WizKids Announces End of Mage Knight In Present Format

June 30, 2005 (SEATTLE) — WizKids Inc., creators of the runaway hit games MechWarrior® and Pirates of the Spanish Main™, announced today at the Origins 2005 convention that their Mage Knight® collectable miniatures game (CMG) would cease in its present format after the release of Mage Knight: Nexus in August.

“Mage Knight was the first CMG we created, so this decision was not made lightly,” said Mike Samora, vice president of Sales and Marketing at WizKids®. “The game has evolved immensely in the last five years, and it’s evolving again.” WizKids recently announced teaming up with Namco for the PC game based on the property, Mage Knight: Apocalypse, and other options for future Mage Knight games are being explored.

WizKids is throwing a major Mage Knight party at Gen Con, and this November will sponsor special Mage Knight events to send off the game in style. Neither current nor retired Mage Knight players will want to miss either event.

Founded by 25-year game-industry veteran Jordan Weisman, WizKids is a Seattle-based game developer and publisher dedicated to creating tabletop games driven by imagination. Its Mage Knight, MechWarrior and HeroClix® CMGs and Pirates and Rocketmen™ CSGs are among the most successful games on the market today, and the company has sold hundreds of millions of game pieces worldwide. WizKids Inc. is owned by The Topps Company Inc. For additional information, visit www.wizkidsgames.com.

Way to go Jordan, you just did to 2.0 what you did to 1.0. Get tired with your new toy? What the hell. Just when I thought you trying to reel back in old fans with new conquest rules and such, you pull this ####.

Is 2.0 going to be "retired" just like 1.0 was. Or right, it wont be, but due to new rules, all 2.0 stuff will be vastly inferior to '3.0' so you may was well ask for every player to send in their figs to melt down for new ones. At least I can build a new house out of all the styrene I have.

I have played this game from the day it came out. I have stood up for this game when others did not. I wasn't happy with the shift to 2.0, but sank my money anyway and found it enjoyable. But this is quite possibly the worst thing you could do for this game.

I have always been an advocate of a 'wait and see' approach to things, especially this game. But frankly, I am tired of seeing you make promises, waiting for you to follow through, watching you follow through half-assed, and then make more promises.

Bravo. You turned a revolutionary tabletop game into a 3rd rate PC game and a nice memory.

My understanding from this announcement is no more minatures will be made. No more expansions or even a new base set. But mageknight will live on in books and computer games.

Yep, the party is over...

So, let's see, the mini game is dead, but were continuing on as a video game (RTS or MMORPG is the question) and we're thining about a CMG or a CCG.

Whatever! I can't belive how this company has totally flubbed such a simple concept as MK. They had such a cash cow to begin wth, but I guess when you decide to move away from what you first created to sell little plastic toys you lose the core audience that came for a mini game.

Then again, this is Jordan Wiesman, the only gamer creater that has managed to kill of EVERY creation he's started...only to have the communtiy refuse to let it die and just take over the whole project themselves.

And I say that's what we do with MK...l;et's just take the whole Mini side over. There are other mini manufactures out there. Let's just use their mini's if we want an expansion. We all know that we could create better figs then MK has been putting out for the last few years. Borg made a solid set of rules for us that mirror what WK tried to do with 2.0.

Shorthand, we dont need WK to keep MK alive in it's current incarnation. If the battletech crowed has been keeping classic battletech alive for 20 years, I don't see why we can't keep "Classic Mage Kight" kicking for 20 years ourselves.

I have no plans of playing a MK video game, a MK CMG or CCG, or any other type of MK game. I started because it was a mini game. I'm staying because it is a mini game.

We want a new expansion after Nexus? Why not? We can start by re-creating all the 1.0 peices that Nexus is leaving out! We can take the most usless peices ever made and remake them into somthing useful and innventive.

So, who's with me? Who needs WK to create MK for us...they've left us plenty of room, plenty of stroyline, and plenty of figs to keep us busy for a long period of time. We are all dedicated to this game that Jordan Wiesman has destroyed in less then a year...why should we stay around for the next MK disaster when we can just do the game ourselves!

Who's with me?

HAHA! Amen, Barronmore!!

You know when 2.0 came out I decided that was the last straw. I sold everything but the Dungeons stuff and that's all we play. Heck I still make add-ons for Dungeons since I think its a great game.

So him killing off the game doesn't affect me at all since I have every hero and almost every mage spawn from 1.0 plus lots of accessories.

I'm guessing that the game isn't nearly as successful as it used to be and its getting too expensive to keep making figures. I'm sure Heroclix is the big cash cow now so they can afford to make all those expensive figures for that. Notice only WOTC has a pre-painted line and no one else seems to be able to afford it.

The CMG's are super cheap to make so my guess is that's the way the company will go for most games in the future and just do mini's for Heroclix and baseball. I expect we'll see the same thing happen to mechwarrior.

But don't dispair. There are TONS of figures out for both 1.0 & 2.0. I don't see a reason to give up playing just becuase no new figures are coming out. Heck, I've got 111 heroes for Dungeons and haven't played most of them. In some ways its a blessing. No worry about buying anymore figures, just play with the mountain you have now.

Wow. Ummmm...... Thanks Jordan. I knew I started playing Mechwarrior for a reason. Well any die hard fans should be able to pick up figures on the cheap now.

I say it is because of slumping sales. There going to do a new format to get another player increase like they did with 2.0. And i am sure all of you would agree that the game has been going down hill since sorcery.

:golem:

For the people that are gonna stay in the game, did we really need a bunch of new stuff anyway? I mean the game is much more complex and diverse than it ever has been. Maybe WK decided they could go no further with the game without messing it all up, so they decided to cut ties with it and let the people who really like playing the game continue to do so at thier leisure.

kinda odd, that I ended up quitting, because everyone in my area quit playing first

I think it is very odd that they would just drop 2.0, without putting out a few more sets

Initiating...

Project Barronmore!

If I had wanted to play PC games; would I have ever picked up a MK set in the first place, very doubtful.

Should we wait for Nexus or get busy on the 'Barromore" expansion now?

I suppose this the beginning of charts instead of dials?

Wow. This came sooner than I expected. I figured something was off when I decided not to preorder a Nexus case but I figured we would get to the new Mage Knight Dungeons before things were abandoned- We have figures that can "hold" items and with the new bases, we can get different dials with each 'level up'- Dungeons 2.0 seemed a given.

Well at least they left us the tools to keep this going (particularly the Champion style bases). The problem will be finding players who are willing to play a 'dead' game, as opposed to going on to D&D Minis or Star Wars Minis or Heroclix or Mechwarrior or Pirates or ...

I have no idea what to think at this point. The game is evolving is such a vague statement that one can derive many meanings form it.

I for one will go to this Mage Knight party and find out what I can.

As one of the long time Realmers I propose this.

Each and every one of us that will be at GenCon needs to go to this. If it turns out to be good then we can bask in it.

If it turns out bad then we let them know how we feel about this

Hey
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Hey
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gooodbye! :(


I'm sad to see it go, as I feel the game is at its peak rules wise with spells, relics, and cool abilities. what a great game, reduced to press release finish.

The realms will become a true ghost town with we, the lost, to haunt it.

If approved play goes, I probably will too. Who's going to want to compete at nats now? Or worlds? Will they even have a nats and worlds?

You can always play in the Warmachine National invitational now pickman.