Disney Sniffing Around Hasbro?

Mark CMG · Nov 7, 2012

Some additional commentary of note -

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=6dd4cbb8-d936-444a-8f2b-6869a1e26688

Scrivener of Doom · Nov 7, 2012

I think it's great news (ditto for their actual purchase of Lucasfilm).

Assuming Disney does buy Hasbro, all it will take is the right executive to look at the D&D IP and the next thing is we could have a decent Pixar-style animated D&D movie with some great toys that will double as minis!

It's all good.

Dannyalcatraz · Nov 7, 2012

The main things Disney has done throwiing its clout in IP law is defending its IP and lobbying for the extension of duration of copyright and trademark.

Lwaxy · Nov 7, 2012

Which is one more reason for me to strongly dislike them. Copyright law already goes way too far and the world doesn't need any more of that nonsense.

Get away from me evil!

As for SW, I'd rather see it over and done with. So many things got messed up I rather not see anyone else making it worse.

delericho · Nov 7, 2012

Dragonblade said:
No. OGL can never be revoked. And frankly, the tabletop side of D&D is a tiny blip on the radar for Hasbro now. It would be the same with Disney.

Yep. Besides, even if they did notice the OGL decide to "do something about it", there are quicker, easier, and more effective ways to do so.

The truth is that there are exactly 2 OGL publishers of any consequence to Disney/Hasbro/WotC: Paizo (with Pathfinder - rivalling D&D), and Green Ronin (with M&M/DC Superheroes - rivalling Marvel). Everyone else is almost completely irrelevant even in terms of the RPG market.

So if they really want to (effectively) kill the OGL, they just need to add two more acquisitions. And while the owners might not want to sell, I daresay they could be moved by a sufficiently large number of zeroes on the cheque.

What is more interesting to me is that FFG and MWP could find the rug pulled out from under them in terms of their rights to do a SW or Marvel RPG. WotC had those rights in the past and let them lapse because the cost benefit wasn't there, but getting them back for free would have to be pretty attractive to the gaming group at WotC I would think. Especially with new SW and Marvel movies on the horizon.

The license probably ties up the rights for a number of years, most likely with clauses specifying a number of products (and some sort of 'approval' clause), so it's unlikely that Disney could just yank them back. However, I suppose there's a possibility of buying out the license.

Of course, all of this assumes that Disney even notice D&D or RPGs, which seems unlikely. And, frankly, I rather hope that they don't, because my gut feeling is that the likely outcome of that is not "WotC get lots more game licenses to play with", but rather "D&D isn't profitable enough, so they cancel it."

Kaodi · Nov 7, 2012

avin said:
I support Donald Duck as an official D&D NPC.

YES! Those who know me know I quack,

.

Desdichado · Nov 7, 2012

Cybit said:
More interesting note: what happens to the OGL? Depending on how it was written / implemented, would a takeover of WotC by another company allow the OGL to be removed? Would depend on how strongly written the copyleft was?

No. I don't know why that keeps coming up; the notion that the OGL can be changed, cancelled, redacted or limited in any way has been soundly rebutted for over a decade.

GMforPowergamers · Nov 7, 2012

Hobo said:
No. I don't know why that keeps coming up; the notion that the OGL can be changed, cancelled, redacted or limited in any way has been soundly rebutted for over a decade.

Well I dont know about anyone else, but in my case it was wishful thinking

Desdichado · Nov 7, 2012

sabrinathecat said:
Surrendering before entering the field. Against Disney. Yeah. That is something to stand up to, if you like tilting at windmills. I have better things to do with my time.

Between this and the Lucasfilm thread, it appears that those "better things" are nothing more than unsubstantiated, unsubstantiable, and generally uninformed generic griping about Disney overall. In other words, what makes the windmills you're already tilting at better than this one? Tilting at one windmill is more or less equivalent to tilting at any other.

Substantive conversation--even speculative--on the other hand, would actually be a better use of time. :shrug: