14th October 2003, 6:14 PM
Quote:Wizards of the Coast filed a lawsuit on October 1st accusing Nintendo's Pokémon business of abandoning a contract with Wizards, the longtime producer and distributor of Pokémon trading-card games, instead producing the methods and technology to manufacture the card game themselves and having Nintendo be the distributor.
Wizards, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., claims it pioneered the idea of a trading-card game and holds the patent rights to it. The company signed an agreement with Nintendo in 1998 to manufacture and distribute the Pokemon trading card games outside Asia, the lawsuit says. The Pokemon companies are affiliates of Nintendo's parent company in Japan, according to the suit. In 2002, however, two former executives of Wizards of the Coast were hired at the Pokémon company as well as several others.
In March 2003 it's stated that Pokémon USA refused to allow Wizards to release two trading card games, the Jamboree and Legendary II expansion sets for the Pokemon Gold & Silver edition, which the Wizards team had spent considerable time and money developing, says the suit. Pokémon also informed Wizards that it had not been chosen to manufacture and distribute a new Pokémon trading-card game, the Ruby/Sapphire edition.
I think Wizards is just mad that Nintendo does need them anymore to make crazy amounts of money.
N-Philes
Sometimes you get the scorpion.