29 replies to this topic

[Nearly Dead]

How much money did George Lucas make off of toys and action figures; more that the movies, right? To the point where the movies became advertising for the products, like entire movies whos plot was nothing but product placement.

Did anyone buy any Fallout gifts for family this Christmas? I bought several for family who are fans. Some from the official store, some from Etsy. I have a Daggerfall tee shirt that one daughter bought for me last year.

When I go to the store I see mechs and money to buy mechs and mech bays, all digital. I don't see keyfobs, "My other ride is a Hellbringer" stickers, models of mechs, tee shirts, hoodies, pilot jackets with house or clan morale patches.

[Zacharias McLeod]

Big misstake.

PGI has absolutly no copyrights for merchandise.

Models and other BattleTech Stuff is all Catalyst Game Labs. PGI has only the rights for MWO and MW5 but not for more. So only for digital stuff.

PGI only rented the licence for the two games but all other licenses (for merchandise) have other firmes.

Edited by Zacharias McLeod, 15 January 2020 - 09:40 AM.

[LordNothing]

when franchises start down that path, they are essentially dead at that point. maybe some time after milking the franchise becomes unprofitable, somone will do a reboot. and if its good (a big if because a lot of reboots are done just to cash in on merch), its just more of the same.

[Nearly Dead]

Sad.

[Zacharias McLeod]

Nearly Dead, on 15 January 2020 - 09:52 AM, said:

Sad.

If you only rent a licence you have no other rights about the franchise.

The BattleTech franchise belongs to an other company. PGI only rented the licence to create two games.

Catalyst Game Labs are the big boss in the BT franchise. https://www.kickstar...term=battletech

PGI will never ever get the licence for more bacause CGL makes the BT TT Game.

Edited by Zacharias McLeod, 15 January 2020 - 10:02 AM.

[Prototelis]

LordNothing, on 15 January 2020 - 09:49 AM, said:

when franchises start down that path, they are essentially dead at that point.

Oh yeah, star wars is totally dead. lololololololololololololoolololololololololololololololololololol

[w4ldO]

Prototelis, on 15 January 2020 - 10:35 AM, said:

Oh yeah, star wars is totally dead. lololololololololololololoolololololololololololololololololololol

that's true. just because something is rotten doesn't mean it is dead.

[Novakaine]

It just needs a good bath.

[Nearly Dead]

I remember seeing Star Wars when it first came out, we were living in Denver and went to a huge (for the time) multiplex theatre with Dolby sound and the experience was amazing.

Watching that quality of story telling degenerate into what we have now is depressing.

Anyway, thanks for catching me up on the recent history of MW and BT. Was thinking about that earlier in one of the night/fog/cantseecrap maps. Anyone ever flip over to wireframe mode in the old game so you could SEE. Wish we had that now.

[JediPanther]

depends what the franchise is. If video games don't be like pgi.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Do people still buy G.I. Joe action figures?

[Anjian]

The rights to Battetech and Mechwarrior figures comes from Topps. Topps got it when they bought out Wizkids, which was founded by Jordan Weisman and made the Mechwarrior Dark Age collectible games, where you literally spend a fortune buying up all the figures. Catalyst Labs gets the license from Topps.

The DA games introduce a 'gacha' or a 'loot box' element although it would be more than a decade before those terms came around to describe mechanics in modern games. You buy a box, with a random content that includes a mech, a vehicle, and two infantry units. You don't know what it is inside the box. It costs $9.99 per box. Its actually a physical lootbox, back in 2003. Good luck if you got good units. Tough luck if you didn't. Go buy another box again. You can exchange figures with your friends or sell them on ebay if you want to recoup your investment.

For what its worth you get all these ABS molded, hand painted figures of battlemechs, vehicles like artillery units (poggers) and infantry units (Liao Peasants are nasty and highly prized).

At some point, Wizkids was making a bundle from this and its other clickable collector figure franchises. That's why Topps bought them out.

Edited by Anjian, 15 January 2020 - 08:57 PM.

[LordNothing]

Prototelis, on 15 January 2020 - 10:35 AM, said:

Oh yeah, star wars is totally dead. lololololololololololololoolololololololololololololololololololol

undead would probibly be a better term. yet another zombie franchise. still technically alive, but zero soul.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

By that measure, Star Wars was dead within five years of its inception. By then it already had two cartoons, EU novels, comics, board games, enough toys to fill department store to the rafters, and *shudder* the Holiday Special. As soon as video games were a thing it had those too. Then two more spin-off DTV movies years before the prequels. That franchise has been a cash cow ever since Lucas struck it big with the very first film. It was only ever going to end up exactly where it is right now.

[Joshua McEvedy]

Zacharias McLeod, on 15 January 2020 - 10:01 AM, said:

If you only rent a licence you have no other rights about the franchise.

The BattleTech franchise belongs to an other company. PGI only rented the licence to create two games.

Catalyst Game Labs are the big boss in the BT franchise. https://www.kickstar...term=battletech

PGI will never ever get the licence for more bacause CGL makes the BT TT Game.

Topps owns the merchandise IP but seemingly has no clue what to do with it despite obvious demand.

[Kodyn]

One thing about the specific case of George Lucas many fail to realize is that it's a unique case. Lucas did that back in the '70s, and he got the royalties deal he got because it'd never been heard of before- the studio heads thought he was nuts and readily agreed because they had no reason to believe it'd go anywhere. They saw it as a young, naive filmmaker was accepting less money in exchange for pipe dream royalties.

You'll never again see anyone get away with making as much money off royalties as Lucas did, unless it's a case where the ones making said royalties are producing and own all the rights to their own content, and it's all profit.

[Horseman]

Joshua McEvedy, on 16 January 2020 - 01:57 AM, said:

Topps owns the merchandise IP but seemingly has no clue what to do with it despite obvious demand.

"But it has VALUE!!!"

[Khobai]

Prototelis, on 15 January 2020 - 10:35 AM, said:

Oh yeah, star wars is totally dead. lololololololololololololoolololololololololololololololololololol

Honestly Starwars probably would be dead if not for the Mandalorian.

Baby yoda is literally the only reason starwars merch is selling so well right now. Nobody is buying rey or kylo ren merchandise. the last trilogy of movies was completely terrible and forgettable. It made the prequel trilogy actually seem good by comparison.

And even though PGI cant sell battletech merchandise my understanding is PGI can still sell MWO related merchandise. They could sell MWO t-shirts for example. And yeah they might have been able to earn some extra money selling merchandise but it ultimately wouldnt have staved off the inevitable fate of the game. Because offering all the merchandise in the world doesnt retain players.

Edited by Khobai, 19 January 2020 - 01:07 PM.

[A Rabid Raccoon With A Shotgun]

Nearly Dead, on 15 January 2020 - 09:32 AM, said:

How much money did George Lucas make off of toys and action figures; more that the movies, right? To the point where the movies became advertising for the products, like entire movies whos plot was nothing but product placement.

Did anyone buy any Fallout gifts for family this Christmas? I bought several for family who are fans. Some from the official store, some from Etsy. I have a Daggerfall tee shirt that one daughter bought for me last year.

When I go to the store I see mechs and money to buy mechs and mech bays, all digital. I don't see keyfobs, "My other ride is a Hellbringer" stickers, models of mechs, tee shirts, hoodies, pilot jackets with house or clan morale patches.

Two words for you child.

Harmony Gold

That's the end of any merchandising efforts.

[Prototelis]

lol no

The end to merchandising efforts was the fundamental mismanagement of the IP and allowing it to be split and held by several parties, in addition to a limited amount of appeal to a small demographic.

(I'm not defending HG, but if you think HG isn't why you can't rock on down to walmart and get a battletech shirt you're mistaken.)

Edited by Prototelis, 23 January 2020 - 10:44 AM.