JUNE 12, 2003 (SEATTLE) - Jordan Weisman, founder and CEO of Bellevue, WA-based WizKids, LLC, has been named a finalist in the Retail and Consumer Products division for the 2003 Ernst & Young Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
"I'm thrilled and honored," said Weisman. "This nomination really belongs to all of the employees and partners whose hard work and vision have helped make our games such a huge success."
WizKids manufactures and distributes collectable miniatures games (CMGs), a tabletop strategy game category invented by Weisman in 1999, and now played in more than 56 countries worldwide. Under Weisman's guidance, the most imaginative science fiction and fantasy games have become successful business realities. To date, the company has sold more than 100 million miniature figures under the Mage Knight(tm), MechWarrior(r) and HeroClix(tm) game brands, making it one of the fastest-growing game companies in the United States.
The latest games to bear Weisman's imaginative stamp are again firsts in their categories. Shadowrun(r) Duels, which hits store shelves this month, is the world's first action-figure game. It combines fully poseable, full-sized action figures with a complete set of tabletop "combat" rules, combining imaginative play and rules-based game play. The Creepy Freaks(tm) gross-out 3D trading game combines the tradability of card games with the tabletop strategy and collectable figures of a miniatures game. It is also the first WizKids title designed exclusively for a younger audience. Instead of combat, Creepy Freaks players attempt to frighten opponents' figures off the board with imaginative and disgusting gross-out "scares." Characters include Frosty the Snotman, with his Chunky Sneeze Attack, and Spitty Cat, with her Hairball Scare.
Other examples of Weisman's innovative approach are numerous. His patent-pending clickable combat dial allows players to enjoy the imagination and adventure of "serious" games without laborious record-keeping. He introduced fully assembled, prepainted plastic miniatures to a market that had previously seen only unpainted lead-alloy figures. Weisman's marketing approach has been innovative, too. The company's Approved Play division sponsors more than 10,000 organized game play events every month in hobby stores across North America and Europe. These events attract players who compete for prizes and learn more about WizKids' games. For additional information, visit www.wizkidsgames.com.
(c)2003 WizKids, LLC. All rights reserved. MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Mage Knight, HeroClix, Creepy Freaks and WizKids are trademarks of WizKids, LLC.
