Avalon Hill, R.I.P.

Monarch Avalon will reportedly sell its games division, Avalon Hill, to "a newly formed Hasbro subsidiary" for US$6 million in cash. This was reported by Reuters.

The deal will take a month or two to iron out and faces approval by Monarch Avalon's shareholders. In the meantime, all of the Avalon Hill employees have been or will be laid off, although shipments of games will continue for an undetermined length of time.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about Hasbro confirmed the fact that in order to increase presence in large discount stores it would have to buy up some smaller computer game companies. It appears that Hasbro's purchase of Avalon Hill was done mainly because of AH's computer division, although that division had never really done well. Some compare the purchase to TSR's buyout of the popular board game producer SPI in the early 1980s.

For over 30 years Avalon Hill has produced a wide arrangement of board games, quite a few of which were the precursors to many of today's popular strategy and war games for the computer. Avalon Hill produced and distributed such classics as Diplomacy, Civilization, Acquire, Third Reich, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, Advanced Squad Leader, Up Front, Afrika Corps, 1830, We the People, History of the World, and Tac Air. Many gamers practically "grew up" playing Avalon Hill board games.

Various contracts for games yet to be published are now Hasbro's responsibility. A number of developers that had done work for Avalon Hill were quite surprised, although the writing on the wall, as it were, was becoming quite apparent.

In a July 29 SEC Annual Report, parent company Monarch Avalon stated: "The Company expects that its emphasis on pursuing strategic alternatives for the games business, the possible reduction of the games business workforce and the reduction of games business research and development efforts will limit the company's introduction of new games which could have a material adverse effect on the revenues of the games business going forward." With a marked reduction in game products - due to a variety of reasons - for the past few years, and the increased production of computer games (most of which were market failures), Monarch Avalon found itself deeper and deeper in a situation it admitted could only hamper the company's success.

It should also be said that Avalon Hill produced about 40 percent of Monarch Avalon's 1997 sales, which equaled about US$7 million. Monarch Avalon, on the other hand, will continue producing envelopes and publishing Girl's Life magazine, as well as change its name to Monarch Services Inc.

Another casualty in the whole operation is Avalon Hill's magazine, The General. Hasbro apparently has deemed the continuation of the magazine too expensive.

So what will Hasbro do? No one knows. Game designer Richard Berg noted that, "In terms of whether or not Hasbro will pick up the board game operation, that is 'possible' if not probable." Computer games seem to be Hasbro's main target.

Major Holridge, who recently signed a deal with Avalon Hill to produce, among other things, a special version of his acclaimed wargame TacOps Classic for the United States Marine Corps (and would have published future editions of TacOps with Avalon Hill) summed up the entire situation easily in a brief sentence.

"The situation is not clear yet."