IDW to Lose the Transformers License?

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
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I don't necessarily disbelieve it, because IDW is not healthy, but this is not even hearsay. The author's not even directly claiming that he heard this from whoever supposedly let it slip. He's just saying in a weirdly passive way that somebody said something.
 

LiamA

Active member
Citizen
If IDW does lose the license how long do you think it'll be before we another Transformers series?
 

Confuzor

Koopaling Aficionado
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Id say about a year. Thats how long it took the Sonic comic to get off the ground at IDW after Archie got its license yanked.
 

CoffeeHorse

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It didn't take long to get the IDW comics going after Dreamwave imploded. Hasbro knows how to handle these things.
 

Kalidor

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Somebody asked in the round table today about this and the they basically said that's not something they can talk about right now. So that seems slightly more ominous than a simple dismissal.
 

Exatron

Kaiser Dragon
Citizen
The question I have is, if IDW does lose the license, what happens to everything they have up on Comixology? You still get to access anything you'd already bought, right? But do all IDW Transformers listings immediately come down if/when that happens? There are still some things I'd like to buy, and don't want to miss the chance to do so.
 

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
Somebody asked in the round table today about this and the they basically said that's not something they can talk about right now. So that seems slightly more ominous than a simple dismissal.

It might be rumour within the company but they cannot deny or confirm at this stage, so I'm guessing talks are ongoing with another company, I'm thinking it might Boom Studios as there is a rumour cricluating that Dark Horse is up for sale/looking for a Hollywood studio to buy them out, thus I think Boom is the most likely place for them to land as they already have the rights to Power Rangers which is now owned by Hasbro, thus, I think if this rumour of change of companies by Hasbro proves true, IDW is most likely to go belly up and Hasbro is head off a protential problem and avoiding getting involved in legal problems that they were involved in when Dreamwave collapsed!
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
It might be as simple as them just being in the middle of negotiating right now to renew the license. They might not be able to talk about currently-ongoing negotiations before they become finalized. But...yeah, that sounds like somethings up. And I think there's been a push at IDW to focus on their own properties, like Bermuda or Canto. They might want those movie deals, etc, for themselves.

And I feel like Hasbro...probably still feels like there's value in licensing out the comics. (Though, we never did get new Ghostbusters comics to piggyback off of Afterlife's release). And Boom does seem like a fairly likely new home, if it comes to that. They do have the Power Rangers and Magic the Gathering comics, and those are owned by Hasbro now too. It might make sense for them to have everything under one "roof".

As for IDW...they'll probably still be fine. They still have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That probably outsells all their other licensed comics by a fair margin, if I had to guess. And they got Sonic the Hedgehog, which is probably selling fairly steady. They seem to have gotten Godzilla back, too. And Usagi Yojimbo...is a pillar of the comics community, even though I don't know how well it actually sells. Even if they lose Transformers, My Little Pony, Dungeons and Dragons, GI Joe, Star Wars, the Marvel Action books...okay, that's about half their output, which isn't great, but it's also saves them on licensing fees. IDW will...probably survive this.

The question I have is, if IDW does lose the license, what happens to everything they have up on Comixology? You still get to access anything you'd already bought, right? But do all IDW Transformers listings immediately come down if/when that happens? There are still some things I'd like to buy, and don't want to miss the chance to do so.
Using Ghostbusters as a example: I believe that the comics just...disappeared one day from Comixology's store. They never even made a announcement about a cut off date or anything. If you have them downloaded, they should stay in your collection and you should be able to redownload them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/comments/hnpdy3
We most likely still have time before anything's finalized one way or the other, though.
 
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CoffeeHorse

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Boom looks like a good fit if they're relatively financially healthy.
 

Daith

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Likewise I still have acess to all the Archie Sonic comics I got on Comixology before they lost the license. If IDW does lose Transformers whatever you have will still be yours, but any chance of seeing anything you missed out on will be up to whoever gets the license next and if they get access to everything IDW had. Star Wars has a good track record of reprinting previous material, but it's only changed hands from Marvel to Dark Horse and back again outside of the young reader Adventure comics that have been put out in recent years. But Sonic on the other hand, Boom hasn't been able to touch any Archie material as far as I've seen. Some of that is tied up in the Penders lawsuit for sure but it's also probably Sega trying to get anything Sonic back to what his game identity is and less furry teen drama that Archie had become throughout the run. If how IDW got things is anyway to look forward it's probably more in the Star Wars side of things than Sonic.
 

Stepwise

Not Crew.
Citizen
I did some digging and revised the list of TPBs I haven't picked up yet . . . it's pretty extensive. That's too bad - I hope that TPB prices on amazon don't skyrocket if IDW loses the license.
 

Exatron

Kaiser Dragon
Citizen
OK, follow-up question. I didn't have any luck finding out much about Comixology Unlimited. Anyone know how it works? I'm assuming you just get access to eligible titles while your subscription is active. I.e. titles you read don't get added to your library of owned titles, do they?

Don't suppose titles you don't own but get access to via Unlimited are available for the DRM-free downloads?
 

Swerve

Life of the Party
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Don't know how I feel about this. I like getting regularly released Transformer comics. Also, everyone keeps referencing Ghostbusters. Did IDW ever officially say they lost the GB license? I mean evidence certainly says so, but is their any official statement.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
OK, follow-up question. I didn't have any luck finding out much about Comixology Unlimited. Anyone know how it works? I'm assuming you just get access to eligible titles while your subscription is active. I.e. titles you read don't get added to your library of owned titles, do they?

Don't suppose titles you don't own but get access to via Unlimited are available for the DRM-free downloads?
No, I believe you don't get a download like with books that you purchase. From what I can tell, any books you download via Unlimited get nulled if you stop your subscription. Any title with the Unlimited banner on it is eligible for it though. So...that might be the way to go, if the books are eligible for Unlimited and depending on how fast you read if you JUST want to read them. If you want to be able to KEEP the books...you're going to have to buy them. And I think if they remove the books from Comixology, you won't be able to read them anymore via Unlimited. You can keep 50 books on your "borrowed" list at a time, though.

And it does seem like the trades for Lost Light, Optimus Prime, Unicron, and Rom vs TFs are all part of Unlimited right now...and many of them are on sale, too. (Although, I'll note that I can't seem to find the First Strike crossover).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/comments/apczrj https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/comments/aej6i1 https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/comments/njrf8h https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/comments/ga31a7
Don't know how I feel about this. I like getting regularly released Transformer comics. Also, everyone keeps referencing Ghostbusters. Did IDW ever officially say they lost the GB license? I mean evidence certainly says so, but is their any official statement.

No, I don't believe they ever have officially commented on losing or still having the Ghostbuster license one way or the other. But, they removed the comics from Comixology and haven't released anything to go along with the new movie. So...I'm just using that as a example of what could, potentially, happen here. If they DO lose the Transformer license...we might not get much of a warning.
 
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ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
...New rumor (again). Bleeding Cool says Image might be the ones to get the Transformers license.

Feels like a odder choice, if true. Image is mostly creator-owned stuff. Not a lot of licensed stuff.

They have put out some of my favorite books, though (Die, Un-Sacred, Chew, Crossover, Curse Words, Descender/Ascender, Invincible, God County, I Hate Fairyland, Monstress, Prophet, Saga, Stray Dogs, etc).

So...they have the talent, but it depends on who they actually get to do the books, I guess. I'm less inclined to believe this one, personally, but stranger things have happened. (But not the Stranger Things comic, that's Dark Horse :) ).
 

Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
Well, Image did have GI Joe at one point, so its not totally out of their wheelhouse.

If IDW is losing TF and Joe, I hope they can get most of their stories resolved first. At least to a satisfying stopping point.
 

Swerve

Life of the Party
Citizen
I wonder if there is any chance the stories (and creators) could continue at a new publisher .
 


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