Precedence Games announced today that Warner Brothers has refused to renew their license to produce the Babylon 5 collectible card game.  Warners told Precedence that the studio was not renewing any Babylon 5 licenses at this time.  This means that Precedence no longer has the legal right to continue to produce Babylon 5 products.  Believing that the license would be renewed, the designers at Precedence had already done a considerable amount of work on its next two planned Babylon 5 releases, Anla'shok and the Babylon 5 Collector's Set, but it appears that all that work must be abandoned.  All Babylon 5 CCG products that are in the hands of retailers and distributors can be sold as usual, but Precedence will no longer be able to fill any orders for new or backlist product.  Precedence will have to destroy the completed, but not yet released Collector's Sets which are currently in the company's warehouse.

 

Precedence does plan to continue to provide basic support for game players on their website rulings database, and also by phone and email.  Consumers who preordered the Babylon 5 Collectors Set on the Precedence web site will be contacted and their money will be refunded.

 

The Babylon 5 CCG was the product that put Precedence 'on the map,' but the company is now well established, and it is set to release Sack Armies, a new epic fantasy battle game, which will appear next month (see 'Precedence Moves Beyond CCGs').  Precedence is also preparing the release of its RIFTS CCG, a card game based on the science fiction roleplaying universe created by Palladium Games (see 'Rifts:  RPGs + CCGs = Opportunity').