be confused with wizard entertainment . wizards of the coast llc type subsidiary of hasbro industry collectible card games role playing games magazines founded 1990 ; 26 years ago 1990 founder peter adkison headquarters renton washington usa key people chris cocks president products magic the gathering dungeons & dragons pok mon trading card game kaijudo trading card game parent hasbro website company.wizards.com wizards of the coast often referred to as wotc w t.si or simply wizards is an american publisher of games primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes and formerly an operator of retail stores for games . originally a basement run role playing game publisher the company popularized the collectible card game genre with magic the gathering in the mid 1990s acquired the popular dungeons & dragons role playing game by purchasing the failing company tsr and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed pok mon trading card game . the company s corporate headquarters are located in renton washington in the united states of america . 1 today wizards of the coast publishes role playing games board games and collectible card games . they have received numerous awards including several origins awards . the company has been a subsidiary of hasbro since 1999 . all wizards of the coast stores were closed in 2004 . contents 1 history 1.1 acquisition of tsr and pok mon 1.2 acquisition by hasbro 1.3 the 2000s 2 games and products 3 references 4 external links history edit wizards of the coast was founded by peter adkison in 1990 just outside seattle washington and its current headquarters are located in nearby renton . 2 originally the company only published role playing games such as the third edition of talislanta and its own the primal order . the 1992 release of the primal order a supplement designed for use with any game system 3 brought legal trouble with palladium books suing for references to palladium s game and system . 4 the suit was settled in 1993 . 5 in 1991 richard garfield approached wizards of the coast with the idea for a new board game called roborally but was turned down because the game would have been too expensive for wizards of the coast to produce . 6 instead adkison asked garfield if he could invent a game that was both portable and quick playing to which garfield agreed . 6 7 adkison set up a new corporation garfield games to develop richard garfield s collectible card game concept originally called manaclash into magic the gathering . this kept the game sheltered from the legal battle with palladium and garfield games then licensed the production and sale rights to wizards until the court case was settled at which point the shell company was shut down . wizards debuted magic in july 1993 at the origins game fair in dallas . 4 the game proved extremely popular at gen con in august 1993 selling out of its supply of 2.5 million cards which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year . 6 the success of magic generated revenue that carried the company out from the handful of employees in 1993 working out of peter s original basement headquarters into 250 employees in its own offices in 1995 . 5 in 1994 magic won both the mensa top five mind games award 8 and the origins awards for best fantasy or science fiction board game of 1993 and best graphic presentation of a board game of 1993 . 9 in 1994 wizards began an association with the beanstalk group a brand licensing agency and consultancy to license the magic brand . 10 after the success of magic wizards published roborally in 1994 and it soon won the 1994 origins awards for best fantasy or science fiction board game and best graphic presentation of a board game . 11 wizards also expanded its role playing game line by buying sla industries from nightfall games and ars magica from white wolf inc. in 1994 . 5 in 1995 wizards published another card game by richard garfield the great dalmuti which won the 1995 best new mind game award from mensa . 11 in august 1995 wizards released everway and then four months later closed its roleplaying game product line . peter adkison explained that the company was doing a disservice to the games with lack of support and had lost money on all of wizards roleplaying game products . 10 also in 1995 wizards annual sales passed us 65 million . 12 acquisition of tsr and pok mon edit peter adkison founder of wizards of the coast at gen con indy 2007 wizards announced the purchase of tsr the cash strapped makers of dungeons & dragons on april 10 1997 . 5 wizards acquired tsr and five rings publishing group for 25 million . 13 many of the creative and professional staff of tsr relocated from wisconsin to the renton area . wizards used tsr as a brand name for a while then retired it allowing the tsr trademarks to expire . between 1997 and 1999 the company spun off several well loved but poorly selling campaign settings including planescape dark sun and spelljammer to fan groups focusing business primarily on the more profitable greyhawk and forgotten realms lines . 14 in summer 1997 wizards revisited the concept of a 3rd edition of dungeons & dragons having first discussed it soon after the purchase of tsr . 15 looking back on the decision in 2004 adkison stated obviously wizards had a strong economic incentive for publishing a new edition ; sales for any product line tend to spike when a new edition comes out assuming the new edition is an improvement over the first . and given the change in ownership we thought this would be an excellent opportunity for wotc to put its stamp on d & d. 15 he later set the overall design direction for the new edition of d & d. 16 wizards released the third edition of dungeons & dragons in 2000 as well as the d20 system . with these releases came the open game license which allowed other companies to make use of those systems . 5 the new edition of the d & d game won the 2000 origins award for best roleplaying game . 11 in 2002 wizards sponsored a design contest which allowed designers to submit their campaign worlds to wizards to produce an entirely original campaign world ; wizards selected eberron submitted by keith baker and its first hardcover book was released in june 2004 . in 2003 wizards released version 3.5 of dungeons & dragons and the d20 system . 5 wizards helped to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the d & d game at gen con indy 2004 . 17 on august 2 1997 wizards of the coast was granted u.s. patent 5 662 332 on collectible card games . 5 in january 1999 wizards of the coast began publishing the highly successful pok mon trading card game . 10 the game proved to be very popular selling nearly 400 000 copies in less than six weeks and selling 10 times better than wizards initial projections . 18 there was such a high demand for pok mon cards that some sports card series were discontinued in 1999 because so many printers were producing pok mon cards . 6 the game won the 1999 national parenting center s seal of approval . 11 within a year wizards had sold millions of copies of the pok mon game and the company released a new set that included an instructional cd rom . 19 wizards continued to publish the game until 2003 . one of nintendo s affiliates pok mon usa had begun producing a new edition for the game before the last of its agreements with wizards expired september 30 and wizards filed suit against nintendo the following day october 1 2003 . 20 21 the two companies resolved their differences in december 2003 without going to court . 22 acquisition by hasbro edit seeing the continued success of pok mon and magic the gathering 6 the game and toy giant hasbro bought wizards of the coast in september 1999 for about us 325 million . 23 24 hasbro had expressed interest in purchasing wizards of the coast as early as 1994 and had been further impressed after the success of its pok mon game . 5 avalon hill was made a division of wizards of the coast 25 in late 1999 ; the company had been purchased by hasbro in the summer of 1998 . vince caluori became president of wizards of the coast in november 1999 . 26 as of january 1 2001 peter adkison resigned from wizards . 5 chuck huebner became president and ceo of wizards of the coast in june 2002 and loren greenwood succeeded huebner in these positions in april 2004 . greg leeds succeeded loren greenwood as president and ceo of wizards of the coast in march 2008 . 27 in 2016 chris cocks was announced as a replacement for greg leeds . 28 as of 2008 the company employs over 300 people . 2 in november 1999 wizards announced that gen con would leave milwaukee after the 2002 convention . 29 hasbro sold origins to gama 5 and in may 2002 sold gen con to peter adkison . 30 wizards also outsourced its magazines by licensing dungeon dragon polyhedron and amazing stories to paizo publishing . 5 31 wizards released the dungeons & dragons miniatures collectible pre painted plastic miniatures games in 2003 and added a licensed star wars line in 2004 and through its avalon hill brand an axis & allies world war ii miniatures game in 2005 . wizards of the coast s book publishing division has produced hundreds of titles that have sold millions of copies in over 16 languages . 2 after the company s great success in 1999 with pok mon 6 wizards of the coast acquired and expanded the game keeper a us chain of retail gaming stores eventually changing its name to wizards of the coast 32 including the company s flagship gaming center on the ave in seattle for several years and its retail stores which were mostly in shopping malls in the us . the gaming center was closed by march 2001 4 and eventually wizards announced in december 2003 that it would close all of its stores 32 in order to concentrate on game design . the stores were closed in the spring of 2004 . 5 the 2000s edit this section needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . october 2015 in early 2006 wizards of the coast filed a lawsuit against daron rutter then administrator of the mtgsalvation website on which he is known as rancored elf . 33 the charges stemmed from rutter publicly posting confidential prototypes for upcoming magic the gathering card sets to the mtgsalvation forums 33 ten months before the cards were to be released . 34 mark rosewater explained the outcome i can say that we wizards of the coast settled the lawsuit with rancored elf out of court to both parties satisfaction . 34 paizo publishing s license to produce dragon and dungeon magazines which paizo had been publishing since it spun off from wizards of the coast s periodicals department in 2002 expired in september 2007 . wizards then moved the magazines to an online model . 35 36 on june 6 2008 wizards released the 4th edition of dungeons & dragons with the retail availability of a new set of core rulebooks . wizards began introducing 4th edition online content in dragon and dungeon magazines . 4th edition is designed to offer more streamlined game play while the new rules framework intended to reduce the preparation time needed to run a game