Is this WD article a Dear John letter to MB?

[Daedalus]

. . . My point is that WHEN HQ was designed, it was part of the Warhammer World. Since GW and MB split, MB couldn't use the Warhammer World without GW approval, but they COULD add to the HeroQuest brand. Likewise, GW couldn't technically add to the HQ brand without MB's approval (which they must have got, at least twice, since they published HQ adventures in White Dwarf.. . .

Unlike the previous WD Quest, the second WD Quest has a GW copywrite notice at the bottom. I imagine that would have fenced off that Skaven, Troll, and Rat Ogre content from Milton Bradley's future use in Hero Quest. That gesture wouldn't have much pleased MB/Hasbro, I imagine, since MB had plans for two of those monsters. Both a Troll and a Ratman prototype had been made for the unreleased expansions.

This is speculation, but what if GW didn't seek permission for the last WD article? Could that have been the shot that instigated the break up?

[Davane]

I never noticed that.

1991 would have been around the time of the "big change" in GW, where they would switch to only exclusively dealing with Warhammer IP, so there might have been plans in this direction.

That said, the copyright was standard for the time, and was put on every page of WD featuring assets that would most likely be photocopied for use at the table.

It might be that whatever happened between MB and HQ had already happened, and this WD article is just fallout as a result.

I think GW had been dissatisfied with the deal with MB for some time now. You look at the coverage of AHQ compared to HQ in WD, just as GW was breaking in to the US market place, and I don't think GW would have been impressed to find that more people heard of HeroQuest but not AHQ or the Warhammer World...

[Daedalus]

Poor sales definitely could lead to sour grapes if Milton Bradley/Hasbro had led Games Workshop to believe they would share equal shelf space in US stores. I wouldn't feel bad for GW though, since Hasbro's deep pockets put up the cash for TV commercials, while GW relied on White Dwarf advertising.