History of the deal between Nintendo and Wizards of The Coast
In mid-1998, Wizards of The Coast (WOTC), American society leader in the field of Collectable Game Cards, he announced to the whole world that he had obtained the rights on the production and distribution of the English version concerning this new global phenomenon, Pokemon.
The choice of Nintendo in this case it was really simple, the Wizards was on the wave crest for years Magic: The Gathering (MT) and Dungeons and Drangons (D&D), which best company to print the cards of their new monsters?
The first appearance of the cards was in December 1998, when a group of sellers received the Demo Pack to the MT trading card show and subsequently toE (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 1999. This package contained 24 cards Shadowless and a manual game[1], of this object I will speak more in depth in another article.
Other products were printed before launch official official of the Set, in order to preview the Cards and the operation of the game to the first Chapters Americans.
Finally in January 1999 began to be distributed on Set; the cards belonging to this first distribution, including these Shadowless but in first edition, sold out within a short time, making them become so far the Cards more sought after and collected in the scene Pokemon Today.
American TV service MSNBC on the Pokemon phenomenon (1999)
At the beginning of the summer of the same year was released Set Jungle, which for the first time not only introduced the concept of setting in the world Pokemon, but also introduced the version Holo and Not Holo the same paper.
Only with the Set Fossil However, in autumn 1999, was completed entirely Poked. Finally all 150 Pokemon had at least one card consideration (Me the 151st Pokemon, originally present in set Japanese, came Printed printed printed in version Promote).
| SET | USA USA | ITALY |
|---|---|---|
| Base | Gen - 1999 | Mar - 2000 |
| Jungle | Ju - 1999 | Lug - 2000 |
| Fossil | Oct - 1999 | Nov - 2000 |
| Base 2 | Feb - 2000 | -- |
| Team Rocket | Apr - 2000 | Mar - 2001 |
| Gym Heroes | Ago - 2000 | -- |
| Gym Challenge | Oct - 2000 | -- |
| Neo Genesis | Dic - 2000 | May - 2001 |
| Neo Discovery | Jun 2001 | 2001 |
| Neo Revelation | Set - 2001 | Oct - 2001 |
| Neo Destiny | Feb - 2002 | 2002 |
| Legendary Collection | May - 2002 | -- |
| Expedition | Set - 2002 | 2002 |
| Aquapolis | Jan - 2003 | 2003 |
| Skyridge | May - 2003 | 2003 |
List of all sets made by the Wizards of The Coast and its dates of publication.
(Source: Bulgarian - wiki.pokemoncentral)
And then, in December 2003, the final breakup.
But let's take a step back to 1999, Hasbro, leader in the sector toys and Entertainment, decided to buy the WOTC for $325 million. In the first months Wizards maintained a certain degree of autonomy but with the passing of time management Hasbro became increasingly bulky, triggering an exodus of personnel[2].
At the same time Nintendo became more and more likely to bring back the management of Game of Cards Collectables under his wing, so the Pokemon Company, manager of the management of franchising, founded an American division, the Pokemon USA Inc.
The new division was intended to take over the production of cards at the time when the contract with the Wizards had expired on 30 September 2003.
In summer 2003 set products EXTRA Ruby and Sapphire, distributed by Pokemon USA Inc., made their appearance on the shelves along with the cards of the set Skyridge, still owned by Wizards.
1 October 2003 Wizards made a case against Nintendo, claiming that the prior sale of the cards produced by the new division was a violation of their agreement; moreover it accused the Japanese company of using patented methods and technologies WOTC to produce their new Cards.
The case never came to court and the parties involved announced on 29 December 2003 that they had reached an agreement. The terms were never disclosed even if it is not difficult to think that it was given to WOTC a generous good exit[3].
TORNA