This Just In: Iron Crown Declares Bankruptcy
Iron Crown Enterprises, publishers of the Middle-earth roleplaying game and collectible card game, the Rolemaster roleplaying game system, the Silent Death SF miniatures game system, and Fluxx, has declared bankruptcy. Mayfair Games, which shares some ownership with Iron Crown, is not affected by this action. The company's announcement, distributed today over the Internet, reads:"Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) has filed a voluntary petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court pursuant to Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code. This is a prelude to the revitalization of our company. In fact, it is the last step in a reorganization process that began last Spring. It is not a step toward dissolution.
"As you may know, ICE has been in business since 1980, and the firm has weathered many difficult travails. We have labored hard through some very lean and some astoundingly prosperous years. In the process, we have produced a large body of well-crafted and critically acclaimed work. (Only TSR has produced more adventure game titles than ICE.) We are very proud of this legacy.
"Still, ICE bears a very large debt load. We have serviced this debt for some time. In fact, much of the problem can be tied to our Middle-earth Quest gamebook licensing disaster of 1985-86. The recent failure of many of our top domestic and international distribution customers created additional strain. This, coupled with structural changes in our . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 27, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to [email protected].
