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Random House tried to buy Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast from Hasbro more than twenty years ago
In addition, Random House's Del Rey imprint considered making Magic: The Gathering books in the 1990s
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The world of gaming is wild, even more so since the explosion of trading card games in the 1990s. But imagine working in the entertainment industry and coming across Magic: The Gathering for the first time at a local convention, in the same year that Jurassic Park came out.
This is precisely what happened to Kuo-Yu Liang, a M&A and business development advisor, who recounted in a post on LinkedIn about his first brush with Magic: The Gathering in 1993. Liang wrote, "It was 1993, and I was at my regional sci-fi convention, Norwescon, where I saw a demo of this new game called Magic: The Gathering. The demo was performed by a person in a robe & wizard's hat from a small 10x10 table. I thought this was going to be huge. I was working at Del Rey, and I pitched the idea of publishing Magic: The Gathering books. I met with Clare Ferraro, who was the Publisher at Ballantine Books. Clare was a brilliant publisher, but she thought this was the craziest idea she had ever heard. I may have lost her when I talked about the wizard who did the demo."
Later on, when Liang was working in M&A at Random House somewhere around 2000-2001, he "met with Hasbro to explore the acquisition of Wizards of the Coast." Again, Liang had no luck: "Hasbro politely told me to go away, and they love Magic: The Gathering."
Today, Magic: The Gathering has spun off into comics and novels. Its fantasy elements still make it a strong fit for Del Rey's leanings, though it doesn't look like Hasbro wants to let go of its TCG gem anytime soon. Never say never though.
You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.
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