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This is somewhat off-topic, but HN'ers may be interested to know the business history of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game that's this YC company's ins
by csense 13y ago
This is somewhat off-topic, but HN'ers may be interested to know the business history of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game that's this YC company's inspiration.
MTG was a bootstrapped startup designed by a mathematics PhD student. A great product that resonated with fans, a then-unique market niche, good retail distribution (pretty important for physical products in the early '90s), and favorable acquisitions led to a nine-figure exit for the founder [1].
[1] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2004/10/01/8187285/ http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2004/10/01/81...
- mabhatter 13y agoMagic:the Gathering is a freak of nature. It was a clever game that was brought to a niche company of RPG geeks who's day jobs were managing aerospace projects. In short a bunch of well-to-do hobby publishers with day jobs saw the product and "bet the farm" on making it work out when lightening struck. From that point on, its been an anomaly in the gaming market, often imitated, never duplicated the exact mix that sparked it. WoTC has learned the limits of where their formula works as well, even THEY can't copy Magic.