Pinnacle Going Under?? Say it Ain't So!!

[Albert_Fish]

My local gaming store says Pinnacle ( Peginc.com) might be going the way of the Dodo. He claims that they sunk their money into card games, miniatures games and other offshoots of their Weird West game.

SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!!

I love Deadlands even if i find its rules incomprehensible ( for the logenst time we added ability score and skill dice pools together thus making sure we hit every time) and i was really looking forward to Weird Wars!!

Ever since i pealed back the yellowed pages of those old DC comics like the Unknown Soldier and Weird Wars i have awaited just such a game!
Does anyone know about this? did d20 help kill off the game? whats going on?

my game shop oner just extended a gnarled bony finger towards the Deadlands rack and said, as he were a failed necromancer, "I can't get them to move".

 

[Voneth]

I don't have a confirmation either way, but they are still churing out product and there is a PC game with screen shots in the works, this looks good especialy since the just bought back their DL games last year.

The game was bought and sold twice in the last two years. The intermediate owners didn't do much of anything and eventualy sold the company back the original owners who decided to make a series of d20 companion books to Deadlands. Future products will have stats for orginal and d20 games.

They also released Weird Wars and have been putting out "class" books for d20 Deadlands every month. If they turn around and say they are belly up, I'd be surprised. Most times, a game company will slow down production, not be in a frenzy.

In additon to that, gaming is a very localized phenomon. You couldn't tell that Mage Knight is raking in millions by my game store. But Dirtside II, a game I never heard of is doing gangbusters. Besides, I know some game store owners who are in the loop and I know others who don't know what they are talking about or have an agenda to their sales (my favorite games get top billing, and if I don't personaly like the game I'll trash it.)

So if you are confused about the old rules, pick up your own d20 set of DL.

 

[Albert_Fish]

Funny thing is you would think a Western Game might do well here in Oklahoma. Weird huh?

the reason i came across this rumour is that i cant order the Weird wars game because the shop owners say it has sold out and isnt beign reprinted anytime soon

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, see for yourself...

http://www.peginc.com



You should go and beat up your game store owner. Rumors about a company being almost out of business can hurt a companies business. Rumors of problems really hurt GDW, and contributed to it's eventual demise.


Still, your guy might be a bit confused (many game store owners and employees are). A while ago, Pinnacle was sold to this company, Cybergames (they also bought several other small gaming companies, Hero, the Arduin company, and someone else, I think).

However, Cybergames never did anything with them, and eventually all the subcompanies remergered, apparently buying themselves back.

 

[Voneth]

Funny thing is you would think a Western Game might do well here in Oklahoma. Weird huh?

the reason i came across this rumour is that i cant order the Weird wars game because the shop owners say it has sold out and isnt beign reprinted anytime soon

Weird Wars came out at last Gen Con which was in August, right? Does it seem kinda funny that a game sells out in 7 months and the company is suposedly going bankrupt? The online store at www.peginc.com is also offering the Wierd Wars game,(Blood on the Rhine is the basic book) so evidently it is in stock. Sounds like your store owner either has a distribtor who is lost or he didn't want to order it for some reason.

My suggestion, order it from the website or get a copy from another game store. Then show it to your original games store guy and tell him his info is wrong and to get a new distributor who can get him games.

So where's you game shop in Oklahoma? I've lived in OK and KS and discovered that if a game shop wasn't located near a major town (the areas around Tulsa, OKC or Stillwater). Then your quality of store employee was suspect and the Internet can be a better friend. I suggest Ivory and Steel in Stillwater, btw. Though it may have changed hands recently.

A western do well with gamers in OK? Not really, I'd expect a Western to do well in Europe. People generaly are not attracted to what's in thier back yard.

 

[Lizard]

Never trust your FLGS!

If someone at your game store tells you that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow, you should sit your chair facing west the next morning to see the sun rise.

True story:Around about summer 2001, the guy at my FLGS told me that "Traps&Treachery" was at his distributors and would be in the store next week.

At the time, about 15% of what would eventually be Traps&Treachery was sitting on my hard drive in "rough draft" and "playtest" stage -- several months from eventual publication.

People at game stores are among the most stunningly ill-informed people about their own business that I can imagine. I do not know why this is, but it's a fact.

 

[Voneth]

I had one local gaming store in KS that almost burned me out on gaming. The guy did things like sell people a wargame vehicle book and knew the gamer didn't have the basic rulebook. So the guy was irked that he had a worthless suppliment.

This store owner never kept regular store hours and only promoted games that he personaly liked -- Magic and ADnD. He never even tried to keep himself informed of anything beyond those two games. He was a victim of his own circular argument, he wouldn't promote other games becasue no one asked about them, but most of his customers relied on him for gaming info. IO personaly introduced more than 5 games to his store. This quote is the most typical.

Store Owner: "Hey you got to check out this game called Earthdawn, it's pretty cool."

Me: "You mean the one Bob brought in?"

Store Owner: "Yeah!"

Me: "I would hope so, it was my copy."

Store Owner: "So how come you didn't show this to me before."

Me: "I did more than a year ago, you said it was a ADnD rip off and blew it off."

Basicly this guy was running the store as his personal game club for him and his buddies. He eventualy ran out of credit cards to pay the rent on the store front and had to go out of business. It didn't help that his silent partner came in one day and took a lot of the stock in "payment" over being denied the promo cards in a Magic Arena package. Promos that were supposed to be prizes for tournaments.

Some people shouldn't turn the hobbies into businesses.

 

[The Antra]

As a freelance artist that works with Pinnacle regularly, I must say that the store owner is ill informed. I'm currently doing a project for them, just finished another one and have been paid accodingly...

Unless they're really into paying for artwork they won't use, I'd say don't worry.

Best,
Marcio

 

[saduff]

Well if you are worried about the life span of a company then buy their products. I personaly have all of the DL d20 books available except the Dead Presidents and the Epitaph 3. I also purchased the original core book, The weird west roleplaying game.

I would say that I like them alot. Although there is no hindersances in the d20. I think they are going to be adding that later though.

 

[danzig138]

Funny thing is you would think a Western Game might do well here in Oklahoma. Weird huh?

I proposed a western game to my players a few months ago, and not a one of them liked the idea. Whoever said it was right, if it's in your own backyard...