D&D General Elon Musk Wants To Know 'How Much Is Hasbro?'

Following the richest man in the world's attack on Wizards of the Coast for two paragraphs in the 500-page celebration of D&D, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977, Elon Musk--who bought Twitter not that long ago--wants to know how much D&D's owner Hasbro would cost.

After the public sharing on Twitter of Jason Tondro's (who wrote the book’s foreword) private Facebook posts, Musk replied "How much is Hasbro?"

Hasbro's estimated capitalization is currently $8.71 billion, with $3.95 billion of debt.

It was on 21st December 2017 when Musk similarly enquired "How much is it?" before proceeding to make a bid for Twitter. He later tried to back out of the deal, but was forced to buy the platform for $44 billion in June 2022. Current estimates by investment firm Fidelity put the platform at a value 80% less than when he bought it, with a worth of only about $9.4 billion.

 

[Remathilis]

Remember, Hasbro is bigger than D&D. He'd have Transformers, GI Joe, Monopoly (heh) the Star Wars and Marvel toy rights, and Magic: The Gathering. He could destroy the entire collectable toys and games market.

 

[SlyFlourish]

You all are deep in denial, I TOLD YOU THIS WAS A STRONG POSSIBLITY, BUT YOU ALL SHRUGGED ME OFF.

It still might not have happened, but TONDO HAD TO POKE THE MUSK BEAR WITH HIS SHOT AT GROGNARDS after the dust had been settling.

Why? Why? Do you don't not realize how powerful and wealth Musk is? It's not just Telsa and Twitter, the dude has so many US & other government contracts with Musk it's crazy. Star-Link, Space Z, that freaking Cyberpunk brain chip, etc....,

If Musk rage buys Hasbro, you can blame Tondo.

Musk could sell a tiny fraction of his Telsa stock and as long as he made his reason public that it was to buy Hasbro it'd barely harm Telsa's stock price.

This is mostly Tondo's fault, hope he likes Musk as his new boss.

I do not think we should hide under a rock when people are being attacked for who they are. That's cowardice.

You said the same thing on the other Musk post and, I believe, you're response was more along the lines of not agreeing with the sentiment, is that right? Is this fear of Musk or do you agree with him?

 

[SlyFlourish]

What Musk does or doesn't do is of no interest to me and I have no idea of guessing.

But what can we do about it? How can we ensure our love of this hobby doesn't depend on any single company?

The various SRDs are helpful. Anyone can build a game off of the existing SRDs and modify those SRDs.

The brand could very well be lost but can we still own "D&D" ourselves in every way but actual trademark law?

I'm sure cratering D&D wouldn't help bring new people into the game but there are a lot of people out there who now know RPGs and a lot of RPGs for them to play.

That 5.2 SRD can't come fast enough....

 

[Parmandur]

Remember, Hasbro is bigger than D&D. He'd have Transformers, GI Joe, Monopoly (heh) the Star Wars and Marvel toy rights, and Magic: The Gathering. He could destroy the entire collectable toys and games market.

Another point: sure, Elon would probably be able to get enough money together to make an offer...but if he starts offering, another entity with enough money that is an invested partner of Hasbro could also counter-offer. Lots of other parties involved, not just the lone wolf with a big stock portfolio.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

To be devil’s advocate, Elon didn’t buy Twitter with his money.

He got banks, hedge funds, Middle East wealth, to back his purchase based on his promises and his track record with tech.

Then he crashed the value of a social network like horse loose in a hospital leading to massive write downs.

What are the chances he will get second takers for backing acquiring a tabletop publisher after that record?

He’s trolling.

 

[overgeeked]

What Musk does or doesn't do is of no interest to me and I have no idea of guessing.

But what can we do about it? How can we ensure our love of this hobby doesn't depend on any single company?

The various SRDs are helpful. Anyone can build a game off of the existing SRDs and modify those SRDs.

The brand could very well be lost but can we still own "D&D" ourselves in every way but actual trademark law?

I'm sure cratering D&D wouldn't help bring new people into the game but there are a lot of people out there who now know RPGs and a lot of RPGs for them to play.

That 5.2 SRD can't come fast enough....

Amen. Folk D&D forever.

 

[Lanefan]

Another point: sure, Elon would probably be able to get enough money together to make an offer...but if he starts offering, another entity with enough money that is an invested partner of Hasbro could also counter-offer. Lots of other parties involved, not just the lone wolf with a big stock portfolio.

And Musk could probably out-bid all the "other parties involved" put together if he really wanted to.

(there's another and even worse approach he could take that, as he doesn't seem to have thought of it yet, I'll not mention here)

 

[abirdcall]

I think D&D as we conceptualize it would be completely fine as rules can't be copyrighted and it is all our imaginations.

As people have said, we will just move to another publishing company and depending on what their contracts allow them to do the current D&D creators will make games elsewhere too.

And that is actually pretty cool. Our hobby is resilient to this sort of ridiculous powerplay.

The main bad thing for D&D that comes to mind is Hasbro's current investment in D&D videogames. Those will probably end up being either terrible or abandoned. Then again, what made BG3 great was Larian Studios and they have said their next game will be independent again.

 

[overgeeked]

He isn't powerful. Wealthy, sure, but he's not powerful.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we live in a capitalist hellscape. Money is power. And Musk is the richest man on the planet. That’s a lot of power.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we live in a capitalist hellscape. Money is power. And Musk is the richest man on the planet. That’s a lot of power.

Maybe he will pull a Crassus.