On 4 August a good deal of traffic on The Gamers' mailing list had to do with the announcement that The Avalon Hill Game Company is being bought out by Hasbro. John Kranz's Consimworld site ran the story as well. I have a second-hand report that an announcement of the deal has appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Among the on-line gaming community, speculation was rife and certainty on many points was rather low. A good number of messages on The Gamers' list referred to Avalon Hill in the past tense, with many sounding like remarks at an old friend's funeral (see sidebar). Some hesitated to believe that wargaming's father of waters had dried up, gone the way of SPI and GDW.

The Facts

As of 6 August, I have done some research; a note to Avalon Hill put me in touch with Mr. Eric Dott, Monarch-Avalon's designated answer-man on this topic, who kindly provided the facts for this story.

Monarch-Avalon has reached a tentative agreement with Hasbro under which Hasbro will acquire "everything," that is, the rights to the AH games, existing inventory, and physical assets. "Everything" does not include employees. Under this deal, Hasbro does acquire the Avalon Hill trademarks; AH understands that Hasbro does intend to maintain the Avalon Hill brand name. The intention at Hasbro is to serve the boardgame market through a separate division. Once it has acquired AH's current inventory, Hasbro will release it into distribution. The decision of whether to publish games that have been in house at AH and are near the end of their production cycle is Hasbro's to make.

Some speculation has been that Hasbro's strategy is to secure the rights to boardgames in order to adapt them as computer games. Avalon Hill can say neither yea or nay on the question of whether Hasbro intends to do so or, if so, what titles might receive that treatment. Subscribers to The General will receive an announcement explaining the status of their subscriptions.

What the Deal May Mean

Given the foregoing, some questions remain. What career paths are open to AH staffers now? Will Hasbro see a need to hire back some talent to make the most of the game line it has acquired? What exactly will a "separate division" for boardgames entail? Does that mean the same business unit responsible for Monopoly¨ be marketing ASL? Will we be seeing games on the shelves with both the Hasbro and AH logos, like those SPI titles published by TSR? Will Hasbro publish those games that AH recently announced as forthcoming? Will Hasbro accept and develop new wargame designs? Will Hasbro use its own distribution channels to move AH games, since we know the plan is to move the existing inventory? If so, what will be the effect on current wargame distributors, and on hobby stores? Will The General keep publishing? If not, what will happen to Zone of Control without its host magazine? Is the company that brought us G.I. Joe¨ when we were kids interested in us as a market now that we're hoary grognards? Or will the AH brand be aimed at the non-wargaming audience out there--the same audience AH addressed with so many of its titles? To all of these questions, the only answer right now is "We'll see."

It does seem clear from what I have learned that this is a "clean" deal, without many exceptions or restrictions. In other words, the companies involved have reached their bargains--tentatively at least, perhaps finally by the time you read this--and Hasbro is coming away with the freedom to decide how best to benefit from its acquisition. That being the case, it's too early to assume "AH is dead." I feel safe, though, in predicting a sea-change.

As we go to press, I have not had any return contact with officials at Hasbro. Information for Hasbro shareholders, publicly available at http://www.hasbro.com/corporate/, discusses that company's strategy of building a portfolio of strong boardgame (not necessarily wargame) brands but does not mention Avalon Hill in particular.

More on AH General

The Next Hill? Avalon Hill in Transition
Reaction: The Digital Buzz
Grains of Salt