Wizards of the Coast/Kenzer & Company License Agreements Expiring

[Jolly_Blackburn]

I seriously doubt that we will ever see the D&D logo on a 3rd party product again. While I was not a big fan of Kalamar, the production value of their products was very high.

And to be honest we stopped running the D&D logo a few years ago.

First as a test to see if had any impact on sales (which it didn't) and secondly to build KOK brand recognition and wean it away from the D&D logo (since we knew the license would eventually end).

So in terms of Kalamar this announcement really makes no difference.
We simply won't be using the logo which, um, we haven't been using anyway.

Again the license was a great opportunity to build KOK as product line. We'll always be grateful having that opportunity. But fans will see little or no impact now that it's ended.

 

[Jolly_Blackburn]

Jolly,

Was there a set date for the ending of the license when you entered into it or did they just recently contact you to let you know that they were ending it? Thanks.

We knew 7 years ago the exact date the license would end.

There may have been provisions for renewing. I'm not sure. We knew going in that we would eventually want to wean ourselves from the license.

I'm guessing (in light of recent events) WotC would have said no if we had tried to renew. I honestly have no idea.

They didn't contact us concerning the subject. Nor did we contact them.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

This is good news. I never liked the Kenzer products. I always felt that they were really weak and that other 3rd party publishers would have been better served with the D&D logo.

Ya know Belen,

Your opinion is your own and while I agree that Kalamar wasn't my cup 'o tea, a lot of people liked it enough to buy it.

 

[helium3]

And to be honest we stopped running the D&D logo a few years ago.

Heh heh. That's really funny that you stopped using the logo. I know there was a fair amount of angst amongst some folks on the other end about your ability to use it. I guess the D&D logo isn't really that valuable after all?

 

[Jolly_Blackburn]

Heh heh. That's really funny that you stopped using the logo. I know there was a fair amount of angst amongst some folks on the other end about your ability to use it. I guess the D&D logo isn't really that valuable after all?

Actually it was quite valuable. We sold a lot of KOK books with it.

But with time -- people expected it to be there. (i.e. they saw the KOK logo and assumed it was a D&D product).

So when we dropped the D&D logo and nobody noticed -- well, we took that to be a good thing I guess.

But I think having the D&D logo on the early books and building brand recogition for KOK
was extremely valuable at the time.

I wasn't attempting to diminish the value of the logo/brand. I only meant we have long term plans for Kalamar and part of those plans included breaking away from the license and moving forward without it. So we're not exactly crying in our beers with this announcement. We knew it was coming and we moved on quite some time ago.

 

[takasi]

Will we see more d20 articles and adventures in Knights of the Dinner table now that Hackmaster is...."changing"? Hackmaster just isn't my cup of tea, and seeing the magazine with old hacked D&D stats has always turned me off. Love the comics, and I like reading d20 articles (the uses for unseen servant was very nice, for example), but I've never liked Hackmaster's mechanics.

 

[T. Foster]

Assuming that keeping Hackmaster going with all the core rulebooks out-of-print isn't KCo's long-term strategy, I look forward to seeing the "5th Edition Hackmaster" rules and how (A)D&Dish they'll manage to remain.

 

[Ghostwind]

Hmmm, do I go ahead and buy up what I need of regular 4th ed. Hackmaster now or do I just wait for 5th ed. and start there?

 

[Cevalic]

This is good news. I never liked the Kenzer products. I always felt that they were really weak and that other 3rd party publishers would have been better served with the D&D logo.

Can't disagree with this more. Kenzer conistently puts out quality products. I, for one, look forward to seeing where they go from here.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hmm.

I liked the Kalamar setting quite a bit. And I've only recently started getting into Hackmaster.

Pre-arranged or not, it's a little hard not to be suspicious of WotC with news of so many licenses ending in the same year.