HeroClix Maker WhizKids Shut Down

[DoctorFinger]

The Topps Company is shutting down it's WhizKids subsidiary, effective immediately. WhizKids is best know for the HeroClix game line.

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.
So they'll continue the HeroClix line, but no one knows exactly how.

Source - Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/games/081110-WizkidsClosed.html).

[Widgetcraft]

Major suckage :( They made a quality product. They just had a hard time keeping things interesting over time, especially with so many lines which were (IMO) mostly identical besides the figs. I think Mage Knight and that children's horror-themed game were the only original IPs they had, but they had a ton of other stuff too: Crimson Skies, Mech Warrior, Shadowrun, Marvel, DC and various indy comic properties.

[J Arcane]

To be honest, the only thing I cared about WizKids for was their peripheral licenses to other companies, Battletech/Earthdawn/etc. As long as those deals remain in place with the parent company, and Topps doesn't pull the usual coproate dick move and try to jack up the license fees past what an RPG/hobby company can afford, I can't see this affecting me any.

I disliked the clix system, and felt suckered into buying Mechwarrior: Dark Age. It was a joke, and I can't say as I'll miss any of it.

[cppcrusader]

You know, I never realized WizKids was owned by Topps. I always assumed it was a division of Wizards of the Coast.

I wonder if my prerelease Batman could be worth some money now.

[phoenyx]

Crap, That means Pirates CSG (http://www.wizkidsgames.com/PIRATES/) as well. I hope this means that WizKids just needs to get sold to another company that will pay attention to them.

[Press Ninja]

I hope that doesn't mean that Games Workshop will be doing the same, soon.

[Evewalker]

This has been a long time coming. While Wizkids did put out some products worth a damn, they have been flooding the market for years with a lot of "release and forget" lines. Around this time last year a lot of their organized play people started to get the inside word that things might be looking grim if the HaloClix game didn't take off.

It didn't.

[Murtaug]

I hope that doesn't mean that Games Workshop will be doing the same, soon.

Closing down, or moving to a clix style system?

I highly doubt either, in any case. And I really do not think they would move to a clix system when their game deals with a lot of measurement and such. Plus they just released 5th edition rules for 40k, they would just be shooting themselves in the foot.

[Telefrog]

HeroClix was great when it started out, but it fell prey to the same things all these "collectible" games screw up after a while. Too many expansions too quickly. Too many new rules. (The original simplicity of Clix was that most of the rules should be on the bases.) The figures in the new expansions were, for the most part, variations on the original figures. (How many Batman figures do you need?) Worthwhile figures were either too rare or errata'd out of the game. Finally, the game was just too expensive to keep up with.

Unlike card games, HeroClix were expensive right from the start, so that was a disadvantage. I collected a full set of Hypertime, Cosmic Justice, Infinity Challenge, and part of Clobberin' Time, but I stopped after that. The kids love them and those early sets are simple enough for them to play with.

Playing HeroClix always made me sad that Freedom Force and its sequel didn't do better.

[J Arcane]

I hope that doesn't mean that Games Workshop will be doing the same, soon.
I don't see what that has to do with anything. GW isn't owned by anyone but themselves, why would they be affected by this at all?

[danielOut]

I rewrote the press release.

WizKids, the people who absolutely butchered many long-standing, much loved franchises like Crimson Skies, Mech Warrior, and Shadowrun, will be closing their doors. This, thankfully, will take effect immediately. Long-time BattleTech fans will no longer have to tolerate that Dark Age garbage they were releasing, and hopefully Topps can find a buyer that will actually develop the line in a good direction for a change.

[J Arcane]

I rewrote the press release.
You do realize they contracted out the originals of all those games and allowed them to continue in their previous form, right?

[Fubl]

mech.....CBT and Srun licenses are currently held on contract to Catalyst games lab. Unfortnatly Crimson skies is owned by microsoft completly.

[PathMaster]

I prefer Heroscape personally.

[Karak]

I prefer Heroscape personally.

Without a doubt

[Fubl]

Currently two companies in the running for the IPs: Catalyst games lab and Some other. Hopefully CGL will pull it out no matter what they will be able to still do the CBT and Srun rpg line for the next year and a half no matter who wins.

[KSmitty]

I got heavy into Heroclix when I first found out about it. Its actually how I discovered more of the DC universe than Batman and the Justice League. The game was done for me after they started the Retirement Rules. Sold off all my figures except for a handful for keepsake purposes.

[Lekon]

I got heavy into Heroclix when I first found out about it. Its actually how I discovered more of the DC universe than Batman and the Justice League. The game was done for me after they started the Retirement Rules. Sold off all my figures except for a handful for keepsake purposes.

I've only played a bit of Heroclix, what is this Retirement rule?

[J Arcane]

I've only played a bit of Heroclix, what is this Retirement rule?
If I'm understanding the tourney rules correctly, sets older than a given time period are automatically retired, presumably making them invalid for tourney play.

IOW, they made it so you have to keep buying new shit if you want to do tournaments.

Par for the course for collectible games really, but no less a dick move.

[rifter]

You know, I used to be one of their early Organized Play people, and loved it... then they started to slow down, and kind of cheese out their line. I remember the first Organized Play Mage Knight tournaments. (Hell, I still have them, somewhere) :-) It was a lot of fun to put on the events. I remember the owner of the game store telling me that WK basically was printing money. :-)

My favorite game they came out with, was Mage Knight Dungeons. AWESOME rules, and a lot of fun. If they had painted on a 1"x1" grid on top of their 2"x2" grid in their Dungeon line (the ones you can build dungeons out of), they would have made a MINT from D&D players. I never could understand why they didn't ever do that.

I really liked Crimson Skies, as well. That was a neat system. I kind of want to get Wings of War, since it reminds me of the system.

Remember, the guy behind Crimson Skies, Mechwarrior, and maybe Shadowrun, was also the founder of Wizkidz... before they were bought out. He created Mage Knight as a "cheap" alternative to Warhammer Fantasy that was also easy to play. (his kids had tried to play WH, and had a hard time learning the rules).

It is kind of sad to see this happen. Topps, I think, totally screwed them over. They saw a company ripe for the plucking, and did just that, then never really supported them well. It seems that Hasbro has done that to Wizards of the Coast, as well.

[KSmitty]

If I'm understanding the tourney rules correctly, sets older than a given time period are automatically retired, presumably making them invalid for tourney play.

IOW, they made it so you have to keep buying new shit if you want to do tournaments.

Par for the course for collectible games really, but no less a dick move.

Yeah that is the gist of it, the funny thing was except for one or two figures rule changes and new figure sets made the old pieces obsolete. So there was really no need to retire figure sets. This was a big issue for me as I usually ran theme teams and used figures from all the sets.