From: lunatic@netcom.com (Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex)
Subject: Re: Question for Stephane or anyone who can answer....
Organization: Netcom; Renegade User
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 06:44:50 GMT

In article <1jvutfINNcm3@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> as298@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Stephen E. McGinnis) writes:
>To Whom Ever Knows The Answer......
>My local game store owner/comic store owner asked me if I had heard
>why FASA had sold all sales rights of the novels to ROC. By this I
>mean....they are no longer available to the game distributors that
>he has been able to get said items before, and they told him they 
>could no longer get them because of FASA's contract with ROC that
>ROC has taken to mean that they can sell only to major book distributors
>instead of game distributors. This seems to me to be totally ignoring
>a whole area of sellers and buyers in that these people can't get
>the books to sell to those who really are interested in the game.
>Does anyone else agree with this? I just feel that this is another of
>the many situations that FASA has dropped the ball.
 
 
    |\|o, by distributing the books through ROC FASA actually gets
 much better distribution, and all the effort needed to put into that
 is taken off of FASA's hands.  They can now concentrate on the actual
 gaming materials, and not have to worry about their novel's distribution.
 Another side effect is that ALL of the FASA novels which are now out
 of print are going to be reprinted by ROC, so they will all become
 available again.
 
    ][f your local game store owner can't get the books now, s/he needs
 a better distributor.  Orhis/her distributor needs to do a better job
 at making contracts with publishers.  I'm sure that one of the points
 in the contract that FASA made with ROC was that their books will
 continue to be available to the distributors that had been carrying
 them previously.  They don't want to shoot themselves in their own
 foot, after all.
 

>                                                    Another such item
>is the fact that FASA has sold the rights of all of the Mech Centers
>and the technology being developed for the simulators to Disney Corp.
>No longer a FASA product they are now Disney property. How long do
>you think they will remain BattleTech related products. Just my 2 
>cents worth....if anyone knows the answers to these let me know.
 
     _
    |_
    |ASA didn't sell the BattleTech Centers to Disney.  Virtual Worlds
 (the BT Centers company) is now in a PARTNERSHIP with Shamrock, the
 Disney holding company.  This is a Very Good Thing.  This means that
 Virtual Worlds gets a huge cash flow infusion to work on the technical
 aspects of the BT Centers, and with Shamrock as a partner they gain a
 tremendous amount of credibility.  They also gain a lot of stability.
 I'm sure that before this deal they were riding the line and any
 number of things could have set them on a direct course to bankruptcy.
 Now, they have a big money base behind them, and they can weather
 quite a few losses and mishaps before going under.  They can now
 afford to take a few more risks, like selling more franchises without
 picking through every bit of the details first.  And more people with
 the money to BUY a franchise are going to be interested in doing so,
 because with Shamrock as a partner they know the company isn't going
 to vanish into thin air overnight.  The end result of all this is
 that you're going to see more BT Centers, and they're going to come
 online sooner.  You're also likely to see more types of "virtual
 reality" centers like these, on different themes from BT, thanks to
 Shamrock.
 
    |\|ow, if they'd gone into a partnership with PARAMOUNT, we'd soon
 be seeing Star Trek Centers....  Or with LucasFilm and we'd see Star
 Wars Centers.  Actually, since LucasFilm has done partnerships with
 Disney before (Star Tours, etc.) there's still a good chance we'll see
 Star Wars Centers.  Anyone care for an X-Wing/TIE Fighter/Death Star
 live action battle?

-- 
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  /         -= Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex     (:      /
 /  lunatic@netcom.com  GEnie: LUNATIC  CI$: 76170,672  /
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