Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast ( Wizards or WotC for short ) is an American company based in Renton , Washington . Owned by the Hasbro Group, it makes trading card and pen & paper role-playing games and sells them worldwide. Wizards became famous for releasing the first trading card game, Magic: The Gathering .
Company history
Wizards of the Coast was founded in 1990 by Peter D. Adkison . However, the company only became successful after working with Richard Garfield , the inventor of the trading card game Magic: The Gathering . Released in 1993, this card game became an international success and made Wizards of the Coast a large and lucrative company. Wizards later received the license for the trading card game for the successful Pokémon product line. Because of these successes, they were able to take over the role-playing company TSR , which had run into financial difficulties . Wizards, in turn, was acquired by Hasbro, Inc. in 1999 .
Products
Wizards of the Coast's most successful product is Magic: The Gathering , invented by Richard Garfield and published in several languages , which invented the genre of the trading card game . The board game Robo Rally is also invented by Garfield and distributed by Wizards . Due to the enormous financial success, various companies and licenses could be acquired. In addition to trading card games, Wizards of the Coast now sells etc. a. from Duel Masters , Pokémon , Simpsons and BattleTech (until 1997) also various role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars . The product range also includes Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures , MLB Showdown and Neopets . In 2006, their first collectible miniature game, Dreamblade , was launched. In addition, WotC also sells books and merchandising for the games mentioned.
In 2000 the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons was fundamentally revised and re-launched under the name D&D Version 3.0 . The set of rules is under the Open Game License and is called d20 . Meanwhile, many games, u. a. also from third-party providers to this rule system, including
- the role-playing game Star Wars (basis for the PC game series Knights of the Old Republic )
- the role-playing game for the well-known fantasy novel series The Wheel of Time (German: The Wheel of Time )
- the role-playing game for the PC game Warcraft 3
- the role-playing game for HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu
- d20-modern (role play in the present and future)
International sales
Sales abroad are carried out by various partners, although the translations are done in the USA. The role-playing games have been distributed by Ulisses Spiele since 2009 .
Web links
- Wizards of the Coast (English)
- Wizards of the Coast in the Luding games database