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Wizard's of the coast actually owns Game Keeper (the mall chain store) now too. It astonishes me that Wizards is allowing themselves to be bought out. But more importantly worries me that many games and game stores might be hurt irreparably in the transition. Wizards bought another Role Playing Game previously from White Wolf Games called "Ars Magica", which was in the same line as Vampire the Masquerade and other Storytelling rpgs. Ars Magica was very quickly dumped on Atlas Games which has since mired the production.

It would be a shame if Hasbro dumped D&D entirely or even put it on the back burner as many gaming stores could be hurt by this move.

For more info on the aquisition goto wizards site.
Joseph Elwell.

The first thing I thought of was RoboRally.
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Inititaive is rolled at the beginning of combat, not every round, but per-round is still supported as an option.

Proficiencies (W&NW) and THAC0 are gone, replaced by a skill system. AC's are reversed and used as the target # for a skill roll (so AC 0 is now AC 20).

Weapons no longer have speed factors.

They've brought back several 1st Ed classes, including assassins and monksThere's also been mention of a sorcerer class, but I can't find any info about it.

There are apparently no longer racial limitations on classes--somewhere I saw a Gnome Paladin/Mage metioned as a viable option.

There were some hints that kits are gone, or changed considerably.

Demihumans now have unlimited advancement.

The Options books are gone, some features have been folded into the main rules.

Greyhawk is being resurrected as the default setting. FR will still be the primary advanced setting, and DragonLance will still be around, but mostly as novels and novel-derived adventures.

Ravenloft, Dark Sun, etc are no more. Planescape was been eliminated because WotC decided it would be more fun for DM's to invent their own cosmology. Gee, thanks.