121-WizKids Could Dominate 2007??

So if 2006 in gaming belonged to anyone it was Upper Deck Entertainment. Vs. System, and Yu Gi Oh continue to dominate much of the TCG landscape that is not Magic: the Gathering. Vs. System is considered to be the pinnacle of competitive TCG play right now, and Yu Gi Oh keeps hooking kids in like a guy in a van telling them they have a bike in their basement. Then in October came a two headed ogre named World of Warcraft. The game was sold out for over a month and the regionals tournaments attracted thousands of players around the world. In 2007 WoW could easily overtake Magic's spot as the number one Trading Card Game.

2006 was an awkward disappointing year for WizKids Games. My return to gaming as you might recall was inspired by WizKids' HeroClix game. A game that I thoroughly enjoyed, but found that there was almost NO support for it. I would routinely show up for tournaments in my area to find I was the only one there. I even went to a HUGE pre-release tournament that had 32 players, and I slowly found out that most of these people had been traveling from one pre-release to the next all day. So this wasn't even 32 people from the same area. WizKids was clearly having some problems. The company is owned by Topps, yes that Topps the baseball card company. See WizKids was on top of the world with their Dungeons and Dragon's inspired Mage Knight. They then snatched up the license from marvel to make HeroClix. The game was a smash hit. That's when Topps stepped in and bought WizKids. WizKids then added MechWarrior to their arsenal and they felt unstoppable. WizKids then started making lots of sorta hard to get collectors pieces and suddenly HeroClix and MechWarrior were games for collectors and the player base began to drop off.

2006 did not start off well for WizKids. Then a company wide reorganization began. Then the CEO stepped down. The way MechWarrior is made is now completely different. Taking away the random boosters and instead replacing them with everyone knows what they are getting "Action Packs". There were more mis-steps and embarrassing situations for WizKids in '06, but in 2007 they could be the studio to beat.

"Jim, how could this be!?" you may ask. I will tell you....HALO AND STAR FUCKING WARS! That's right WizKids will be making a HaloClix game they are calling Halo ActionClix and a trading card game that will combine punch out cardboard ships and trading cards for Star Wars.



The Halo game is going to be fucking enormous, instant sell outs and the ultra rares and collectibles will be going for huge money on Ebay(think Leeroy Jenkins). The Star Wars game could pick up a nice head of steam now that Wizards of the Coast's god awful Star Wars TCG has finally died. You know ships like Slave 1 and cards like Boba Fett are going to be in the ultra rare category and end up fueling a huge demand. This game also has the potential to be a blockbuster. So watch out in 2007 for WizKids they may have fucked up in 2006, but '07 could be a return to form.