Report by Ken Tidwell
March 28, 1997
Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. (ICE), makers of Middle Earth: The Wizards and other fine games, announced on March 26, 1997 that they had reached an agreement concerning the acquisition of Mayfair's existing business and product lines.
The press release states that the new Mayfair will continue to publish Settlers of Cattan. They also state that they plan to publish the Settlers Card Game, the Seafaring expansion, and the related game, Entdecker - all by Klaus Teuber. (Also from the rumor mill - Teuber has signed an exclusive contract with Frankh-Kosmos, the German publishers of the Settlers games. The move certainly seems to confirm rumors that Kosmos plans to extend the Settlers franchise. Apparently, Joe Nikisch will be taking over at Goldseiber where Teuber was leading a design team.)
The press release also assures us that Mayfair is still in the train game business and that they will continue to publish most of their existing lines. It did, however, name Fantasy Adventures, Chill, Underground, and Sim City as games which would get the ax. It also offered these games up for sale to potential publishers.
Finally, we are promised new games in the coming months by such shining lights as Bernd Burnhoffer, Wolfgang Kramer, and Alan Moon (I hope this is the new version of Elfenroads - cross those fingers, kids).
Darwin and Peter Bromley will be involved in the new enterprise in non-managerial game design and development roles.
Best wishes to Louis Rexing, who will be looking after game development amongst his other chores, and the folks coming over from ICE to make up the new executive team! May your successes be many and your problems few!