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.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

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.

What publisher with the cash to purchase D&D is likely to produce the version you want?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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?

Larian's success has been gigantic. They pretty much definitely passed 1bn and might have hit or been to to 2bn.

I don't know how much that will change but WotC certainly has a better negotiating position than they used to so licencing deals are likely to be more favourable to WotC. However, the larger an entity negotiating with WotC (and Tencent Gaming is a lot bigger than WotC), especially if they have reach to the Chinese market (hard to get into) and dozens of major AAA game companies are part-owned by them, which would let Tencent get a relatively much better deal from WotC than some others.

It looks like Larian's deal with a percentage of the money the game made so I imagine it'd be similar with other games.

Correct.

Fair enough!

I may perhaps be too optimistic as I think about it more.

What publisher with the cash to purchase D&D is likely to produce the version you want?

Yeah that's a great question. I can't think of anyone who could afford the D&D IP for the actual TT RPG who would necessarily or even likely do a good job with it, and not just decide it was too much effort. I do think a lot of game publishers would do a better job with the licence for videogames than WotC has managed though.

 

[jgsugden]

Larian's success has been gigantic. They pretty much definitely passed 1bn and might have hit or been to to 2bn.

Last estimate I heard for BG3 sales was 6 million copies. At $60 or $70 per copy, that would be ... far less than 1bn in US Dollars. I hear lifetime total sales for OS 2 was about the same. Lifetime they may have $1Bn overall all their titles.

Does anyone have data contradicting that?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's getting ridiculous. There's so much good D&D stuff on YouTube but it's starting to get buried under this extreme negative clickbait. At this rate, eventually, it's just going to be useless.

That's why I stay away from YouTube unless it's posted here - where I can usually expect you (and other contributors) to "curate" it for me! Of course, increasingly stuff is posted by our community members that is less then worthwhile. At least I can usually tell, and don't bother watching the video (even if i sometimes find myself dragged in to the discussion).

At any rate, that's the long-winded way of saying: Thanks for what you do.

 

[Retreater]

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, I am trying to move away from my regular "doom and gloom" type posts that have earned me a bad reputation on here.
My hope is that this can be a wakeup call in the gaming community so bad stories like this don't get a megaphone by people who want to celebrate the end of Hasbro.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What publisher with the cash to purchase D&D is likely to produce the version you want?

None that I can think of, but the question wasn't what could practically happen in the sad world we live in, but what I think would be best for the game. Reality is always more depressing.

 

[MoonSong]

It's getting ridiculous. There's so much good D&D stuff on YouTube but it's starting to get buried under this extreme negative clickbait. At this rate, eventually, it's just going to be useless.

At this point I just follow Pointy hat. When something pops up that isn't Dungeoncrafting or Treantmonk, I just click "don't recommend this channel"

 

[Simpletense]

Last estimate I heard for BG3 sales was 6 million copies. At $60 or $70 per copy, that would be ... far less than 1bn in US Dollars. I hear lifetime total sales for OS 2 was about the same. Lifetime they may have $1Bn overall all their titles.

Does anyone have data contradicting that?

According to VGI, 14 million copies sold on Steam with revenue at $667.3m. When you add PlayStation, XBox, and GoG sales to that it might not be far off.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I may perhaps be too optimistic as I think about it more.

I think that you're right that we could experience more positive videos depending on the behavior of WotC in the future (when compared to right now), but Morrus is right that the general trend will always be DOWN until something is done about how YouTube monetises content.

None that I can think of, but the question wasn't what could practically happen in the sad world we live in, but what I think would be best for the game. Reality is always more depressing.

Yeah, unfortunately any company that could afford D&D would probably be worse than WotC, not better. It would be more akin to having Hasbro run D&D directly, rather than through WotC, which at least is populated by people who love the game, whether their taste directly aligns with yours or not.

 

[Osgood]

Last estimate I heard for BG3 sales was 6 million copies. At $60 or $70 per copy, that would be ... far less than 1bn in US Dollars. I hear lifetime total sales for OS 2 was about the same. Lifetime they may have $1Bn overall all their titles.

Does anyone have data contradicting that?

Plus it's noting that Larian doesn't get the whole $60 from each sale either. Steam, Amazon, or whoever sold the game gets a their cut, and there's overhead and the development costs. I have no idea what they make from each sale. Anyone know? $20 $10? Less? Nothing to sneeze at, but I doubt it's lets buys D&D and get into a whole new type of industry (publishing) money!