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."

 

[innerdude]

This . . . . isn't surprising at all, given the current state of the world economic market due to Covid.

This action, as well as the Weis/Hickman situation, is the action of a company looking down the barrel at significant, strategic revenue losses, trying to get out from under cost obligations that they feel were unlikely to produce long-term revenue gains.

It's that simple.

I can't really comment on whether they're in breach of contract in either case, but the motivation is easily understood.

I've worked for a Fortune 25 tech company previously, and I can tell you that even at that organization, $950k would not be viewed as an insignificant budget line item.

 

[Weiley31]

Yeesh. And I wanted to grab some of the Version 3 Spell Deck cards too.
My Arcane Spells deck came in today and I'm waiting for the Martial Powers and Races deck to come in.

 

[Zaukrie]

Perhaps we should let this play out before taking sides? I mean, it is possible there is a good reason. I have my doubts, but I'm not going to decide just yet that Hasbro is wrong.... Yet.

 

[Spohedus]

This . . . . isn't surprising at all, given the current state of the world economic market due to Covid.

This action, as well as the Weis/Hickman situation, is the action of a company looking down the barrel at significant, strategic revenue losses, trying to get out from under cost obligations that they feel were unlikely to produce long-term revenue gains.

It's that simple.

I can't really comment on whether they're in breach of contract in either case, but the motivation is easily understood.

I've worked for a Fortune 25 tech company previously, and I can tell you that even at that organization, $950k would not be viewed as an insignificant budget line item.

With all due respect, in looking at their last quarterly earnings report, this breach does not appear to be motivated by corporate earnings or health.

 

[Dausuul]

Perhaps we should let this play out before taking sides? I mean, it is possible there is a good reason. I have my doubts, but I'm not going to decide just yet that Hasbro is wrong.... Yet.

In all likelihood, the parties will end up settling and we'll never find out the whole truth.

But this sounds very, very similar to the Weiss/Hickman situation not too long ago. Wizards is being accused of doing the exact same thing--withholding approval of finished work in order to weasel out of a contract--by a different plaintiff. That inclines me to suspect Wizards is the one in the wrong here.

 

[DnD Warlord]

Man I took WoTC side in the Dragonlance one (more I wanted to keep an open mind ) but this is a pattern now

 

[WisdomOfWombats]

In all likelihood, the parties will end up settling and we'll never find out the whole truth.

But this sounds very, very similar to the Weiss/Hickman situation not too long ago. Wizards is being accused of doing the exact same thing, by a different plaintiff. That inclines me to suspect Wizards is the one in the wrong here.

One thing seems to be different, though. Per Tenkars Tavern linked above, Gale Force 9 included the license agreement in their case. Something that Weis & Hickman didn't do. I do see your point that WotC seems to use the same tactic. Which I admit find a bit disturbing.

Also, I find it strange. The license agreement of Gale Force 9 basically covers a lot of countries. Something apparently went wrong in two countries, and now all have to suffer?

 

[Lucas Yew]

As a Korean, I can testify the TRPG Club company mentioned up there is quite notorious for their "amateur" attitudes on practically every aspect, including translation, editing, customer service and franchise continuity (as in only importing new systems' core rulebooks only and ignoring important splatbooks) and such... (abyssally deep scowl)

 

[Guest 6801328]

I'm thinking about suing them because the Crusher feat is +1 Str or Con, but not Dex.

Better lawyer up, sukkahz.

 

[Ace]

Huh! I wonder what that's all about.

I won't speculate on who is in the right and who is in the wrong . I think , its just as guess as I have no inside info is that the economic chaos over the COVID 19 virus has made some companies maybe even Hasbro who no doubt have taken an income hit very tight with money . This has messed up some things with contracts that a few years ago would have gone smoothly.

You have to figure with so many shutdowns and worse reoccurring ones the economic fallout is considerable.