West End Games not for sale
West End Games Owner and Publisher Eric Gibson recently released a video update on the company’s website discussing what the company is doing and its plans for the future. Gibson stated that the company is not for sale and is moving ahead with plans to start Open D6.
The full video can be viewed here:
Transcript of the Video:
Hello folks. I am Eric Gibson, owner and publisher of West End Games, and thank you for joining me for what hopefully will be the first of many regular video updates to let you know, on what is going on and what plans we have for West End Games.
I know it’s definitely new and a bit strange. What I’m trying to do is embrace the media technologies that are available to us, and perhaps put a friendly face on West End Games. The videos are pretty easy so, practically, I hope it means more regular updates to let you know what is going on behind WEG’s closed doors.
Okay, first of all let me quell a few concerns. I’m not planning on selling West End Games, and West End Games is definitely moving forward to bring new products to it’s fans. What are we currently working on? Right now, West End Games has a short list of priorities. I am ensuring that every single step is complete or close to complete before moving on to the next. The top of the list right now is Septimus refunds. As you probably already know, in early 2008, Bill Coffins Septimus was canceled from West End Games. This caused us a couple of problems, obviously it was a major stumbling block for the company. The most obvious being refunds … I am very happy to say those people who have been patient have finally been paid off. Most of the refunds have been made. If you have been expecting a refund via Paypal, and that includes everyone who has not specifically told me they want product or a check, everyone will be paid by Paypal. And, unless you were informed otherwise, you were paid to the email address which I have on file for you. A few of you still have unclaimed funds waiting, and I’m sure many of you have funds in your Paypal account that you haven’t found out. Go to Paypal, find your money. If any of you have questions or concerns, with regards to Septimus refunds or in fact anything West End Games, I encourage you to email me at hellsreach at gmail dot com. I’ll include the email link below the video, uh if you are watching our website, or in my profile to your right if you’re watching on youtube.
Since the Septimus refunds are so very nearly complete, we can start to move on to the next step, which is Open D6. As many of you have heard, D6 system is becoming an open gaming system, which means it will be freely-available for users and publishers to download and publish their system under. What makes it different is this is actually being done outside of West End Games. Open D6 is being spun off into its own entity. It will have its own website, its own company, its own owners, its own agenda. West End Games will maintain with regard to the D6 system is West End Games will be the first Open D6 licensee.
So what is Open D6? Well Open D6 is three things. It’s first of all a game system. The D6 system is being modified so that it’s as customizable as possible. Which means fans will have an opportunity to go to the Open D6 website, design and download their own customized version of the D6 system. No more searching through rules that you don’t want because the rulebook you have will be the rulebook you design.
Second, it’s a website. This website is where you go to find the SRD, to design your own system, to upload your changes to the D6 system. It will also be a community center, a place where players can find other D6 players. You can chat, you can play online chat games, forums, information. Ideally, it’s going to be a one-stop portal for everything D6.
Lastly, Open D6 is the company. What’s unusual about this is it’s not going to be some corporate entity owned by some faceless, uh, game designer. Actually, Open D6 is going to be owned by you. Once the company has been established, you, fans, and other publishers alike, will be given the opportunity to invest in, and buy … shares of Open D6. By doing so we’ll be adding much-needed revenue to Open D6 to help the system as well as owning voting rights in the company itself. This is actual stock ownership of the company, and as such, you’ll have every right to help pick a board of directors, as well as vote on major issues that the board themselves don’t do. Again, the idea is I want a company that’s owned by the community. It’s not about me, it’s not about a select group of three or four other publishers. It’s all about you, and what you want. And that’s what I want Open D6 to be. You can find more information on Open D6 on the West End Games forums, as well as the West End Games Fan Forums down the pipe.
Like I said, West End Games is not going anywhere. We are largely out of our financial troubles, and that means we’re ready to move forward in a more productive manner. That means putting out new games; that’s what we do. So we definitely do have plans to put out new product in the near future. This includes for both the D6 system, board games, as well as other role playing games. Things we’re going to be doing differently than we have in the past — I’m not going to mention the products we have coming until they are ready to hit the market, or close to ready to hit the market. The reason is I don’t want to get peoples hopes up and then let them down when the inevitable problems arise. So by the time you hear about a specific product coming out, you can rest assured that that product will be done and probably at the printers. So this does limit our marketing a little bit, but it’s better to do that and have people regain confidence in the company than to simply get a dozen or two extra sales because we were pimping it out for six months.
So this is the first very awkward video update from the desk of West End Games. I thank you very much for your time, I hope I didn’t embarrass myself too much. Take it easy.
