Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Steve Jackson Games is Looking For Companies to Buy

Steve Jackson is looking to put his Munchkin money into other peoples companies - as investments / acquisitions. Oh, and it has to be a "real" RPG publishing company. Which really doesn't put many targets in his possible sights:

April 4, 2013: Would You Like To Be Acquired? 
To make a long story short: I'd like to plow some Munchkin money back into the game hobby. Here's a very direct invitation. 
If you've been publishing good games, and you know it, but you would like to cash out . . . or if you want to keep creating games but would rather be part of an operation with a 30-year track record and a good health plan . . . talk to me. 
This is not "Hey, everybody, I'm looking for random submissions!" Really, it's not. It's for established publishers. If you've never sold to Alliance or ACD, or had a booth at the GAMA Trade Show, or had whole BGG threads arguing about whether you were secretly the Spawn of Satan, then this is probably not aimed at you. 
I figure this announcement, posted this way, will get a bit of talk, which makes it a good way to reach out to the whole hobby. I just wish I'd done it on April 1 so I could have gotten some viral "Does he mean it?" repostings. Hindsight is 20-20. 
Phil Reed will do the initial screening for me. Write to him at phil@sjgames.com. We will keep confidentiality. In fact, only four of us at SJ Games will even know who has responded until and unless we sign a non-disclosure agreement, and then we'll work according to the agreement. If the deal doesn't work out, it officially never happened. 
If it does work out, you could cash a check, or join the Illuminati, or both. 
Let's see what happens. 
-- Steve Jackson
WotC has Magic the Gathering (and possibly still Pokeman) and SJG has Munchkin as their money makers. Heck, if it wasn't for Munchkin, I expect GURPS would be long dead...

7 comments:

  1. Disney buys Star Wars (what a shocker) and now I'd like to see Steve Jackson buys Palladiumbooks (for an even bigger shocker).

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    1. My first thought upon reading this news was, "Would Kevin Siembieda sell?"

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  2. My first thought is why doesn't he get off his ass and finish OGRE first.

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    1. As a backer of OGRE, I've been following their updates with interest. Given what I've seen - and IMO they've done a great job of showing me the process of putting this together - I have little doubt that Steve Jackson & Co. are doing a good job in moving towards a top notch release as soon as they can. At this point, most of the delays have to do with getting the components made just right.

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    2. I don't care about 'just right'. 'On Time' would have been preferable.

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  3. If only he'd sink some of that money into GURPS...

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  4. Or Car Wars.

    Though I think this is an interesting and positive move. Steve Jackson Games is good about looking forward.

    In the case of GURPS though, I wonder if a lot of players just never made the jump to 4th edition. I know I didn't. I have a couple shelves of 3rd edition books and felt no need to upgrade.

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