LIES! Don't believe it, it's all lies. They just want you to keep buying the Chainmail stuff that's in the pipe.
There is not ONE PERSON still working on minis stuff full time at WotC. Jonathan Tweet may still be around, but don't get an overblown sense of his importance or interest in this project. Jonathan was NOT a minis enthusiast before being handed this job, and working on Chainmail is one of three or four unrelated projects he manages at WotC.
Justin is out of there as soon as his transfer comes through, and good luck to him, he deserves better than he got on the minis team. Bryan Kinsella? HAH! He gave his team his little "I'm moving on to brand manage CCGs for the Japanese market" speech weeks ago, and if he's still involved with Chainmail it's only because they can't BEG someone to take on the minis job.
There is currently NO vision for the game and absolutely ZERO support for it in upper management. There never has been, and with visionless jackalopes like Kinsella trying to run things it's only gotten worse within the last year.
The squandered potential is staggering.
I've held back on many of my opinions about the management of Chainmail over the last two years, purely because there was retribution against Chris because I shot off my mouth. Well, they don't wield that stick anymore, and I'm not going to pussyfoot around the issue: NO ONE cared about minis at the company more than Chris. NO ONE. He railed at every turn for you guys to get the best value, to have the coolest looking figures, to have a rich background and engaging setting. He raised concerns on behalf of the consumers and fans, warning against shoddy/rushed production, random pricing schemes, advocating for more options (like a larger combat game, better rewards through organized play, more minis to choose from) and he was ignored or dismissed at every turn by people who could just as well have been selling tennis shoes or oven cleaner for all the interest and involvement they had in the product.
I'm not some sort of weepy communist railing against capitalists and the nature of business here. But you've been lied to, and you're still being lied to and it pisses me off to see them trying to spin this layoff as "no big deal" to their miniatures plan.
::insert primal scream here::
Nicole