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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanguinemetaldawn" data-source="post: 2574936" data-attributes="member: 23390">As hilarious as the "Tell us what you like and don't like about 4e" thread is, I have been thinking about all of the 4E speculation and setting oddness...here's my suspicion:Hasbro/Wizards has no concrete plans on releasing 4th Ed, BUT I don't think thats the good news that many suppose.Wizards has been acting funny.  Re-acquiring licenses/settings, even ones that they have no intention of supporting or using.  And the rumours circulating might be just a bunch of babbling...or they may mean something, but not what everyone thinks.  Its the "own it, but not use it" aspect that really sticks out to me.The recent deal with Atari/Infogrames deal with Hasbro is also interesting.  I don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but the wording and terms were odd.  There are three groups in this deal.  The first group are the games Hasbro re-acquired all rights to for themselves.  Thats these games:My Little PonyConnect FourCandylandPlayskoolTonkaTransformersMagic: The GatheringFor the second group, Infogrames secured "an exclusive, seven-year license on nine major Hasbro properties": MonopolyScrabbleGame of LifeBattleship ClueYahtzeeSimonRisk Boggle...but the terms of that agreement are: "obtaining seven-year rights to nine major properties for wireless, Internet (online games), and interactive television formats..."Notice the specific delineation of rights.Now, Infogrames/Atari deal for D&D was part of the same package, along with everything else.  But there is only one license out of all 17 brands in this deal that has its own specific deal: D&D.Here are the terms for D&D: Infogrames recieves rights to D&D for "all interactive formats" for another 10 yearsNotice the two major differences:1) the deal for D&D rights is for TEN years, not seven, like everything else.2) the deal is for "all interactive formats", not for specifically limited formats, like all the others.You know what that looks like to me?It looks like Hasbro has squeezed everything they can out of D&D, and its time to get rid of it.And all the setting re-acquisition?...consolidating their IP, cleaning up licensing issues, so they can get rid of it.So here's the bottom line: Wizards is preparing to sell off D&D.It makes sense.  This simplifies any future acquisition.  And just as a new edition is not something you would want to announce because of its effect on sales, you wouldn't want to announce something is for sale either.  It creates a "deathwatch" mentality, people will assume things will change, your sales will drop, diminishing any income you would have recieved before the actual sale.Now there are probably people saying, "So what?  That doesn't mean they will release 4th Edition."Here's what:  Do you honestly think someone is going to shell out 8 figures for the privilege of continuing a line that is deemed not worth keeping by Hasbro, just to make you happy?  The fact that Hasbro/Wizards isn't planning 4E D&D doesn't mean that 4E D&D won't happen.  It just means Wizards isn't planning on it right now.  Which could be because Hasbro thinks D&D is crap, and by extension 4E D&D is crap, and not worth producing.If my surmise is correct, one of two things will happen.Scenario 1: D&D is permitted support and a team as long as it makes a profit.  When it no longer makes a profit, everyone is laid off, and D&D becomes a moribund property, consisting of a library of products and a brand name.  I suspect this will be soon, because endless-release churn drives more and more people away.  Scenario 2:Someone comes in and buys D&D.  Guess what they will do first?  Maybe what Wizards did right after they bought TSR?Mostly likely: it will be both scenario 1 and 2, in that order.I remember on a recent thread here on ENWorld, a designer or developer said there was a kind of doomsday cult around a lot of hobbies.But I remember something else, too. I remember about seven years ago on usenet, people wondering why they weren't getting their Dungeon and Dragon subscriptions.  I remember talk from Tracy Hickman that he was no longer being paid royalties.  Of the events of the era, the writer's royalties is what really struck me.  Things like that get you lawsuits, and potentially prison.  That doesn't happen unless something is DEEPLY wrong.  If D&D dies again, it won't be like last time.  This isn't a single business company, where the whole thing comes crashing down.  Hasbro will simply liquidate an unprofitable division and move on, without blinking an eye.Of course, I could be wrong.  I could just be a doomsday cultist.  Could be.</blockquote>

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