The internet reacts to…Wizard World’s development deal with Sony

That story about Wizard and Sony teaming up to develop stuff from the Artist Alleys of Wizard Worlds drew a strong response on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/PiaGuerra/status/963273052480946176

https://twitter.com/DaveScheidt/status/963276501201444864

https://twitter.com/SimPurist/status/963325097414221824

https://twitter.com/SimPurist/status/963325105022685184

https://twitter.com/cheryllynneaton/status/963268909809000448

https://twitter.com/CurtPires/status/963264791614652418

https://twitter.com/JAMALIGLE/status/963232937801060353

https://twitter.com/xtop/status/963147578610036736

https://twitter.com/mercurialblonde/status/963230068976836610

Having covered a pact or two in my day, I can say that about 99.8% of them never amount to anything, and this smelled strongly of “guy at Wizard knew guy at Sony and they cooked something up over lunch.” In fact if you read all the quotes in the pr that’s kind of what it says. The tell is in the part in THR where they say “oh we haven’t figured out what this actually means yet.” I read it as Wizard World, a publicly traded company trying to drum up something that looks like progress, announcing a nebulous “deal” that gives the look of activity for very little investment.

Yet the idea of a convention company somehow mining their exhibitors for media rights is a highly dubious one, as several pointed out.

https://twitter.com/neilkleid/status/963157082383044608

https://twitter.com/KodyChamberlain/status/963159682553733120

https://twitter.com/neilkleid/status/963160159160807426

Also, for those concerned that Sony didn’t know that Wizard World is a “garbage fire.” well, Sony Pictures is also a garbage fire at the moment. The CEO of BIG sony, Kaz Hirai, announced he’ll be stepping down, and he was the biggest fan of owning a movie studio at the electronics-focused parent company. Sony Pictures is widely seen as another movie studio in search of a new owner. So who knows, mabe the pacting made them look good, too.

But we’ll leave the final word to an ex-Wizard employee.

https://twitter.com/LYTrules/status/963295588371582976