The story. The deal hasn’t been approved by Cranium’s shareholders yet, and apparently the $77 mil “would be used to cover Cranium’s outstanding debt and to pay its shareholders.” Those shareholders are venture capitalists, including a firm co-founded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz – recall the famous story of one
Author: Mike Sugarbaker
Amber & Palladium TMNT designer Erick Wujcik terminally ill
It was announced yesterday that Erick Wujcik, designer of the classic RPG adaptation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness and the seminal Amber Diceless RPG, is rapidly dying of pancreatic cancer. Palladium publisher Kevin Siembieda has started a website to “give the millions of people who have loved the
Weisman gets new gig infiltrating physical world with old-timey modern-fantasy mecha
“Jordan Weisman, founder of FASA, has licensed the rights to MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies from Microsoft to his latest startup, Smith & Tinker.” S&T apparently aims to draw on the lessons of ARGs, the medium Weisman helped pioneer at his company 42 Entertainment, and carry them into the realm
Something of WotC’s probably headed for Xbox Live Arcade, who knows what
“Wizards of the Coast […] today announced an agreement with leading UK video game developer Stainless Games to produce an exciting new online downloadable game.” Doesn’t “leading” usually mean that you don’t do your development work under some other company‘s name? Still, though, the Xbox Live versions of Asteroids and
D&D senior brand manager confirms: no D20 License for D&D 4
This news is a few days old, but as OC’s Senior Licensing Analyst (I will kidneypunch anyone who takes that seriously), I should weigh in. D&D brand manager Scott Rouse has confirmed at ENworld that the D20 System phenomenon as we know it (by which I mean the D20 System
GAMES 100, give or take a few – Pillars of the Earth is Game of the Year
It’s that time of year again – GAMES Magazine has announced their top game picks for 2007, and the GotY winner is a nerdy-but-not-too strategy board game. No shockers here, except that GAMES now actually has a website that’s not completely useless. However, Funagain seems again to be the only
Top 6 inches of Gleemax alpha front page look really great
Gleemax has opened to the public in an alpha version. “Alpha” is how web developers say “Mike, you really shouldn’t complain about how things look right now.” And, well, okay. If they hadn’t already done an enormous marketing push, it’d be no problem that they’re letting the general public see
Audio Report: Xcrawl Fiction Contest is go
We chat with Brendan LaSalle of Pandahead Productions, creators of XCrawl, about the new fiction contest they’ve put on with publisher Goodman Games. Yes, there are prizes, and yes, one of the judges tells you exactly how to curry favor. (It should not surprise you that the judge in question
James Wallis getting ARGy with Perplex City creator
Now and again, and it seems like lately it’s a little more often, I stumble across some neat little bit of info, and it may have been known to others already or by some much more obvious means, but it still makes me go “holy crap” and get all bouncy
The magic is in the hole: Project Donut semi-unveiled
It has been revealed that Peter Adkison-backed Hidden City Games, publisher of Clout Fantasy and US license holder of Pony Crack, has commissioned Burning Empires designer/publisher Luke Crane and InSpectres and Lacuna creator Jared Sorenson to create… well, probably an RPG, right? Except for there’s this page that leads to
Want a peek of the Gleemax online board gaming? Maybe you’ve already had it
So here was my little mystery story tonight: go by Cheapass’ news page, be surprised to find a press release from GameTable Online. In the press release, find this: “Instead of subscribers in thousands, we have yet to break the 200 subscriber mark.” Oh, wait, that’s pretty interesting but not
I’m in ur Magic, walkin ur planez: crazy new upcoming card type merits a look
If you’re like me and have a spot of Magic: the Gathering in your past, but have more or less lost interest in all the little furniture-rearrangements and wacky new kitchen appliances they’ve added to that house over the years… well, it looks like as of the next big block
Rackham files for fancy European bankruptcy
Tabletop Gaming News reports that Rackham, publishers of AT-43 and Confrontation, is under “legal protection,” which is how they say Chapter 11 in Europe apparently. Here’s a PDF press release and another PDF about this whole legal-protection thing if you’re curious. (I guess “PDF,” similarly, is European for “web page.”)
When nerd cultures collide, the winner is you
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Supercrew, which I’m pretty sure is the first roleplaying game to be published in English the game text of which is entirely in the form of a comic book.
So, uh… did anything else happen at Gen Con?
They previewed Gleemax – like, the real one – and you can see a few screens over here. It looks like an improvement over what’s up now, but the UI still isn’t doing a fabulous job of making clear what the site is. Catalyst Game Labs, the new custodians of