Got a phone call from a friend who told me that he hears that WotC is being shut down as a separate arm of Hasbro. Can't find any confirmation on the net anywhere, so just rumour for now. Considering what happened with WK, anything is possible.

Yikes...that's not a good rumor. Let's hope its just that.

Would not be surprised if they get folded into the greater body Hasbro.
WOTC and their staff have caused labor difficulties with the rest of Hasbro's labor.
WOTC has had a great degree of autonomy, which has caused other Hasbro labor to say they want the some of the same priviledges, and I think that WOTC's day is about to end.
The price of being able to access a larger company's greater assets.

Also, being an independent arm of Hasbro has actually inflated the egos of some WotC people and caused some bad - really bad - decisions that has tested Hasbro's patience over and over.
This quarter alone, WotC reported a $12m loss* from piracy by disgruntled fans and people abandoning their products, all due to the craptastic attitude WotC shows towards some of its properties (the biggest being Heroscape).

I don't think WotC is going under, but they are putting the next four planned releases for Magic on hold for 2009 until they figure out which "direction" they want to take the license.

* I have stock in Hasbro. This is in their 3rd Quarter release letter.

Out of the blue I've been running a 1st ed. D&D. Not even D&D, but the red and blue basic and expert boxed books. It's an original setting so no magic or monsters. Still, it's very strange (like muscle memory) to roll those wacky dice again after many many (25) years of Hero Games (with about 3 years of Vampire thrown in for good measure).
I hope that if WOTC is scuttled that the property falls with a group or individual who loves the game as much as DOJ and Steve Long love the Hero System.

While not an indication in my opinion that they're being shut down, as it looks to me just like normal house cleaning garbage done by the execs who don't care, there was a big lay off over at Wizards yesterday. To read the news about it, check out on En World...

Skunk

For we who grew up tall and proud
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud
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Thanks, SkunkApe. Sounds like the usual downsizing. As long as HeroScape keeps going, I'm happy. Not sure what it is (maybe the fact that I love pre-painted minis) about that game but I really want to see it going. Great intro to miniature gaming. I need more gaming buddies. I haven't played anything in over a month and the closest shop is an hour by bus.

There's a thread on Heroscapers and on the BGG that talks about the slow death of Heroscape. It's inevitable - Hasbro has pretty much canned every set and project after wave 9.

Most of the fans are trying to deny the fact that Hasbro has removed 9th wave and other Heroscape products from their 2009 calendar, thus meaning the end of the ride. But it's true, and it has caused some very upset reactions of Heroscapers in other game threads* on the BGG ...

* The biggest example is the Monsterpocolypse entry on BGG. Some guy said it's less fiddly than Heroscape, and the Heroscapers from the website by the same name flooded the thread to bash Monsterpoco and everyone involved in the thread. Sad really.