Avalon Hill Sold

The Passing of an Era

By Pat Condray

Hasbro has bought Avalon Hill from Monarch Printing. So ends 40+ years of historical game publishing that began the hobby for so many of us. When HMGS got started TSR, Avalon Hill, and to a lesser extent, GDW were fixtures of "The Greater World of adventure gaming" that was treating miniature gamers with contempt in 1980-81. But there is no joy in the demise of these institutions. One of my corespondents cited the fall of these fixtures of the gaming industry as evidence of chaos in the universe.

It hasn't been long since the HMGS e-mail circuit and several newsletters was full of ruminations about the decline and fall of board wargaming, tracing the collapse back to TSR's botched take over of SPI.

It is certain that "Barbie" and GI Joe" will never give the same excitement that we found in those early years with products produced by Tom Shaw and Charles S. Roberts. The wargaming hobby was the direct result of their work with the Avalon hill General magazine to spread the word about other people with similar interests. Hasboro undertook a mass firing of all employees in the finest tradition of Niccolo Macchiavelli's famous management notebook, "The Prince". All contributors have been notified that all rights to articles pending publication in The General reverted back to the authors. Hasboro's objective was to obtain the rights to six "family games" that they would repackage. What these games are, and what will happen to The General subscribers as well as other game titles is not known at this time. When we receive more information we will pass it on.

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