Gleemax is Dead

[El Mahdi]

I don't get the part in the blog about Dragon and Dungeon getting "rave" reviews. Granted, opinions on ENWorld aren't the only opinions out there (I know, heretical thinking, sorry) but from what I've read here (and reading the new Dragon and Dungeon pdf's myself) I felt Dragon was doing okay to good, and Dungeon was just not making the grade yet. I would say a more accurate statement is that Dragon and Dungeon are getting a lot of critical review, some good and some bad.

I also find it interesting that they are just now canceling one project, in order to use those resources on another project, a project that is already two months past it's release date. This doesn't give me a warm-fuzzy feeling about the quality of the management of this project or in the expected quality of the project itself.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'm also not sure what happened with the outside company that was working on a lot of these things, but I haven't seen mention of it lately so I'd kinda assumed things went really wrong with that deal. Maybe that's just the cynic in me, though.

It was called something like Radiant Machine, right? I vaguely remember a staffer saying that that arrangement fell through a long while back, pretty shortly after the project went available to the public. I got the impression that the guys they contracted grossly overstated their abilities.

I don't have a source handy on this though, so take it as hearsay until you see something more official.

 

[HeinorNY]

its collapse does not bode well for the company. I suspect ddi is not too far behind.

ffy

 

[DM_Jeff]

There was content on those forums?

*snarf!* Oh man, I haven't laughed that hard at an EN post in a while. Now to tell my employees I'm not having an attack...

Gleemax was supposed to be facebook and/or myspace for gamers I thought. Anyway, the horrible interface had me visit three time, I think, in the first week and then give up in disgust.

-DM Jeff

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

While I have no corporate-level knowledge, I'm fairly certain that these changes do not in any way suggest that WotC is planning to sell of the D&D brand any time soon.

Here's some rumor fodder for you, total speculation mind you. I IM'd a friend who's field is in corporate financial affairs. I told him what little info I've read here about dropping parts of Gleemax and realigning the book division.

My friend is a non-gamer and there were several scenarios possible but his opinion is that corporate is not happy with the sales of the 'new launch' as he called it, meaning 4e. He said that shareholders are demanding a lot in this current economic environment and the D&D brand isn't meeting expectations.

I asked him what it meant if his hunch was correct? He said he wouldn't be surprised if buyers were being discretely sought.

Like I said total unfounded rumors and wild speculation.

 

[Obryn]

Like I said total unfounded rumors and wild speculation.

Yes, it is.

-O

 

[Filcher]

Like I said total unfounded rumors and wild speculation.

Someone just posted the shareholder report and it had nothing like this.

But don't let that get in the way of the rumor mill.

 

[Spirynth]

ya know, until I saw reference to that announcement - I didn't even know that there was anything at all on "gleemax" - I thought "gleemax" was just the company that hosted the Wizard forums. It was just a portal that I had to pass through to get to my official Wizards D&D forums.

Now I hear that "gleemax" will go away in September... but the D&D forums will still exist? Oh.... okay.

(So, I went and looked at the gleemax boards - not really anything I think I'll miss)

 

[JoelF]

I think it's VERY unlikely that these changes have anything whatsoever to do with 4E. They probably have a lot more to do with annual planning and budgeting, which for many companies happen about this time of year for the next calendar year. If WOTC has been told to cut costs by x%, then they're cutting them in non-core areas of their business, such as Gleemax, extra novel lines, etc. These are also likely to be their lowest margin products and/or services. The new CEO also has a lot of influence and is likely looking to make his mark and tighen up the financials so he can show a wonderful improvement in his monthly reports to Hasbro on how the WOTC division is doing.

The recent 4E launch has done well with the core books from all reports, and is simply too new to affect budgeting unless it was a complete bomb. More likely, a year from now, once 4E has been out a while and WOTC can see how the various sourcebooks and support products for 4E sell, there could be a 4E impact on future budgets, staffing, etc.

 

[keterys]

Okay, just got official confirmation that 'Gleemax Games' such as Robo Rally, Vegas Showdown, the Goblin game, etc will be rebranded as 'Wizards Games', but continue to exist.

That was actually of real concern for me, cause I think they're awesome.