Catalyst Game Labs and Piñata Games Form Strategic Alliance
LAKE STEVENS, Wash., December 15 – Catalyst Game Labs, LLC, and Pinata Games have announced that they will form a strategic alliance contingent on the Catalyst group’s purchase of the currently dormant WizKids properties.
“By combining our efforts, we can deliver high-quality products that will satisfy retailers, fans and licensors alike,” said Loren Coleman, majority Catalyst owner. “As successful licensors of Shadowrun and BattleTech, [Catalyst] understands the essence of those brands and will continue to produce high-quality products for them.”
“The Pinata team brings a different, unique skill set to the table, having worked extensively on all of WizKids’ brands over the last two years. With our efforts combined, we have a wide range of hobby business expertise that covers the gamut of licensed-and-non-licensed properties across a wide spectrum of formats- RPGs, TCGs, CMGs, and more.”
Should Catalyst purchase WizKids’ properties from The Topps Company, Pinata will begin as operator for the HeroClix brand immediately.
“After a few short conversations with Catalyst, it was apparent that a strategic alliance would benefit all parties involved,” said Jake Theis, Pinata Games’ CSO. “We believe that this relationship will allow us to restart the HeroClix business quickly. I saw that HeroClix returned to the top of the ICV2 Hobby Fall CMG sales list, and I know that with the economy in its current state, retailers don’t want any delays getting the business back up and running.”
The proposed alliance between the two companies would allow for Pinata and Catalyst to release new games both together and independently.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
[...] Catalyst Games Labs e a recém-fundada Piñata Games anúnciaram uma “união estratégica” hoje pela compra dos direitos dos produtos da falecida W!zKids, como o disputadissímo [...]
December 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Thank you guys! This seriously sounds like the best solution for fans of all brands. It’s what I was secretly hoping for, but didn’t expect to happen ;)
December 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Great news!
/dream
Now, could we somehow see plastic prepainted Classic Battletech figs?
/dream
Anyway, I wish you luck.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
As a long time fan of HeroClix, I am thrilled to hear this news. I hope you [Catalyst] can get everything hammered out with Topps!
December 15th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Personally I was never a big Heroclix fan though I did know a few. Always was a Mechwarrior fan myself. Here’s to hoping that the deal happens though. I’d love for the chance to see mechs on an tournament table again. Not to mention the chance for someone to make the game much easier for people to approach.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Excellent. These are the news items that make my day. :)
December 16th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Very happy to hear this. Definitely cool.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I second Jim’s notion and hope that a better Shadowrun Clicks variant can be produced instead of 12″ dolls.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Hmmm, I would not mind helping on a rules rewrite of the Mechwarrior clicks game. I never liked the nerfing of artillery and the points to action ratio really does not allow for true combined arms actions. :)
December 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Sounds like great news - the best of both worlds.
December 16th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
That’s a great new, but, what is the opinion of Topps about this? The adquisition of WizKids by CGL is a fact or it’s only a wish that can become real?
December 16th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Pirates?
December 17th, 2008 at 10:52 am
It is not a fact yet Miguel, but so fat Catalyst and Pinata were the only two companies to publically step forward and make an offer. So with both of them joining forces, it might be a case that this is Topp’s only chance to sell these rights at this time. And it seems that they are indeed interested in doing that…
December 19th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Wishing we can hear news on this soon. This limbo state for our games is frustrating.
December 20th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Hmm, agreed Jon dolls were strange. Maybe figures in scale with the Heroclix line would have been able to have some lasting appeal.
I don’t remember them nerfing MW artillery though, I had to stop playing after the 2005 GenCon, which was fun. The rules I remember then seemed just fine to me. Though they could use rewrites so that English speaking players can understand some of them without debates. I did come up with rules for offboard artillery and aerospace fighter support options.
Biggest thing I would have considered changing was how they were sold though. Things like a bigger starter set more like the Battletech set. I hated how gear was marketed so much, why should I have to hunt for a several year old booster to get the chance of finding medium mech armor piercing? SEC based gear should have been in the starter. Other gear and cards maybe in stand alone packs or sets…I rarely got to many of any specific mech, but I was able to get hoards of gear/pilot/everything else duplicates.
I can only imagine the other lines suffered similar problems.
Great ideas, but implementation was lacking.
December 24th, 2008 at 11:38 am
So psyched to hear that the two groups I’ve heard contending for the WizKids bards are now working together. Thanks for keeping us informed.
December 26th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Bravo!
For the sake of Pirates and other fun WizKids products that often suffered poor advertising or weren’t as fun as they ‘could’ be, I really hope this all goes through!
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’ve never played Shadow Run and never bought the “dolls”, but a game that was on the same scale and at least roughly compatible with Heroclix might entice me.