Ask Wizards April 23rd
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:32 am
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mt ... zards/0407
They posted my question :-)
Q: I have always wondered why Italian got the first non-English printing of a Magic set (Legends). Was there a particularly strong demand amongst Italians for Magic, or was the decision completely arbitrary?
--Davide
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
A: From Ilja Rotelli, Director of Online Media:
Italians are smarter.
Seriously. It happened because the owner of Stratelibri, Italy's largest publisher/distributor in the hobby games industry, was the first one to recognize Magic's potential. He contacted Wizards of the Coast before everyone else to localize and distribute the product in Italy.
That being said, Italian demand was crazy right away. Italy has always had a very strong RPG community, and that was the environment Magic attached to in its early days. Italy, back then and today, is one of the very strongest markets for Magic activity after the United States.
They posted my question :-)
Q: I have always wondered why Italian got the first non-English printing of a Magic set (Legends). Was there a particularly strong demand amongst Italians for Magic, or was the decision completely arbitrary?
--Davide
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
A: From Ilja Rotelli, Director of Online Media:
Italians are smarter.
Seriously. It happened because the owner of Stratelibri, Italy's largest publisher/distributor in the hobby games industry, was the first one to recognize Magic's potential. He contacted Wizards of the Coast before everyone else to localize and distribute the product in Italy.
That being said, Italian demand was crazy right away. Italy has always had a very strong RPG community, and that was the environment Magic attached to in its early days. Italy, back then and today, is one of the very strongest markets for Magic activity after the United States.