Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license

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Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license covers Decipher's license to publish SWCCG, its pitch to keep it, and the license's end on 31 December 2001. Lucasfilm then gave the card-game rights to Wizards of the Coast, and Decipher handed SWCCG to the volunteer Players Committee.

The license

Decipher was meeting Lucasfilm at Skywalker Ranch as a licensee by November 1994, while developing its Star Wars game.[1] Premiere shipped in December 1995. In 1998 Lucasfilm renewed the license and extended it to The Phantom Menace.[2][3]

The pitch to keep the license

•Skywalker Ranch, promotional card made to show Lucasfilm.[4][5]

In July 2000 Decipher pitched Lucasfilm executives on its plans for the license.[6] It proposed marketing programs (sweepstakes for walk-on roles, set visits and Ranch visits, World Championship prizes, George Lucas signature cards, in-theater promotions, mall tours and fast-food premiums), a digital Star Wars CCG, and a backward-compatible SWCCG 2nd Edition for 2001. It asked Lucasfilm to treat card games as a core category, give earlier access to film material, ease channel restrictions and avoid over-licensing. Decipher pointed to roughly a quarter of a billion dollars that customers had spent on Decipher's Star Wars games. Lucasfilm approved none of it.[6]

Decipher also made a special promotional card to show Lucasfilm, the Location •Skywalker Ranch. It is not a playtest card.[5] Its game text reads "If you occupy, Decipher gets the CCG license here." Its copyright line is dated 2000.[4]

After the loss, Chairman Warren Holland said Decipher had offered Lucasfilm more money than for any previous license. He blamed the influence of Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast and a push toward younger, Pokémon-style games. He did not disclose the terms of a settlement with Lucasfilm.[7][8]

End of the license

Decipher announced on 28 December 2001 that Lucasfilm would not extend the license.[9][8] Wizards of the Coast received an exclusive multi-year worldwide trading-card license and planned a new game with Episode II content for 2002.[7] In a special Radio Free Decipher broadcast the same day, Holland said Decipher's manufacturing and sell-off period ran through 30 April 2002.[10] He said Decipher's offer to keep the license was more than George Lucas spent to make the original Star Wars film.[11] It was also six times what Decipher had paid for Episode I.[11] The license agreement gave Lucasfilm a contractual right to license Decipher's game mechanics by paying royalties. Lucasfilm chose not to use that right, so any new Star Wars card game would be incompatible with Decipher's.[12] Lucasfilm had also turned down the virtual-card design of Decipher's planned last product, Reflections Gold.[13] Decipher could no longer make SWCCG expansions, and cards in development were never released.[2] See Decipher after the Star Wars license.

Handoff to the Players Committee

In January 2002 Decipher created the volunteer Players Committee to run tournaments, rulings and support for the game.[14] Holland first described the committee in the 28 December 2001 broadcast: a non-profit group of volunteer players and playtesters, given email, web and office support by Decipher, which would take over prize support, the web pages, rules and FAQs and World Championship duties at the end of April 2002, and would post replacement game text for existing cards to make them tournament legal.[15] The Committee may issue new cards only electronically and for free, with no new film images; see Players Committee-Lucasfilm agreement and History of the Players Committee.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "After launching a game based on Star Trek, Norfolk company Decipher Inc. is hoping that success is in the cards", The Virginian-Pilot, 13 November 1994, Business section.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  3. ↑ Allen Varney, "Game news & updates", The Duelist No. 25 (May 1998), p. 82
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2, Players Committee (4 May 2026), p. 3. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bill Bisco, personal communication, 21 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Excerpts from Decipher's July 2000 Presentation to Lucasfilm, decipher.com (Wayback, 2 June 2002)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Wizards of the Coast Gets Star Wars CCG, ICv2, 1 January 2002. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lucasfilm terminates Decipher's Star Wars License, TheForce.Net, 28 December 2001. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  9. ↑ The Star Wars Announcement, decipher.com (Wayback, 1 June 2002)
  10. ↑ Radio Free Decipher Special Broadcast (28 December, 2001): Warren Holland and the Players Committee, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 18 February 2022), at 00:27. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Special Broadcast (28 December 2001) transcript.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Radio Free Decipher Special Broadcast (28 December, 2001): Warren Holland and the Players Committee, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 18 February 2022), at 03:47. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Special Broadcast (28 December 2001) transcript.
  12. ↑ Radio Free Decipher Special Broadcast (28 December, 2001): Warren Holland and the Players Committee, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 18 February 2022), at 17:33. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Special Broadcast (28 December 2001) transcript.
  13. ↑ Radio Free Decipher Special Broadcast (28 December, 2001): Warren Holland and the Players Committee, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 18 February 2022), at 19:23. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Special Broadcast (28 December 2001) transcript.
  14. ↑ The Star Wars Players' Committee, decipher.com (Wayback, 11 June 2002)
  15. ↑ Radio Free Decipher Special Broadcast (28 December, 2001): Warren Holland and the Players Committee, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 18 February 2022), at 22:12. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Special Broadcast (28 December 2001) transcript.
  16. ↑ About Us, starwarsccg.org. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
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