There’s a brouhaha going on between Jakks Pacific, the WWE, and THQ regarding WWE-branded games. THQ intends to renew their licensing agreement with WWE, but it’s not clear if Jakks will do so, or if THQ wants to do so jointly with Jakks. (source, source) This can’t be good news for Jakks. Update: It seems that, as was already announced Feb 2008, TNA is going forward with Jakks, while WWE is going forward with Mattel, effective January, 2010. So I don’t really know what the surprise here, is.

Mattel is now also selling directly to consumers on a new website and Facebook presence. Expect Hasbro to join Facebook in 10, 9, 8, …

The Independent has a long and detailed article about the recent Essen Spiel. (source)

America’s biggest toy and game fair, Chi-Tag, is coming up soon (Nov 21-22).

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Laugh Riot is a self-published card game from Matt Dominianni.

It’s a storytelling game, where you play a card and continue the story using the word on your card.

You can get a copy through Kickstarter. Various different pricing options also let you get an original letter or piece of artwork from Matt.

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Wizards is trying yet another new product to hook new players: the Deck Builder’s Toolkit.

The toolkit will contain a storage box, 100 basic lands, 115 semi-random other cards, and four expansion packs from various recent expansions.

$20 and scheduled for May, 2010.

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The Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise has teamed up with the co-creator of Balderdash to create the Count Your Blessings board game. The game is designed by Laura Robinson, Elizabeth Bryan, and Rachel Naples, published by Family Games.

In the game, players are given situations, and must choose the response that incorporates the most positive attitude.

(source, info)

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The new Northampton Monopoly contains a printing error: the space designated “Delapre Abbey”, which was supposed to celebrate the 864 year old convent, instead shows a picture of Fawsley Hall, a 470 year old mansion built by the Knightleys.

The mistake was spotted hours before the game was to go into its second printing.

(source)

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AEG calls it “strategic.” I disagree. There’s not a lot of depth to the company’s new game, or advance planning required. But Monkey Lab makes up for that with careless fun. Arm your monkeys with scalpels and help them escape Murray the security guard.

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