It had to happen eventually: the actual Gencon bankruptcy filing PDF is online for all to see. Wondering why Wizards still hasn’t committed to being at this year’s Gen Con Indy? Well, it might have to do with the debt of just over $431K owed to Hasbro – quite a bit more than Gen Con owes Lucasfilm. That, and Hasbro has a policy of not dealing with companies undergoing bankruptcy. This seems like a list of all creditors, even long outstanding debts. When did Gen Con LLC have time to rack up a $29K bill with the Walt Disney company?
I got a chuckle when I saw they owe the Make A Wish Foundation 140,000. Not good karma there.
Bit of a discrepancy between Lucasfilms claiming that GenCon owe Lucasfilm & Make A Wish over a million. According to the bankruptcy filing, GenCon LLC think they only owe a combined amount of $432,661,45
SJE
Hi,
I was not aware of the Hasbro policy of not dealing with companies in bankruptcy. Where did you find that information? I would be interested to adding it to my original post.
Trask, The Last Tyromancer
Hi Trask,
That was mentioned by several folks I spoke with at GTS a couple weeks ago. Some people in the industry are getting a bit worried that Hasbro’s policy is going to keep Wizards of the Coast from exhibiting at Gen Con Indy this year, as we mentioned in the course of talking with Joseph Goodman from Goodman Games in our recent Audio Report episode.
Bit of a discrepancy between Lucasfilms claiming that GenCon owe Lucasfilm & Make A Wish over a million. According to the bankruptcy filing, GenCon LLC think they only owe a combined amount of $432,661,45
Lucasfilm didn’t claim that. I broke down the actual lawsuit at this post here: http://www.adamjury.com/2008/gen-con-sued-by-lucasfilm-llc/
No wonder I couldn’t find any 4E events on the list.
This seems really ominous. Will WotC have a big presence at Origins this year?
Peace,
-Troy
I would doubt that WotC would have that big of a presence at Origins. Last year they weren’t there at all. I just don’t think Origins is as big a show for them.
I’m just waiting for WotC/Hasbro to start running their own convention.
ME
I’m starting to wonder how much of the WotC’s silence about Gen Con is due to Hasbro’s policies, and how much is the WotC marketing team looking into new venues/alternate approaches. Overall, though, the marketing approach over the past few months hasn’t inspired much confidence.
Origins ’08 pre-reg just opened today, and while I see several D&D4e events being run by the RPGA, I still can’t tell if WotC plans to have a booth in the exhibit hall. Interesting.
Gencon just sent out an email stating that WoTC is back aboard as Co-Sponsor for 2008.
Just as an FYI, I finally got the bankruptcy plan for Gen Con. There is some fun stuff in there about potential sale of the company and how they plan on running the company going forward.
http://www.livingdice.com/index.php/366-Gen-Con-Bankruptcy-Chapter-11-Filing-Released.html
Trask
Well, some friends and I went to Gen Con for the first time this year to film a documentary. We were not sure if we would get the press passes that we requested in time due to them announcing chapter 11 a few weeks before we left to film. The staff came through in a very professional manner and the whole shoot went very well. We are still dealing with the staff and they are operating in the same manner. I believe that this will still be the way that things will be handled after they have figured this whole mess out. To see how our documentary is coming check out http://www.hobocon.com