D&D 5E Prediction: Hasbro Will Acquire Foundry Virtual Tabletop for $24M

[darjr]

D&D is the gateway to this hobby. It's brand recognition is unparalleled in it's niche. Why would Wizards want to allow anything they make and control to contribute to the brand recognition of competing products? I even suspect this is policy within Wizards. Try to find any mention of other big games by name by the design staff. I couldn't find one on any of their twitter timelines, or any public statements like press releases or interviews.

Retweeted by Justice Ramin Arman, brand new at WotC, you'd think he'd be pretty fresh on WotC policy.

Oh and just to throw shade at the nameless ones.

 

[darjr]

If AboveVTT wasn't OSS, I'd call it a possible acquisition - has most of the features people want, only works with D&DBeyond, and is browser based.

DDB pulled in the discord integration thing. That was OSS.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hasbro is going to purchase Disney.

You heard it here first!

Is that before or after Park Lane and Mayfair?

 

[darjr]

Does Dan Dillon count? Or any of these?


I do admit they are few and far between though. They do talk about D&D an awe-full lot.

 

[glass]

Here are my proposed odds on Hasbro's VTT strategy:

not make a VTT -350
Roll 20 -100
Foundry +75
Fantasy Grounds 2:1
Tale Spire 5:1
make their own VTT 9:1

How do the first three work?

_
glass.

 

[JThursby]

@darjr Excellent diligence, I didn't catch any of those. I searched mainly for the big name games (Path/Starfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Warhammer, etc).

If it isn't policy it might be an informal thing. I remember seeing an interview with JC around the release of Dragon Heist where he was asked if he took inspiration from other games (Pathfinder was name dropped) and instead of answering the question he went on an unrelated tangent. Maybe there isn't a forbidden door at all, maybe it's a faux pas in Wizards work culture, but whatever the case it certainly is strange how infrequently anything in the hobby outside of D&D gets mentioned.

 

[darjr]

@JThursby i agree it is a tad weird. But I think in some cases, like Christopher Perkins case, it really is kinda D&D all the time.

 

[Jer]

If it isn't policy it might be an informal thing. I remember seeing an interview with JC around the release of Dragon Heist where he was asked if he took inspiration from other games (Pathfinder was name dropped) and instead of answering the question he went on an unrelated tangent.

The US is litigation happy enough that it could just be an abundance of caution about getting sued.

Much like how directors and screenwriters will often have their assistants throw unsolicited scripts away unread so that they can't be accused of stealing someone else's ideas.

(As an academic I hate that attitude - cite your sources people, and we shouldn't be worried about calling out our influences to that degree. Everything is ultimately a remix of ideas anyway. But that's not how it works in creative fields.)

 

[billd91]

The US is litigation happy enough that it could just be an abundance of caution about getting sued.

Much like how directors and screenwriters will often have their assistants throw unsolicited scripts away unread so that they can't be accused of stealing someone else's ideas.

(As an academic I hate that attitude - cite your sources people, and we shouldn't be worried about calling out our influences to that degree. Everything is ultimately a remix of ideas anyway. But that's not how it works in creative fields.)

For academic writing, sure. For scripts/screenplays that may make a substantial amount of money? Merely citing sources won't be enough - you need to pay people for that.

 

[Deset Gled]

For academic writing, sure. For scripts/screenplays that may make a substantial amount of money? Merely citing sources won't be enough - you need to pay people for that.

To rant in a different direction, this is also why it's so important for copyrights to expire, eventually. As we get better at preserving stories, it's equally important to be able to let them be free.