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Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Wizards And Pokemon Face Off Over CCG 28

Posted by simoniker from the schoolyard-dustup-over-cards dept.
Thanks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for their article discussing a lawsuit filed again The Pokemon Company by Wizards Of The Coast, following Pokemon USA's taking-over of the (formerly?) lucrative WOTC-helmed Pokemon collectible card game franchise. The suit "alleges patent infringement, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortuous interference with a business relationship, unjust enrichment and other claims", and mentions that "at least nine employees" have defected to Pokemon USA, and that "...all of the employees had signed non-disclosure agreements in which they agreed not to reveal confidential information to competitors." MSNBC has more information on this story, and while a WOTC spokesperson "expressed confidence that the issue... would be resolved", Pikachu declined to comment at this time.
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Wizards And Pokemon Face Off Over CCG More

Wizards And Pokemon Face Off Over CCG

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  • They should have atleast made up a statement by Pikachu. Something like:

    "Pi pika pi pi chu chu pika DIGIMON SUCKS kachu pi."

  • Nintendo's Long History (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Yorrike ( 322502 ) on Saturday October 11, 2003 @10:40PM (#7192599) Journal
    For those of you out there not as informed on Nintendo's history as other's, and wonder why WOTC would be concerned with secrets getting to Nintendo of all people, well.

    Nintendo has been making card games, trading cards and board games since 1902, and they've produced them ever since. Tading cards for the American market, Japanese market, the lot.

    If you're keen on reading up about this deceptively old company, check [ncecbvi.org] any [world-of-nintendo.com] of these [nintendo.com] out.

  • Heh (Score:2)

    by Tyrdium ( 670229 )
    Wizards suit alleges that Pokemon USA failed to carry out its contract and therefore Wizards is "entitled to an award of exemplary damages to punish Pokemon USA's wrongful conduct and to make an example of it."

    Touche.

  • WOTC should have never had the rights (Score:5, Interesting)

    by M3wThr33 ( 310489 ) on Sunday October 12, 2003 @12:03AM (#7192825) Homepage
    WoTC only got the rights to translate the cards from the Japanese game, which Nintendo designed themselves anyway.

    But in the process, they altered the game rules, took the foils out of every pack(Inspiring more purchases), added coin flips to some attacks, lowered HP, made COUNTLESS COUNTLESS errors in EVERY set, and had a horrible league set up.

    Their Pokemon League was just fine, until the Orange Island set. When that came around, they instantly retired all the old badges, giving any player that didn't start at the beginning NO chance to earn them and forcing veterans to start all over again.

    This doesn't even dwell on the cost of the cards, or the fact some sets have YET to be released.

    WoTC makes me sick.

    • Re:WOTC should have never had the rights (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Their Pokemon League was just fine, until the Orange Island set. When that came around, they instantly retired all the old badges, giving any player that didn't start at the beginning NO chance to earn them and forcing veterans to start all over again.

      And naturally Nintendo is not at fault at all for releasing Sapphire and Ruby versions, which did not allow connectivity to the previous versions, forcing players to start all over again. Hell, they did that with Gold/Silver/Crystal, forcing players to star
      • "And naturally Nintendo is not at fault at all for releasing Sapphire and Ruby versions, which did not allow connectivity to the previous versions,"

        It's a hardware issue here, not software. The older versions were for older hardware that used older link cable protocols (including the physical layer) than the GBA now uses. If they enabled GBA link cable protocols to be backwards-compatible, I can almost guarantee you there wouldn't be multi-boot games (among other nice features) for the GBA.

        Besides, for
    • "they altered the game rules, took the foils out of every pack(Inspiring more purchases)"

      This right here is what has had me turned off to CCGs (and collectible minis) since I first tried M:TG. I don't like the "spend spend spend!" mentality that that makes these companies seem worse than GW in comparison. I want to collect things I have a reasonable chance of getting without having to tithe a percentage of my paycheck for several years. I feel like I'd get more satisfaction playing the lottery.

      Aside f
      • That's exactly the reason I stopped playing MTG: The Cost. (clever, eh) It's fun to play any strategy game, and card games are portable. I had about 1000 cards, but very few good ones. That wasn't enough to make a very decent deck at all. You're really limited to strategies when you have to buy them. That takes the fun away.

        With the online version though, you can play for free (it used to be a one time connectivety fee), but I'm just turned off of MTG right now.

        (Aside: I'm really missing strategy game

        • Have you looked at Go? It's easy to learn, allows for handicapping between players, and you can play it online.

          However, it does suffer from needing to study to get good. Perhaps if you tried considering studying part of the fun?

          To take a look at it, visit Yahoo Games [yahoo.com] and visit the Go boards. (Under Board and Tile games.)

          • Have to agree with the parent post. Go is a really fun strategy game, and unfathomably deep.

            If you are into anime or manga at all, I suggest you check out Hikaru no Go. It is a surprisingly accomplished series, especially considering its silly premise and intended audience of young Japanese boys.

            This [xmp.net] is a great site that really helped me learn Go. I also advise you to grab one of the numerous Go playing programs and start with a smaller board for a few weeks. Have fun!
            • > If you are into anime or manga at all, I suggest you check out Hikaru no Go.

              *And* it's getting released in the US! They're going to serialize it in the US edition of Shonen Jump. Haven't heard anything about a graphic novel edition yet, but they're putting just about everything else in Jump into GNs, so it looks good.

              Chris Mattern
  • From the MSNBC article:

    The Pokemon companies are affiliates of Nintendo's parent company in Japan, according to the suit.

    What is "according to the suit" doing here? It's an easily verified fact.

  • Yowza... (Score:3, Funny)

    by InfinityWpi ( 175421 ) on Sunday October 12, 2003 @09:52AM (#7194047)
    Must be a slow news day on MSNBC...

    WoTC attacks Nintendo with Lawsuit attack!
    It doesn't seem to affect Nintendo very much!
    WoTC is confused!
  • Wizards of Coast, which employs 850 people, was purchased by Hasbro Inc. for $325 million in 1999. It is best known for the Magic trading card game.

    Interesting: is Wizards of the Coast really best known for the Magic card game? What about Dungeons and Dragons?

    • Ummm, no. Dungeons and Dragons was originally produced by TSR, which was bought by WotC a mere five or so years ago. Wizards of the Coast was a miniscule company until the advent of Magic ten years ago. The game defined them, and is most likely still their greatest revenue source.
    • Wizards of the Coast really best known for the Magic card game?

      Yep. D&D is a small-margin game--us RPGers are cheap bastards who balk at $30 books.

      Oh, and WotC got bought by a little company you might have heard of, called Hasbro, not too long ago.

      In the meantime, if you want to roleplay the world's best fantasy RPG without aiding the corporate takeover of it (or encouraging the very very significant strings attached to their Open Gaming attempt), check out the Free Gaming Association : www.theFGA.
  • The article pretty well defines that the defection of key employees may actually become a trade secrets issue as well as breach of contract issue on the "non-disclosure" clause. The key missing detail is the actual contract language, which is bound to be boring, on WotC publishing of Pokemon cards. These details are probably secret, but are what the entire case is based, I'd bet.

    Reminds me very much of the fiasco of Nintendo vs Atari/Tengen on the Tetris license.

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