WotC Gale Force 9 Sues WotC [Updated]

In the second lawsuit against WotC in recent weeks (Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman sued the company for breach of contract and other things about a month ago), Gale Force 9 is suing the company for breach of contract and implied duty of good faith.

Gale Force 9 produces miniatures, cards, DM screens, and other D&D accessories. They’re asking for damages of nearly a million dollars, as well as an injunction to prevent WotC from terminating the licensing contract.

From the suit, it looks like WotC wanted to end a licensing agreement a year early. When GF9 didn't agree to that, WotC indicated that they would refuse to approve any new licensed products from GF9. It looks like the same sort of approach they took with Weis and Hickman, which also resulted in a lawsuit. The dispute appears to relate to some product translations in non-US markets. More information as I hear it!

UPDATE. GF9's CEO, Jean-Paul Brisigotti, spoke to ICv2 and said: "After twelve years of working with Wizards, we find ourselves in a difficult place having to utilize the legal system to try and resolve an issue we have spent the last six months trying to amicably handle between us without any success. We still hope this can be settled between us but the timeline for a legal resolution has meant we have been forced to go down this path at this time."

 

[Olrox17]

We really need a snappy insulting nickname for easily offended, hyper-sensitive, not-bigoted-BUT people who pretend that "I want less representation where I can see it!" is somehow NOT a political stance. I propose "Status Quo Warriors".

The usage of such a nickname would almost certainly run afoul of Enworld's "keep it inclusive" rule. You could try using it on Reddit or something, though.

 

[SkidAce]

The usage of such a nickname would almost certainly run afoul of Enworld's "keep it inclusive" rule. You could try using it on Reddit or something, though.

I agree.

 

[jayoungr]

All of the virtual tabletop companies are doing business like never before. Roll20 in particular has been very transparent about what a giant spike they've seen.

Your group may not be playing virtually, but many are. (I'm currently running four monthly campaigns via streaming.)

And to add to that, moving to playing virtually often means buying or re-buying core books in VTT-compatible formats.

 

[Prof_Dogg]

Looks like it, yeah.

Yes but it's free till you hit $10 worth...

 

[MoonSong]

I can see where having subcontractors of subcontractors can get pretty dodgy when trying to maintain quality, and at the same time, translation of a somewhat-technical, rules-heavy product requires consistency throughout the range of products translated - i.e. you can't go calling those special abilities that you get instead of Ability Score Increases "Feats" in one book, "Deeds" in the next, and "Accomplishments" in the one after that - so ideally, you need the same team working on each new product.

This is something that keeps me off many translations of game material specially these done in Spain. It is ok with one offs, but with things like RPGs and card games that mean long term products, keeping things consistent is important. Many times it also feels like translations in Spain are too insular and internally inconsistent, and many times poorly done -like translating rogue as "pícaro"-. Hopefully, with the seeming move to do things in-house, WotC will have a more Latin American friendly edition.

 

[Mirtek]

I very much doubt WotC will want to shoulder all the hassle of doing in house localizations. I'd rather expect them to just once again drop all localization for a couple of years, until the find a new partner

 

[Eltab]

We really need a snappy insulting nickname for easily offended, hyper-sensitive, not-bigoted-BUT people who pretend that "I want less representation where I can see it!" is somehow NOT a political stance. I propose "Status Quo Warriors".

"Argument Magnets"

 

[billd91]

"Argument Magnets"

“Grievance Collectors” is one that comes up in opposition to things like broadening accessibility and representation, equality, diversity, etc.

 

[Staffan]

In addition to the

Regardless, WotC are surely going to have a harder time finding partners who are willing to work with them.

That, and it can affect people's willingness to use their current licensees. For example, this kind of nonsense makes me less likely to buy more stuff at D&D Beyond, knowing that Wizards' licensing department can try to bring that in-house and invalidating the money I spent on it. Particularly since D&D Beyond is owned by Fandom, which is now acting as its own RPG publisher as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And to add to that, moving to playing virtually often means buying or re-buying core books in VTT-compatible formats.

I've just been doing theater of the mind on Zoom/Google Hangouts/Facebook Rooms, depending on the group. Paying for the books again is definitely something I'm consciously avoiding.