D&D General No, Hasbro Is Not Selling D&D

I wasn't going to comment on this rumour in article form--despite a 20-page-and-counting thread about it--but it seems some clarification is needed as it's all over social media and the usual click-bait YouTube channels.

First off, Dungeons & Dragons is not being sold. That's the short version.

WotC, including D&D, is Hasbro's most profitable division and, as many put it, it's 'golden goose'. Despite an article on Pandaily being entitled "Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent"--and much of which is a close copy of a recent YouTube video rumour--buried halfway down the article is the important paragraph:

A Tencent IEG (Interactive Entertainment Group) insider revealed that Tencent, represented by its overseas business department IEG Global, is in negotiations with the aim of acquiring a series of rights including the adaptation rights for electronic games such as DND.

That means they wish to license the D&D IP to make video games. WotC licenses the D&D IP all the time--that's why you see all those D&D lunchboxes and plushies and t-shirts and miniatures and foam dragon heads and, indeed, movies and video games. Licensing an IP is not buying an IP. Modiphius is licensing the Star Trek IP for their TTRPG; Modiphius hasn't bought Star Trek. I published the Judge Dredd TTRPG for a couple of years, but I didn't own the Judge Dredd IP.

Tencent, incidentally, owns 30% of Larian Studios, who made the recent Baldur's Gate 3 video game--under license, of course (Larian didn't buy D&D either). Tencent is a massive Chinese company known for venture capital, social media, mobile games, internet services, and more, and is one of the world's largest companies. Tencent Games is a division of the company. It has stakes in a lot of companies.

So what does WotC have to say? "We are not looking to sell our D&D IP". The following statement was sent to outlets who reached out for clarification:

We regularly talk to Tencent and enjoy multiple partnerships with them across a number of our IPs. We don't make a habit of commenting on internet rumors, but to be clear: we are not looking to sell our D&D IP. We will keep talking to partners about how we bring the best digital experiences to our fans. We won't comment any further on speculation or rumors about potential M&A or licensing deals."

So, to be clear, Hasbro is not selling D&D to a Chinese company. They are in--as always--talks to license their IP to various companies for various purposes, including electronic games, movies, and lunchboxes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I took the idea that Hasbro was trying to sell off D&D with a huge grain of salt, but didn't dismiss it out of hand. I still remember so many people here that said the idea that Wizards would try to shyster its way out of the OGL being unconceivable.

Good point. A lot of people thought that was fake news. Now we know better.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

A theory is that an AI news aggregator got ahold of a recent RFC video and made this article, which ballooned into more videos and articles, fueling a cycle of misinformation. This is why it's important to use trusted news sources. I'm afraid these sort of topics will become more frequent (and covering more important issues.)

Wait, you're afraid that the cycle of misinformation might become more frequent, and cover more important issues than D&D?

....oh, my sweet summer child.

 

[Timespike]

Wait, you're afraid that the cycle of misinformation might become more frequent, and cover more important issues than D&D?

....oh, my sweet summer child.

Yeah, sadly that genie is out of its bottle, that bell has been rung, and all the toothpaste is out of its tube. We are in that world everywhere and it sucks.

 

[Dausuul]

Too bad. I'm one of those who think D&D would be better off with another publisher, at least as far as the quality of the game is concerned.

Maybe so, but do you really think TenCent is that publisher?

I can certainly think of companies I'd prefer to see handling the D&D IP, but as @Staffan observed, the intersection of that set of companies with the set of companies that could actually afford it is null.

 

[Deset Gled]

Wait, you're afraid that the cycle of misinformation might become more frequent, and cover more important issues than D&D?

....oh, my sweet summer child.

Aw man, I really don't need to get sucked into another debate about the USS Maine today.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Troll Lord Games keeps posting about it on Twitter and it just makes them look bad / petty. Im actually surprised they went this route. I never got they had it out for WotC.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

While (a) yes of course that's true--and obvious, also (b) it's not just D&D but pretty much everything in fandom. All of it. It's what YouTube incentivises, and controversy sells. Even if you have to make it up. So no, I don't think it's going to die down without YouTube itself changing.

I don't think it is necessarily obvious even if perhaps it should be. A lot of people dismiss certain fandoms as inherently toxic, or praise them as inherently good-natured, but in many cases, perhaps most, it's simply down to how badly behaved the company involved has been recently.

Re: not thinking it's going to die down, I feel like that's an odd expectation given you pointed out this applied to other fandoms too. By your logic YouTube for any given IP could literally only ever get worse without YouTube changing the algorithm. Also note YouTube did change the algorithm quite some time ago re: negative coverage of branded IPs (2018 IIRC but I could check), both lowering linking (not the right word - discoverability, surfacing - how much YouTube shows people the video anyway) to videos and making them less likely to get ads even if monetized. YouTubers noticed that you could play with this by avoiding using the product name and avoiding being outright negative in wording. So instead of "WotC are a terrible company who hate you", or "D&D isn't a good game" or the like, you'd get "You won't believe what the biggest RPG company did!" together with a thumbnail implying the video is negative (which, confusingly, it sometimes isn't!). So I'm not sure what to change.

(They also changed the algorithm at a different time to try and reduce negativity in another way - in my view that worked - YouTube used to recommend increasingly negative/grim/extreme videos to you, like you watch a video discussing the writing in Mass Effect, and it contains like, mild criticism or was just called "A critical analysis" or something, old YouTube would then be recommending videos like "SJWs are ruining games!" "Why female characters in games don't make sense" "Mass Effect got DESTROYED by woke writers!!!" and so on, and it's like what the hell, and YouTube wouldn't quit recommending them either! But that did change, and now you usually have to seek that out (or it's one video in a list of 20 instead of 14 videos in a list of 20). Unfortunately YouTube improved this as a bunch of other video stuff started becoming popular, and most of that - particularly TikTok - does exactly what YouTube moved away from!

Anyway we know from looking at other fandoms we absolutely have seen them get better and worse and then better again when it comes to negative content dominating coverage on YouTube. It's a slow process but people don't just click on negative news, and as I said, if you get a lot of false/fictional negative news, people click on it less and less and trust the YouTubers involved less and less.

On the other hand maybe I am an unreasonable optimist on this! But I really do think if WotC can keep its nose clean for a couple of years things will improve hugely for casual searching re: D&D on YouTube.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe so, but do you really think TenCent is that publisher?

I can certainly think of companies I'd prefer to see handling the D&D IP, but as @Staffan observed, the intersection of that set of companies with the set of companies that could actually afford it is null.

Let's start with getting a publisher that sells pdfs.

 

[Stormonu]

My question is, why would Larian want/need to pull in TenCent to pay for D&D game publishing rights after BG3 made bokoodle bucks? Hasbro’s in trouble, inflation is bad - but have the rights for D&D games gone up THAT much?

 

[Morrus]

By your logic YouTube for any given IP could literally only ever get worse without YouTube changing the algorithm.

Correct.