D&D 5E Hasbro Acquires D&D Beyond For $146M

D&D owner WotC and D&D Beyond have announced that the online tools platform is being acquired by WotC. DDB’s (former) owner was Fandom, which acquired it in 2018, and which also acquired the Cortex Prime TTRPG system recently. Fandom is producing a range of licensed games using the Cortex Prime system starting with the recent Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince RPG. Several DDB core staff...

D&D owner WotC and D&D Beyond have announced that the online tools platform is being acquired by WotC.

DDB’s (former) owner was Fandom, which acquired it in 2018, and which also acquired the Cortex Prime TTRPG system recently. Fandom is producing a range of licensed games using the Cortex Prime system starting with the recent Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince RPG. Several DDB core staff members and founders moved on to other projects last year.


This move has been widely expected for some time. The purchase figure being circulated is $146 million. By comparison, when WotC purchased then-D&D owner TSR in 1997, it did so for $25M. Hasbro later purchased WotC for $325M.

D&D Beyond was created in 2017 by Curse LLC, a company owned by Twitch. Fandom purchased Curse in 2018. WotC will be the third owner of the platform.

In other news, back in November WotC applied for a trademark for 'Atomic Arcade' for a variety of electronic gaming applications, and earlier in the year, rumours spread regarding WotC’s plans for its own virtual tabletop platform (VTT) following a survey in which they gauged opinions and allegedly showed off graphically rich 3D screenshots.

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Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) today announced that it is acquiring D&D Beyond, the leading digital toolset and game companion for the Company’s groundbreaking fantasy franchise, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, from Fandom. Fandom, the world’s largest fan platform, has owned and operated D&D Beyond since 2019 and has grown the direct-to-consumer business to be the leading role-playing game (RPG) digital toolset on the market with close to 10 million registered users. This strategic acquisition, for $146.3 million in cash, will further strengthen Hasbro’s capabilities in the fast-growing digital tabletop category while also adding veteran talents to the Wizards of the Coast team and accelerating efforts to deliver exceptional experiences for fans across all platforms.

Since 2017, D&D Beyond has helped to power DUNGEONS & DRAGONS tabletop play and deliver the brand's eighth consecutive year of growth in 2021. Over the last three years, the royalty paid to Hasbro by D&D Beyond has represented a significant contribution to the fastest growing source of revenue for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. The strategic acquisition of D&D Beyond will deliver a direct relationship with fans, providing valuable, data-driven insights to unlock opportunities for growth in new product development, live services and tools, and regional expansions. As part of Wizards, the brand’s leadership will soon be able to drive a unified, player-centric vision of the world’s greatest role-playing game on all platforms.

“The acquisition of D&D Beyond will accelerate our progress in both gaming and direct to consumer, two priority areas of growth for Hasbro, providing immediate access to a loyal, growing player base,” said Chris Cocks, Hasbro Chief Executive Officer. “Hasbro’s gaming portfolio is among the largest and most profitable in the industry, and we continue to make strategic investments to grow our brands, including in digital.”

“This is the perfect next step for the talented D&D Beyond team, who built a transformative digital product that engaged and delighted millions of D&D fans around the world,” said Perkins Miller, CEO of Fandom. “We can't wait to see what this team will do next as an integral part of the D&D franchise, and I look forward to investing in more brands and products to super serve Fandom’s 300 million+ global fans.”

“D&D Beyond has been one of our most valuable partners in the digital space for the past six years and we’re excited to bring their best-in-class talent onto our team,” said Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming. “The team at D&D Beyond has built an incredible digital platform, and together we will deliver the best-possible DUNGEONS & DRAGONS experience for players around the world.”

Hasbro’s continued investment in Wizards of the Coast’s digital growth for its two iconic franchises, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and MAGIC: THE GATHERING, is representative of the significant opportunity in PC and mobile gaming, an industry that represented over 3 billion players globally and $129 billion in revenue in 20211. With the launch of Magic: The Gathering Arena on PC in 2019 and on mobile in 2021, Wizards has built a unique ecosystem of best-in-class tabletop and digital play to create deeper player engagement and satisfaction and grow revenue across all expressions and regions. Similarly, with more than 80% of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS fans having already played the game virtually in 2021, aided by online digital platforms such as D&D Beyond, this acquisition accelerates the game’s ability to penetrate new markets, gather valuable consumer insights and provide players with the best DUNGEONS & DRAGONS experience on all platforms.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, and is expected to close during the second or third quarter of 2022. The transaction will be funded out of cash on hand and is expected to be immaterial to revenue and earnings per share in 2022 and accretive to earnings per share in fiscal year 2023 and beyond. The transaction has been approved by both Hasbro’s and Fandom’s Boards of Directors.


 

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OB1

Jedi Master
Couldn't disagree more. General publishing trends are what they are, but print sales still absolutely dwarf digital-only in TTRPGs. I think it's a mistake to lump RPG publishing in with, say, fiction--most people consume a novel like they would a TV series, and then move on, download the next one to their Kindle. They might as well be as disposable as a streamed show. Even a lot of comics consumption is the same. But RPG books are scratching a real collector's itch, plus they're very visual, plus they're often a kind of manual you need to refer to--PDFs are great for searching, but not for general reference.

So just like coffee table art books aren't getting replaced by iPad PDFs, hardcopy RPGs aren't in some sort of death spiral.
Well, D&D dwarfs all TTRPGs in sales, and if anyone could make a digital first model work, I think it would be them. And I'm not saying that print D&D books will disappear, just that the emphasis will be on digital instead of physical. They'll still print physical for collectors (like myself), but digital will become their focus likely with an evolving preferred product (though I hope with options to choose a previous version that works best for your table).
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Couldn't disagree more. General publishing trends are what they are, but print sales still absolutely dwarf digital-only in TTRPGs.
WotC D&D print sales dwarf everything because it's D&D and D&D dwarfs everything. But aside from them, it's not true that print sales absolutely dwarf digital-only in TTRPGs. Print runs from most TTRPG publishers are pretty small.
 

Retreater

Legend
An all-digital format would probably save a bit in printing, shipping, and storage (which are all becoming more expensive and difficult to pull off these days). Plus they could easily incorporate errata or revise content as needed.
Don't be surprised if there is no print D&D in the near future, maybe with the exception of starter sets (which are displayed at retail stores to snag new players).
 

J.Quondam

CR 1/8
An all-digital format would probably save a bit in printing, shipping, and storage (which are all becoming more expensive and difficult to pull off these days). Plus they could easily incorporate errata or revise content as needed.
Don't be surprised if there is no print D&D in the near future, maybe with the exception of starter sets (which are displayed at retail stores to snag new players).
That wouldn't surprise me, but it wouldn't please me. At that point, how long before it requires cloud access to play the latest rev of D&D? Ugh.
 

Don't be surprised if there is no print D&D in the near future, maybe with the exception of starter sets (which are displayed at retail stores to snag new players).
I will be extremely surprised if that happens, even as someone who only uses digital products for all TTRPGs now.

Why?

Because D&D is a prestige product, and having the books exist is part of that prestige, part of what makes D&D this pop-culture icon. There's realistically no way, whilst D&D is riding this high, or any time near to this, that physical books will disappear, because that would damage the D&D IP, it would lower the prestige of D&D, and it would make less marketable, especially as a lot of more-casual players actually like the books (weird as that might seem).

I could see a time when most D&D players were using digital products in "the near future", and where print books were seen more as a luxury item than a necessity, but is zero prospect of WotC not printing print books of the "big three".
 

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