as Pinata Games(created by Jake Theis and some other Former WK employees) is trying for the IP for HeroClix. But, we can hope for the IP rights to The Battletech Universe(would be so nice seeing that sticker on things again!), Shadowrun, and Pirates. We know that they have all worked with one or another of the Bonillas(Loren and Randall were in the credits of the original Crimson Skies with Vic Bonilla, and Vairdic was the MechWarrior Community Manager so, I presume, worked with Kelly Bonilla). Now, if CGL could only get Crimson Skies from MicroSquish….
November 18th, 2008 at 5:25 am
[...] out that another hat was thrown into the ring for picking up the pieces. Catalyst Game Labs has made an offer to Topps to acquire HeroClix, Pirates, BattleTech/MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. Catalyst’s proven track [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Wow, this is good news, I really hope it goes through, and that maybe we can see a new era of mechwarrior and the other stuff
November 18th, 2008 at 5:50 am
wow, this is great news, I hope that it goes through, and that we see a bigger better more badazz version of mechwarrior and the other stuff
November 18th, 2008 at 7:32 am
As a returning Battletech player, I’ve been hugely impressed with the quality of Catalyst’s Classic Battletech products.If you can get the full rights it would be brilliant.
I wish you the very best of luck.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:36 am
If they shoud just buy one game, it should be Mechwarrior, as it’s very close to their own Battletech (and could even provide cheap miniatures for BT).
November 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Thank you Mr.Coleman and Catalyst. If this goes through I will have even more reasons to buy your wonderful product. Its good to see someone actually gives two cents about fans/customers. Many of the other clicks games were not given the full run, and will prove quite sucessful in your able hands.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Please consider Star Wars Pocket Models in your acquisitions and production. There is a very loyal and dedicated fan base at http://swpocketmodels.com that is committed to continuing this game, and there were several expansions on the imminent horizon that we have been eagerly awaiting!
November 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Hopefully something can be worked out. Saving Heroclix would be great. Just make sure all of our (extensive) existing collections will still work :)
* Crosses Fingers *
November 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I’m of the opinion that survival of the game lines – with ANY company – is good news. To hear that MW and CBT might come under one roof and feature more tie-ins and cooperation between the storylines? Icing on the cake.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Mechwarrior: AOD in Catalyst’s hands? Now this seems like a very positive development. They would definitely inherit a lot of grateful fans (and in big numbers too!) if things fall into place properly.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Star Captain Mara, Crimson Skies no longer belongs to Microsoft – it was bought back by Jordan Weisman’s new company Smith & Tinker :)
Can’t wait to see soemthing new in that universe – so much potential…
November 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I’ve been a Battletech fan since the days of FASA with the cardboard folded figures, mech sheets, and the “Unseen”. Over the years I have learned one important thing. Any Mechwarrior license not in the hands of a fan of the Battletech Universe is a waste.
If Catalyst can get that license, considering the number of true fans of the game there are, then gaming will be good once again.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:28 am
Level 2 Envoy checking in from Long Island NY to support Catalyst in it’s bid to acquire Wizkids Games!
November 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hey, I was just wondering how long we should expect before we hear word on weather or not you guys achieved the license? My fingers are crossed I know that heroclix would be in good hands with your company.All the best
Thomas
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
We here in Bakersfield stand firmly behind the idea that Catalyst is the strongest and most capable company to take over the Wizkids properties. We wish them all the best in upcoming negotiations. To that end, we have bought 3 TROs and 14 miniatures, post-announcement. :)
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I hope Catalyst gets WK IPs.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’d sure miss Heroclix if it went away – good luck!
November 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Pinata’s problem is that they are an unknown/new company. Just because you used to work for WK, doesn’t mean you have the financial backing to acquire the WK properties. However, CGL having been around for some time now has an established business and should be more capable of acquiring said properties.
November 30th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I would support Catalyst in acquiring the WK brands as long as they promise to do things differently. Many of the choices WK made over the last 2 years contributed to the downfall of the line. And according to the other company bidding for it, they plan to keep doing things the same as before. So as long as Catalyst would go back to the original setup and let Judges create the tounry formats, then I would support them.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
CGL would do wonders with any of these IPs. We all need to recognize that even if all these IPs are purchased by Catalyst they aren’t going to be able to quickly and efficiently leverage all of them. Just knowing that the games are in good hands will be enough for me though. The potential for Catalyst to grow to support those IPs is also an exciting prospect.
December 5th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I hope Catalyst can aquire WK brands. I would not only miss the Mechwarrior novels, but I have just started to get into the mechwarrior WK game, and was looking forward to meeting other people with the same intrest and playing Mechwarrior. good luck.
December 8th, 2008 at 7:20 am
I’m a Pirate collector from way back, my Mates and I would love to see Catalyst take Pirates in tow.
December 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Former MW envoy checking in here to say that the game is alive and kicking in Alabama, and we’d love to see Catalyst pick up this valuable ball and run with it all the way to the bank! Do you need some play testers???
December 26th, 2008 at 1:44 am
I’ve been playing Pirates since 2006, and I’ve seen all the twists and turns it’s taken since then. hearing about Topps’ closure of ALL WizKids operations shocked me… closing down a good game company during economically hard times almost feels like trying to close down Major League Baseball during the depression… if you succeed, you’re going to take a source of joy out of peoples’ difficult lives, and they don’t need that. People will continue to spend money on enjoyable things, even during hard times. If that means buying less often, so be it (although usually prices eventually drop to match the depreciation elsewhere during ‘hard times’).
I really do hope CGL gets WizKids, even if they then license some of the products out to other companies… Pirates was just getting good!
(I also care about several of the other WizKids lines; I’ve got friends who play HeroClix and others).
December 29th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I’m throwing my pirate hat in with djwesterdale, great game decent fan base shame ta waste it keep up the good work guys (if ya dont want it I’ll take it off yer hands) ;P
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Shout out from outback australia (Broken Hill for the curious) . hoping this goes through we have just recently migrated to clix from d&d minis and really like the game and wanna see it continue!
January 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am
must have mechwarrior
and good luck
March 13th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Good luck, any chance on a Mage Knight revival? There are still lots of us die-hards left.
May 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Has anyone heard anything about a new set thats in the works, word on the streets says it covers asgard and odim, thors father? Is there any truth to this one?
July 1st, 2009 at 11:20 am
My family was very dissapointed with the closing of Wizkids, however we continued playing Heroclix – even with other fans via skype. Now it appears that Topps has closed the only viable web site listing all the characters! What a terrible thing. How expensive could maintaining that site have been?! We were able to research characters and then continue to buy them online.