D&D 5E The Pitfalls of Success: Hasbro Success Story, Take 2

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is today the main strategy is multimedia franchises, this means making money with different products: games, toys, novels, comics, TV shows, shirts and the rest of merchandising.

Today D&D is becoming one of the main Hasbro's franchises, with M:tG next to Transformers, Power Rangers, G.I.Joe and Litle Pony.

WotC wants the digital market, and not only videogames. I wonder about the potential of (free) webcomics.

Too soon for the 6th Edition but we could bet WotC wants to create a d20 Modern to publish TTRPGs based in famous franchises, not only Star Wars d20, but also the famous superheroes franchises (Marvel and DC). This is a serious challenge for game designers, to find a system easy to be understood by the new players, right power balance, and retrocompatible with 5th Ed. Why do you think Hasbro parternerd with Renegade Game Studios?

WotC would like to use d20 Future (Star Frontiers+Star*Drive) but not yet because Disney doesn't want a new rival for Star Wars.

* 2021 will be a year with radical changes in the complete entertaiment industry, and indirectly this will affect IPs by the biggest companies. Let's say now we can't guess the future acquisitions and mergers within media companies. Maybe this can be a horrible year for AT&T(Warner/DC) and Disney, so bad they had to agreee some merger with other. Anti-monopoly could allow it if both aren't big fishes after the post-epidemic economic fall.

 

[CleverNickName]

Also, Ska is great, fight me.

That's the impression that I get.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

When you're running a machine that prints money, don't mess with the machine. It will print money for as long as you don't screw with it.

Sure!

But the thing is ... wouldn't it be nice if the machine made more money?

All you have to do is tinker with it a little. Because, you know, more money, right!

And if you succeed, that means that you can tinker some more ... and make even more! And we all love more money!

Just gotta keep on tinkering. Wait, the machine stopped working? Oh well.

 

[dragoner]

Colt firearms bought holley (carburetors and other speed parts) because of aluminum casting, then colt lost their gov't contract and holley's re-vamped line became the major business of the group, at which point holley unloaded colt to a guy in the UK.

That's the thing about business, the environment can totally change in 5-10 years.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Colt firearms bought holley (carburetors and other speed parts) because of aluminum casting, then colt lost their gov't contract and holley's re-vamped line became the major business of the group, at which point holley unloaded colt to a guy in the UK.

That's the thing about business, the environment can totally change in 5-10 years.

Agreed. Which is why this moment is so interesting.

Is D&D a whole IP? Is it like Marvel? Lord of the Rings (soon on Amazon)? Or even Transformers? Is it something that can be monetized as an on-going asset?

Or is it more a game having its moment in the sun, where the value is in the playing of it, and the IP itself (the Forgotten Realms, the Mind Flayers, the Fireballs) isn't going to mean much outside of the game?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Agreed. Which is why this moment is so interesting.

Is D&D a whole IP? Is it like Marvel? Lord of the Rings (soon on Amazon)? Or even Transformers? Is it something that can be monetized as an on-going asset?

Or is it more a game having its moment in the sun, where the value is in the playing of it, and the IP itself (the Forgotten Realms, the Mind Flayers, the Fireballs) isn't going to mean much outside of the game?

D&D has had since the beginning (more or less) a successful novel line. It might not have been good but it was commercially successful. It also a long legacy of successful video games. It has not had movie or TV success mostly because no-one has thrown enough money at D&D story telling in those medium.

I never played Baldur's Gate but I get the impression that one could base a decent TV series on it, Neverwinters Nights 2 could make a movie or TV series or Dragonlance or the Crystal Shard would also make a reasonable premise for a movie or TV series.

None of these stories done in another medium would be a blow by a blow remake of the other format and it should not be

 

[dragoner]

Agreed. Which is why this moment is so interesting.

Is D&D a whole IP? Is it like Marvel? Lord of the Rings (soon on Amazon)? Or even Transformers? Is it something that can be monetized as an on-going asset?

Or is it more a game having its moment in the sun, where the value is in the playing of it, and the IP itself (the Forgotten Realms, the Mind Flayers, the Fireballs) isn't going to mean much outside of the game?

Who knows? Though I have heard D&D casually mentioned more than in the past, and not with the usual derision about being nerds or something.

In the past, I seem to remember that the film rights were tied up in a separate contract, which is anathema to most entertainment IP's.

 

[Oofta]

Who knows? Though I have heard D&D casually mentioned more than in the past, and not with the usual derision about being nerds or something.

In the past, I seem to remember that the film rights were tied up in a separate contract, which is anathema to most entertainment IP's.

The rights for D&D movies were held by SweetPea entertainment as long as they produced sequels to their original (bad) movie. They produced a couple of Sci-Fi movies but eventually taken to court where they settled [1].

Since then it's been kind of bouncing around, this is the furthest it's gotten to becoming a real movie that I'm aware of.

 

[Zardnaar]

The rights for D&D movies were held by SweetPea entertainment as long as they produced sequels to their original (bad) movie. They produced a couple of Sci-Fi movies but eventually taken to court where they settled [1].

Since then it's been kind of bouncing around, this is the furthest it's gotten to becoming a real movie that I'm aware of.

This he bought the movie rights in 1991 for 10k.

 

[clearstream]

I think the future is hard to predict, especially when it hasn't happened yet.

One cannot help but agree that the parts of the future that have already happened are easy to predict.