WotC ICv2 Has A Theory That WotC Will Be Sold

[jeffh]

Hasbro's whole business strategy is holding onto any IP with a shred of potential. They're quite willing to let stuff go dormant for decades at a time and then bring it back out for a new generation. If they'd been around in 800 BC they'd still own the Iliad.

For that reason alone, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to happen. This is even more true when combined with other issues that have been brought up, such as the lack of an obvious buyer,

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I like the speculation about mergers and acquisitions in the entertainment industry, and my opinion is Hasbro doesn't want to sell D&D neither Magic: the Gathering because they are potentially good cash-cows. Transformers was an almost forgotten IPs until the first Michaley Bay's blockbuster movie, and nobody could guess the reboot of My Little Pony would be a total boom or success. And the last ones have been the best economic years for D&D.

Now it's not a good time to buy but if you are a big fish eating a little one, megacorporations aquiring little companies too weak to survive this economic crisis. The epidemic has caused a serious damage to the global economy and even Disney is losing money by fault of the closed theme parks. Today the companies are too catious to buy.

Who would buy WotC but without the main titles? 3PPs would rather to earn their own prestige as brand. WotC without D&D+M:tG has not enough prestige to be valuable.

If WotC's reputation is too damage by fault of the last controversies I guess Hasbro could reuse the old name "TSR" and send there the designer team, or maybe only some changes within the executive team.

I read (in reddit /merger) somebody saying Hasbro may buy Metro Goldwy Meyer, and I don't reject the idea of a possible future acquisition of Asmodee Games by Hasbro. The merger with Mattel was rejectd by this, but this doesn't mean it can't happen anytime in the future.

 

[MNblockhead]

Yeah I don’t see how anybody can argue that Legends of Vox Machina is not a D&D show. They literally took their D&D campaign and made it a cartoon.

Well, it won't have any D&D branding or any reference to the game. A lot of fantasy, including The Witcher and even Game of Thrones to some extent, took some inspiration from D&D. That doesn't make them D&D movies. I'm guessing, at most, Vox Machina will have a thank you to WotC and some copyright notices for any monster names, etc. that are WotC IP. Maybe some easter eggs for D&D fans. But I don't consider it to be much more of a D&D movie than Dragon Prince.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I don't know enough about Amazon to dare to tell something, but I guess Hasbro and Amazon will want to have a good relation. Hasbro notices she can makes a lot of money thanks licences and partnerships. Disney doesn't need D&D because it can produce its own fantasy productions. and starting a new IP allow more creative freedom. But Disney notices there are a lot of profits with the licenced toys, however Disney isn't in its best time to try a new merger or acquisition. Now the strategy should be to survive the economic crisis and maybe to buy some buy some little company if it's enough cheap before this to be sold to a rival.

Hasbro doesn't want to be bought by Disney, and my intution says our society will suffer a radical cultural change what alter the entertaiment industry. Let's say we will see different standards about being politically correct and companies will have to obey other rules about good manners to avoid boycot by the masses.

Other theory is what Marvel and DC intentionally want to lose market portion in the comic industry, allowin other publisher houses to fill those empty space. Why? Then anti-monopoly laws may allow a DC+Marvel merger. I know it is a very fool theory but I love this type of crazy speculations.

I guess the logicest option is to quit any possible "rotten apple" or "black sheep" in the managament staff to clean and recover prestige for the WotC brand. If this is not possible, then the designer team to be send to a reopened division of TSR.

 

[Wolfram stout]

What about Wendy's?

We know they are desperate to get into the RPG market from their RPG a while back. Could be a win-win. Lots of cross-promotional opportunity.

 

[Crit]

You don't see WH40K films because they'd be terribly politically incorrect. And, unlike Judge Dredd, the incorrectness is not satire.

Warhammer's in an interesting place. I've definitely seen it attract unsavory people interested in some of the less tasteful elements. When people seriously raise a banner of something that's supposed to be a caricature of their bad opinions, then your satire just became their propaganda. cough imperium cough

I'd argue that Warhammer itself doesn't translate well to a general audience to start with. How do you put a tabletop/lore experience like it onto a movie screen? After you get there, the monotonous grim dark is your next obstacle, and then you get to the implications of the actual content. I think it's best it stays on the tabletop or in video games.

As for DnD, I legitimately don't know how to approach it. technically a DnD campaign could be in any setting following any story, and that amorphousness is what we associate with the brand, right after standard fantasy conventions. You can use DnD as a base for writing something, but you can't write the story of DnD itself, so why use the brand title at all if you make media? (I know it's profitable and good marketing, it's just rhetorical)

 

[Phion]

Warhammer's in an interesting place. I've definitely seen it attract unsavory people interested in some of the less tasteful elements. When people seriously raise a banner of something that's supposed to be a caricature of their bad opinions, then your satire just became their propaganda. cough imperium cough

I'd argue that Warhammer itself doesn't translate well to a general audience to start with. How do you put a tabletop/lore experience like it onto a movie screen? After you get there, the monotonous grim dark is your next obstacle, and then you get to the implications of the actual content. I think it's best it stays on the tabletop or in video games.

As for DnD, I legitimately don't know how to approach it. technically a DnD campaign could be in any setting following any story, and that amorphousness is what we associate with the brand, right after standard fantasy conventions. You can use DnD as a base for writing something, but you can't write the story of DnD itself, so why use the brand title at all if you make media? (I know it's profitable and good marketing, it's just rhetorical)

I honestly think the best way is acknowledge that the players are in the story and got from there. The issue with this is that it would probably just come across a knock off Jumanji.

 

[Alzrius]

5e PHB on Amazon is ranked 103 overall in all books....6 years after it’s released. 5e is still selling well, I can’t see them selling if it’s contribution margin to profits is strong.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but every time I hear something like this, I flash back about ten years to when someone on these boards said that D&D 4E wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, because we knew how much a DDI subscription cost and we could see how many subscribers there were (which worked out to, if I recall correctly, WotC earning somewhere in the area of $30 million per year just from the DDI).

But we all know how that turned out.

 

[Aldarc]

A D&D movie has to include people in the real world playing D&D interspersed with “in-game” sequences, and derive its humor and pathos from the interplay between the players in the real world and the stuff that happens in-game a la She Fights Monsters. That is the only way to differentiate it from every other fantasy movie.

Otherwise, it’s just another fantasy movie, and inevitably worse than Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.

Saying it will “inevitably” be anything is definitely hyperbolic, but I do agree with the underlying sentiment that a D&D movie would have an uphill battle selling itself as something other than just another fantasy movie.

Conversely, a movie that focuses too much on players playing the game turns the movie into an even more transparent 2.5 hour long game commercial.

 

[Quartz]

For a D&D movie I'd film Days of High Adventure. To make it tween-friendly just cut the sex scene and change the temple of Derketo. You could have an 18-rated film just by putting those back in