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[[Image:Wizards_of_the_Coast.png|right]]
'''Wizards of the Coast''' (often referred to as '''WotC''' or simply '''Wizards''') is an American publisher of games, primarily based on [[wikipedia:fantasy|fantasy]] and [[wikipedia:science fiction|science fiction]] themes. Originally a basement-run [[role-playing game]] publisher, they popularized the [[wikipedia:collectible card game|collectible card game]] genre with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in the mid-1990s. Today they publish board games, collectible card games and role-playing games. Currently they are a subsidiary of [[Hasbro]].
== History ==
At 1993 [[Gen Con]] the company presented ''Magic: The Gathering'', which success was so big that its revenue helped to solve numerous other problems Wizards has been having at that time. In 1994, they expanded their role-playing game line by buying [[SLA Industries]] from [[Nightfall Games]] and [[Ars Magica]] from [[White Wolf, Inc.]] In 1995 they released [[Everway]] and then closed their roleplaying game product line with Peter Adkison explaining that they were doing a disservice to the games with lack of support and had lost money on all of their roleplaying game products. In [[1997]], Wizards of the Coast was granted [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5662332 US patent 5662332] on Collectible card games, followed by the purchase of [[TSR, Inc.]], the cash-strapped makers of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''.
Many of the creative and professional staff of [[TSR]] relocated from Wisconsin to the Renton area, and Wizards re-hired many [[wikipedia:game designer|game designers]]s who had been laid off during the troubled last years of TSR. TSR was used as a brand name for a while, then retired. Wizards of the Coast allowed the TSR trademarks to expire. The game and toy giant [[Hasbro]] bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999. Between 1997 and 1999, they spun off several well-loved but poorly-selling [[campaign setting]]s (most notably [[Planescape]], [[Dark Sun]] and [[Spelljammer]]) to fan groups, focusing their business primarily on the profitable ''[[Greyhawk]]'' and ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' lines.
Right now Wizards of the Coast publish several rules [[supplement]]s, [[campaign setting]] supplements and [[adventure]]s every year, together with updating the old books with [[web enhancement]]s, [[errata]]s, additional [[map]]s and [[customer support]].
