Toys R Us must have trialed the WK products in major markets. The results were probably poor since we never saw 'em in Toledo.

I hope your are right about the sports clix. I don't see the market for Sportsclix but then again I hate sports games.

1. The thread was un reply-able, just like all the announcements of new Realmworx sites.
2. They have already stated that there will probably be stadium promos. Do you realise how many people see baseball games each day? Hundreds of thousands. Better than a TV ad to me, since you are accessing baseball fans for maybe less money.


Sportsclix will do very well I believe. Its got very steady rules and I feel it simulates a baseball game very well :-)

Look at MLB Showdown. Its one of Wizards best games.

Crimson Skies is their best product imho, but it won't do well for several reasons.

1. No support. There are no CS envoys, no cs campaigns, no cs tourneys (well, to speak of anyways). So no games equals no gamers

2. Not collectible. What you see is what you get. so players only buy what they need

3. Play. It takes a time or two to get the hang of it. Being air combat it tries to emulate air combat. So some people are going to be at a total loss on movement and lining up shots. In practice this makes games much much much more fun, but is daunting to a newbie.

It's not that CS can't, it's that CS won't. Which is a shame, cause I love it (a lot more then mechwarrior actually)

Well I'm ok as long as the major Wizkids games dont disapere...and Im not so sure CS is dead it could be re-released later in a new form aslong as they still have the rights.

On a better note I have received some inside info that at least there has been some major restructuring of WizKids' customer support department. I finally received an email as to when my campaign pins could be given me.....was told to give my number and return the email if a mech or mechs could be given me instead. I asked for some LEs that I didn't have respectfully.

20 LIGHTENING FAST MINUTES LATER I GET A CALL FROM THE NEW CUSTOMER SERVICE REP WHO JUST TOOK OVER THE DEPARTMENT .....She is sending me 2 of the pins that were owed me as they still had them and a mech I requested at least I hope its the mech I requested in lue of other pins owed.
SHE CALLED 20 MINS AFTER AN EMAIL....and she was able to help with some other problems that were hurting one of my battlemasters I SWEAR THIS IS A TURNAROUND IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Well, both basketball and baseball are popular outside of the US.
However, it was announced in the envoys forums that Wizkids couldn't distribute MLB Sportsclix outside of the United States. Which is stupid since there are two MLB teams in Canada.

If you search for the MLB demo "Learn how to play MLB SportsClix", the description specifically states "Only venues in the United States can sign up for this event."

Guess Topps couldn't help with distribution at the moment. Unless this has changed.

It is not Wizkids I am worryed about, but their Rights to BattleTech. When they go under, they just might sell the Rights so high, no respectable company would dare touch it. And just so some CEO can come home with an extra million in the pocket.

Regarding SportsClix: I think it wise from Wizkids/Topps not to sell it outside the USA. OK, maybe in Canada, too.

But here in Europe, and I'm sure Asia and Australia as well, Baseball is just not popular enough so that SportsClix could make some profit here. Lot of people here (myself included) don't even know the baseball rules. You can watch baseball here.... say... once a month, late at night, on some small sports canal. You can watch even Sumo more often here. Europe is a soccer country, so the baseball clix game would be a major loss here.

Regarding SR, CS and CF: the ShadowRun pen-and-paper is quite popular here (I play it myself) and the Crimson Skys computer game was quite successful too (still one of the flight simulators with the most funny missions). BUT: I know nobody, not a single individual here who does own a single miniature of these clix games. CF was doomed from the beginning. I know no 8 to 9 years old kids willing to play a clix game. That's the yu gi oh (spelling?) generation. Later, if they want to clix, they come to Hero Clix or Mageknight or Mechwarrior.

These clix games might propably chance in time, but they won't die. There is a strong player community here.

Although... I have to state that here at some venues I know the player number dropped from about 8 to about 4 after they changed the prize support a few months ago. So Wizkids, beware!

Sportsclix will definitely hit a completely different market so it will require a completely different marketing strategy. The organized play system for MK and MW is a marketing strategy, remember... it might not fit very well for Sportsclix. Stadium promos and a few well-placed banner ads on fantasy baseball websites are probably better choices for reaching and engaging that target audience, than running games in sports card shops.

For that matter, Sportsclix is probably a lot like Heroclix in that the emphasis is on COLLECTIBLE more than it is on GAME. Heroclix has thrived with a lot less organized play support than MK or MW, right? That's because lots of comic fans just collect but don't play much.

Many of us MW fans are more into the game than the collectible nature. That means we want prize-supported organized play (which can be an expensive marketing strategy) and we are more picky about the quality of the rules and of the unit stats (since we actually play).

My biggest concern is that Topps will focus more on the "C"mg's like Sportsclix and Heroclix, and less on the cm"G"s like MK and MW, if they turn out to have more mass market appeal and are more profitable.

I had heard somewhere (here by a WK associate) that Mechwarrior will only get TWO, count 'em TWO expansions this year.

draddog said that. It's possilble we'll see a thrid release late in the year, but it could also be early next year.

But overall mechwarrior isn't doing to bad with less expansions.
People have more time to get money together to buy more when it does comeout and it give WK more time to tweak an expansion.

Remeber the rapid fire releases of FFE, DFA, and LI?

But I'm not surprised the finances are down, they did just buy a corporation and now they're probably looking at the games that don't do well.
Crimson Skies and Shadowrun has never even been seen around here and CF I think is a bit weird (and also never seen).

I could see those three going the way of the dinosaur quite shortly.

But if WK is doing stadium promos for Sportsclix then they have a good idea going. If you give away a tiny little represenation of a guy and say there a whole boatload more of these and you could make a version of fantasy baseball but actually see the people and control them.

People would respond pretty favorably in my opinion.

WizKids should start trying to have demos at Toys R Us. I've seen a couple of kids at the venues now that can't be more than nine or ten years old learning and playing MechWarrior...

they could cut costs by handling prize support distribution like it is done here in germany:

prize support is sent to the venue, and the envoy distributes the stuff to the players. has worked well for us so far.

This is how they handle prize support in the US as well. The problem is some venues don't get their prize support on time, if at all. Supposedly it's getting better, but I haven't heard about it.

well wizkids has made the same mistakes FASA did... they made games that flunked and they too many of those games... But wizkids is best to axe those games (which FASA did not) before there loss of money is more than the strong games profit (CBT was FASA's strong game but it could not hold up the other games alone so FASA died) ... also a lot of Fluff always helps games too so... we will see... we will see