RPG WTF 9: SPI’s Loan

[james_davis_nicoll]

Once a dominating figure in table top wargames, by the early 1980s Simulations Publications, Inc. had by means of a series of extremely bold decisions a desperate need for an infusion of cash. Who better to appeal to than the young company who by creating roleplaying games had contributed to SPI’s increasing challenging environment? SPI borrowed $425,000 from TSR. What could go wrong?

I remember sitting in RAFM’s lunch room reading a Gygax Dragon editorial in which if I recall correctly he angrily denounced Origins as an SPI/Avalon Hill anti-TST plot. It may be at least some elements of TSR were not entirely fond of SPI. In any case, SPI did have two RPGs (DragonQuest and Universe) and that made them a competitor.



Two weeks later, TSR called in their loan. SPI could not pay. RIP, SPI.

Comments

[viktor_haag]

a series of extremely bold decisions [created] a desperate need for an infusion of cash

Greg Costikyan wrote an article about this a while back. Boiled down to getting popular and suddenly discovering that you can't really make games for 32 dollars if you intend to sell them for 30... not for very long any way...

[(Anonymous)]

I was pretty upset when I found out what happened (it was months before I heard SPI had gone under, and that was only because I had a friend who had his lifetime subscriptions to S&T and Moves get cancelled) and it wasn't until I started reading reviews for Victory Games products years later that I even got a hint why. I still have a lot of SPI wargames. This was why I was not bothered by the various bad things that happened to TSR managemant later, that ended up with their acquisition by WOC.
One thing that looking back on this drives home to me is how different the information environment is now. With something niche like wargames and before widespread internet access, it could take a *long* time to find out what happened, and a lot of people affected probably never did.

Riderius

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, whose else's first thought was to wonder what the heck an RPG named *Loan* was about?

[theresawright]

They were roleplaying life in a world where it makes good business sense to give your competition a knife and then turn your back on them.

[maruad]

I never knew this. I was fond of SPI games, purchasing a couple of dozen as well as having a sub to Strategy and Tactics (which had lapsed before this event). I never knew what had happened to them other than they stopped existing.

I am still annoyed that my copy of Panzergruppe Guderian was "accidently" sold for a couple of dollars at a garage sale though I still have Drive on Stanlingrad in the basement.

Now I am wondering about the fate of GDW.

[(Anonymous)]

From Loren Wisemans now defunct website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120415121046/http://www.cgi101.com/~lkw/faq.html#B

/Patrik

[ironyoxide]

Any guess what that $425.00 would be worth in today's dollars?

[ironyoxide]

Oh, I misread. $425,000.00.

Even for the 70s, defaulting on a four hundred dollar loan seemed...odd.

[james_davis_nicoll]

I fixed the typo

[kedamono]

Well, according to the Measuring Worth calculator, it's anywhere from 1.1 million dollars to 2.2 million. I'd take the average and call it 1.65 million dollars. Nothing to sneeze at for a small garage company.

https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday/relativevalue.php?year_source=1980&amount=425000&year_result=2019

[chrysostom]

James, if you're referring to the article "Convention Season '79 — What Happened To July?" in The Dragon #23 (Mar '79), that's actually signed by then-editor Tim Kask.

[thewayne]

Huh! I remember SPI suddenly vanishing, never knew the reason why. I don't think I was still working at Flying Buffalo at the time, though I was still hanging out at the game store regularly.