Cubicle 7 to publish the Lone Wolf Gamebooks!

[Aguila Saber]

Joe just posted the following announcement on facebook:

Cubicle 7 to publish the Lone Wolf Gamebooks!

I'm very pleased to announce that award-winning game publisher Cubicle 7 Entertainment has secured the rights to publish all of my Lone Wolf gamebooks; past, present and future!

The agreement covers all English language editions of Lone Wolf, including brand new titles as well as the out-of-print volumes. The initial C7 release will be the highly-anticipated Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai.

Fans of the ‘Collector Series’ hardbacks will now have the chance to complete their collections. Cubicle 7 will continue to release the books in the established format, re-publish the out of print volumes and fully complete the series.

I’m very happy to be bringing my Lone Wolf gamebooks to Cubicle 7. The C7 team are very talented and a delight to work with. They’ve done a fantastic job with the Lone Wolf Adventure Game. This deal is wonderful news for all my loyal fans. It makes perfect sense to have all things Lone Wolf gathered together under one roof, and Cubicle 7 has proved beyond doubt its uncompromising commitment to quality.

“Lone Wolf gamebooks introduced a huge number of people to fantasy gaming – myself included. It’s truly an honour to be involved with the Lone Wolf legend and we at Cubicle 7 are proud to be able to introduce Joe’s awe-inspiring creation to a whole new generation.” (Cubicle 7 CEO, Dominic McDowall - 26 Nov 2016).

[Black Cat]

Some additionnal details:

-For now, only hardcovers will be produced
-New cover illustrations: all the covers made by Alberto Dallago for the Italian version of the gamebooks will be reused for the C7 edition. Remember that Dallago also made the covers for books 1 to 12 in the Mongoose edition, but he made new ones for the Italian version.
-New maps by Francesco Mattioli
-Plans are made for what I call "Mini-Mega-Deals": there are plans for boxed sets of the 4 differents subseries (Kai, Magnakai, Grand Master, New Order) which will make you save money instead of buying them one at the time.
-Confirmation that book 28 will get the missing 50 sections that were omitted in the original Red Fox edition.
-There will be some new bonus adventures. Nothing specific yet as which adventures will be modified.

More details about the publication schedule coming in the next few weeks.

[Aguila Saber]

Seems you are in more facebook groups than me. Saw most of the above but the three last items were new.

[redav]

Great news! I'd been wondering why there had been new stuff printed elsewhere but nothing in English so I'd been hoping that something was going on behind the scenes. I can only imagine that the new LWAG was a test for C7's delivery for Joe to gauge their ability.

Bring it on!

[Beowuuf]

A less good post on Facebook today regarding the English gamebook reprints.

BLACK FRIDAY

Hello everybody, Dom speaking.

I've had to make a very difficult decision. It is with a very heavy heart that I have to tell you that Cubicle 7 will not be publishing Joe Dever's Lone Wolf solo gamebooks.

Over-committing is one of the big dangers of companies our size, and I’ve had to take a hard look at what we’re planning to make sure that we’re not falling into that trap. As the solo gamebook project has unfolded I have become increasingly uncomfortable with our ability to give Joe's amazing work the publishing home it deserves. I am a life-long fan of Joe’s books, and I realise I've acted with my heart rather than my head in taking them on.
I am determined that Cubicle 7 always does the best possible job with every product we release, and if we’re spread too thinly we won’t be able to maintain that quality. I feel it would be fairest to everyone to stop before we begin, rather than risk getting part way through the series and letting everyone down.

Our primary focus for Lone Wolf is the Adventure Game, and I want all our energy to go into making that the best it can be. The Lone Wolf Adventure Game is entirely unaffected by this decision.
We will be in contact with those of you who pre-ordered to arrange a refund, or a credit note with some additional value by way of apology.
I’m very sorry for the disappointment this announcement will cause, it certainly wasn’t an easy call to make but I feel it is a necessary one.

Dominic McDowall
CEO, Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited

cubicle7.co.uk/

Cubicle 7’s decision not to proceed with publishing the Lone Wolf Collector Editions is disappointing to say the least. It places me in a very difficult situation that was entirely unforeseen. Please be assured that I will do everything I can to get LW29 and the CE back catalogue into print as soon as possible. Negotiations are already underway with two major publishers in the USA. I am also looking into publishing them myself under my own imprint, although this the most difficult route for me to take as my work schedule is maxed out for the next six months with writing the LWAG supplements and Lone Wolf 30. Somewhat ironically, the Collector Series continues to go from strength to strength in Italy, and it will be introduced into France this year where Lone Wolf books have been on sale continually without a break since 1985. As Dom stated in his announcement, LWAG is unaffected by his decision not to publish the Collector Series. The pdf of ‘Heroes of Magnamund’ is now complete and it will be sent out to backers next week.

Joe Dever