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.

 

[Parmandur]

Although we would all like to think that was the case, Chris Cocks confirmed at least once in an investor call that that wasn’t so. While WotC did indeed backtrack, it’s wasn’t due to financial aspects. I suspect there were two camps inside the company but the exact details of what went on behind the scenes won’t be known until somebody there at the time tells-all. But no, the evidence suggests that DDB cancellations were not as significant as we’d have thought.

Well, I think a probable read was that they were short-term significant enough to spark action from Hasbro, which prevented them from being significant in the long run.

 

[Staffan]

You argue that with him, I just shared the news of the Last Great One lashing out on Tondo.

"Last Great One"? What major contributions did Rob Kuntz make to D&D, other than just being one of the original players? Like, in what way did he fundamentally advance the state of D&D? Yes, he co-wrote Deities & Demigods, but what's "great" about him other than being a friend of Gygax's?

I mean, Gygax (and Arneson) invented the game, or at least codified a bunch of folk traditions into D&D. Tom Moldvay and later Frank Mentzer were the ones who turned Basic D&D into a separate game line. Tracy Hickman introduced more story into the game with Pharaoh, Ravenloft, and Dragonlance. Zeb Cook revised AD&D 1e into a somewhat more coherent game in 2e. Ed Greenwood, aided by Jeff Grubb, created the Forgotten Realms which is the game's most successful setting. Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams were lead designers on 3e, which was basically a whole new game based on the same concepts. Keith Baker aided by James Wyatt and Bill Slavicsek made Eberron, the objectively best D&D setting. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford lead development on 5e, which is the most commercially successful edition of the game.

These are the people I'd put in a D&D design hall of fame. What has Kuntz done that compares with these?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Although we would all like to think that was the case, Chris Cocks confirmed at least once in an investor call that that wasn’t so. While WotC did indeed backtrack, it’s wasn’t due to financial aspects. I suspect there were two camps inside the company but the exact details of what went on behind the scenes won’t be known until somebody there at the time tells-all. But no, the evidence suggests that DDB cancellations were not as significant as we’d have thought.

I can believe that the actual cancellations were pretty light, but it'd be hard to believe that the increasing anger and increasing public embarrassment for D&D (as more and more sources reported on this) as a brand didn't add a ton of weight to the anti-OGL camp, especially given we know there were at least three attempts to make the OGL 2.0 happen, before the sudden 180 to not only no OGL 2.0, but CCBY.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Exactly. Clearly whatever was going on, whether it really hurt WotC financially or not, scared WotC, and caused them to turn absolutely 180 on the OGL 2.0, not only banishing it from existence entirely, but actually coming back the other way and making D&D's SRD into CCBY, which I don't think anyone expected.

It was the lawsuit, WotC realized it wouldn't win them and as such it wasn't worth pissing people online off, especially youtubers they were partnering with.

Anyways just found out Musk's comment sent Hasbros stock spiking upwards.

I'm now picturing CEO Chris Cocks egging Tondo onto keep angering Musk to see how hight the stock goes before Musk buys Hasbro and CEO Chris Cocks can cash out for the big payout.

Elon Musk Teases Hasbro, Dungeons & Dragons Acquisition; Shares Surge Now Elon Musk Wants To Be The Father Of Dragons

 

[Ruin Explorer]

"Last Great One"? What major contributions did Rob Kuntz make to D&D, other than just being one of the original players? Like, in what way did he fundamentally advance the state of D&D? Yes, he co-wrote Deities & Demigods, but what's "great" about him other than being a friend of Gygax's?

I mean, Gygax (and Arneson) invented the game, or at least codified a bunch of folk traditions into D&D. Tom Moldvay and later Frank Mentzer were the ones who turned Basic D&D into a separate game line. Tracy Hickman introduced more story into the game with Pharaoh, Ravenloft, and Dragonlance. Zeb Cook revised AD&D 1e into a somewhat more coherent game in 2e. Ed Greenwood, aided by Jeff Grubb, created the Forgotten Realms which is the game's most successful setting. Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams were lead designers on 3e, which was basically a whole new game based on the same concepts. Keith Baker aided by James Wyatt and Bill Slavicsek made Eberron, the objectively best D&D setting. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford lead development on 5e, which is the most commercially successful edition of the game.

These are the people I'd put in a D&D design hall of fame. What has Kuntz done that compares with these?

Also Zeb Cook is still around and last I heard was "woke" AF (complimentary) (he made a video kneeling with BLM etc.). He's a far greater figure than Kuntz could ever be, especially given he created Planescape.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

"Last Great One"? What major contributions did Rob Kuntz make to D&D, other than just being one of the original players? Like, in what way did he fundamentally advance the state of D&D? Yes, he co-wrote Deities & Demigods, but what's "great" about him other than being a friend of Gygax's?

I mean, Gygax (and Arneson) invented the game, or at least codified a bunch of folk traditions into D&D. Tom Moldvay and later Frank Mentzer were the ones who turned Basic D&D into a separate game line. Tracy Hickman introduced more story into the game with Pharaoh, Ravenloft, and Dragonlance. Zeb Cook revised AD&D 1e into a somewhat more coherent game in 2e. Ed Greenwood, aided by Jeff Grubb, created the Forgotten Realms which is the game's most successful setting. Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams were lead designers on 3e, which was basically a whole new game based on the same concepts. Keith Baker aided by James Wyatt and Bill Slavicsek made Eberron, the objectively best D&D setting. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford lead development on 5e, which is the most commercially successful edition of the game.

These are the people I'd put in a D&D design hall of fame. What has Kuntz done that compares with these?

The comment was half a joke about Kuntz being one of the early folks that worked on Greyhawk and being the last one living, mixed with the idea of him being a Great Old One Patron for Warlocks.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Also Zeb Cook is still around and last I heard was "woke" AF (complimentary) (he made a video kneeling with BLM etc.). He's a far greater figure than Kuntz could ever be, especially given he created Planescape.

I don't see Musk letting Zeb run WotC.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't see Musk letting Zeb run WotC.

No, I'm pointing out that Kuntz is a minor figure who is a jerk, whereas Zeb Cook is a major figure who isn't.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

No, I'm pointing out that Kuntz is a minor figure who is a jerk, whereas Zeb Cook is a major figure who isn't.

I'm getting the impression your not a Kuntz fan?

 

[Corinnguard]

Elon Musk Teases Hasbro, Dungeons & Dragons Acquisition; Shares Surge Now Elon Musk Wants To Be The Father Of Dragons

He might want to talk to Bahamut about that.