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.

 

[J.Quondam]

Man, Elon Musk's marketing campaign is in full swing. That is the 3rd or 4th Musk headline this week, if I am counting correctly? But I guess it drives up engagement taking about a controversial figure, and that's what we need in our attention economy.

This raises a question: How Musk is too Musk?

 

[SteveC]

so far only Tesla did, nothing else. Space X may or may not turn into something thanks to government contracts, The Boring Company is just plain idiotic and Twitter is a business study in what not to do.

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy (and I'm not) Musk's developments in battery technology, solar panels, and Star Link are amazing. Star Link went online in my city early last year and I noticed how it changed the sky when it initially went online. I know several people who signed up for it and love the service. And I have friends who were in the hurricane who had Star Link dropped off at their homes and were back online several weeks sooner than others in their neighborhood. They were a hub for their whole neighborhood. That's not to mention how the technology is onboard US Navy vessels and in Ukraine.

And he also made flamethrowers.

 

[mamba]

And the Cybertruck is a complete debacle.

from a design perspective that thing is a complete failure, no idea how it sells, but it is not meeting any safety standards and should not be allowed on roads

 

[Remathilis]

This raises a question: How Musk is too Musk?

Any.

 

[jayoungr]

While WotC did indeed backtrack, it’s wasn’t due to financial aspects.

Oh, if we're talking finances, then yeah, I haven't heard that WotC was worried about that. They were worried about the PR, though, and the boycott made clear just how unpopular the move was (according to the sources I know of).

 

[mamba]

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy (and I'm not) Musk's developments in battery technology, solar panels, and Star Link are amazing.

eh, Star Link is just more satellites than others shot into space, nothing groundbreaking. Solar and battery no idea, it certainly is not because of his genius in developing it. Is this under Tesla or some separate company?

Even if I granted all that, he had little to do with it while he had a lot to do with the failures, so a very mixed bag at best

 

[Zardnaar]

from a design perspective that thing is a complete failure, no idea how it sells, but it not meeting any safety standards and should not be allowed on roads

Cyberstuck sub reddit lol.

 

[Remathilis]

I leave for a few weeks and WotC goes to HELL!

I'm glad I invested in Dragonbane, Shadow of the Weird Wizard and Fantasy AGE.

Kobold Press must be happy that they did Tales of the Valiant. It could become the 'new Pathfinder' D&D schism.

If Musk gets ownership of D&D, I wager he will deep six the OGL and find a way to remove it from the CC. He will probably argue that it was illegal to put it there in the first place and with enough lawyers and venue shopping, he'll find a judge who will let him void the contract and remove the game from CC. (He will do irreparable harm to the CC while he's at it, but that's collateral damage).

He could also sue any company who made a game derived from the OGL or CC SRD. He could also go after games that no longer use either, but still originally was based on it (like M&M or Pathfinder). He doesn't even need to win, he just needs to file motion after motion to keep them in court and bleed them out for the cost of fighting in court for years. Could Paizo or Kobold fight Musk for years in court battles? They are small private companies. Again, it won't even be if he is right or not, just if he can bankrupt them in lawfare.

Musk is a big supporter of proprietary technology. He is absolutely not going to allow companies to ride off the work he just purchased. He will make sure there are no D&D like RPGs to complete with. I don't know if OGL, ORC, or CC can survive a protracted legal battle if Musk wants it. He's already considering if Bluesky hews too close to Twitter's format that he can sue for infringement. He doesn't even need to win, just outlive his smaller competition.

And he's petty enough to try it.

 

[trappedslider]

I reading this thread, it seems like a lot of people really don't like Elon.

1.Some folks don't like capitalism and Musk represents all that they don't like about it in one person.
2. They don't like his stances on any number of issues
3. They don't like what he has done to Twitter or other companies he owns/operates.
4. They don't like who he associates with
5. Any combination or all of the above.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh, if we're talking finances, then yeah, I haven't heard that WotC was worried about that. They were worried about the PR, though, and the boycott made clear just how unpopular the move was (according to the sources I know of).

Two years ago. They have stated in investor calls thst there was no longterm impact in sales or accounts being added to Beyond...which means there were no longterm PR effects.