WotC Hasbro selling D&D IP?

[doogx]

Everyone talking about why Hasbro might or might not sell D&D. But why would Tencent want to buy it?

I can totally see them being interested in the video or mobile game rights. That's in their wheelhouse, or at least adjacent. But I just don't see them having any interest in the TTRPG. I think their theoretical interest in D&D is entirely superficial.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We should remember old glories, dead franchises, could enjoy a second opportunity to relive if they were integrated into the D&D multiverse. This is an important card what shouldn't be ignored.

I would take care a lot if I was a company wanted some deal with Tencent, because it could become a "pact with the devil". I don't know Hasbro's past experience in the Chinese market but I guess they are going to think twice before risk again.

Now it isn't the best time for Tencent, it is not the right time to be a shark acquiring other companies as if these were smaller fishes. They don't need the D&D brand when they could acquire some 3PP what publishes a retroclone.

And now the global economy is too fragile to risk with mergers and acquisitions. Now they are too busy trying "to save the furnitures" ( = avoiding worse damages) to worry about expanding. There are some signs the Chinese economy is going to suffer one of the worst economic crisis in decades. I wouldn't bet for that horse in the next race.

Maybe Magic: the Gathering is the superstar, the blue-eyed girl for Hasbro but you shouldn't put all the eggs in only one basket, and D&D is too necessary as an alternate plan if the main one starts to fail.

* I doubt investment funds (BlackRock, Vanguard PJMorgan..) were happy an American franchise being sold a Chinese megacorporation. Then they would order to be sold to other American company, for example Microsoft or Amazon.

 

[Incenjucar]

Everyone talking about why Hasbro might or might not sell D&D. But why would Tencent want to buy it?

I can totally see them being interested in the video or mobile game rights. That's in their wheelhouse, or at least adjacent. But I just don't see them having any interest in the TTRPG. I think their theoretical interest in D&D is entirely superficial.

Tencent is a media absorber that exists to create a overwhelming presence in the games industry. The details get into politics so not appropriate to get into here, but suffice to say they have a bigger picture perspective.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Everything has a price to somebody. A property not valuable to WotC might be valuable to a smaller company.

"Might be", but I'm not seeing significant value to anyone for GI Joe or any of the other washed-out properties Hasbro is sitting on. I'm sure they'd sell if the price was right, but the right price might not be enough money to cover the supposed hole in Hasbro's finances.

The idea that "D&D is valuable to Hasbro so they won't sell it" isn't neccessarily true. If things really were desperate over at Hasbro, the management would have to make some hard decisions to keep the company afloat.

This is really theoretical though, things may not be going great for Hasbro at the moment, but they appear to be far from any real risk of going under. What's more likely to happen is that they're going to cut costs in the unprofitable toy divisions, while also trying to extract even more revenue from Magic and D&D players.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I dare to say here most of us agree about if it may be a wrong strategy then it is not going to happen. Even if it hasn't been a good year, they aren't so deseperate to reject a so potentially valious franchise, at least not to sell it to a no-Western megacorporation.

If there is some reason because Hasbro dared to talk with Tencent is because this knows better the possible "risks" of Chinese market, for example new laws about videogames, or censorship (arbitrary?) criteria. And Tencent knows better the preferences of the Chinese consumers. If you go to China, don't try to sell pizzas when clients want cōngyóubǐng(= scallion oil pancake). But in the other side, Hasbro knows better the new "cultural taboos" in the Western audience.

Tencent is not interested into the market of TTRPGs. If they were, then they would publish their own retroclone. I guess Tencent would be more interested into othe Hasbro franchises to be adapted to videogames, for example Transformers and Power Rangers.

Other point is the soft power and the cultural war. Tencent not only wants to make more, but to can be a bigger cultural influence in the Western society.

 

[Morrus]

I'm sure they'd sell if the price was right

Yes. I think I said thst.

 

[Morrus]

Shocking news!

Wizards of the Coast denies rumours of Dungeons and Dragons brand sale to Tencent

Hasbro and Tencent will continue to collaborate, but no sale of the D&D licence.

www.gamereactor.eu

Who’da thunk it?

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Yes. I think I said thst.

What did you think about the rest of my post?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Shocking news!

Wizards of the Coast denies rumours of Dungeons and Dragons brand sale to Tencent

Hasbro and Tencent will continue to collaborate, but no sale of the D&D licence.

www.gamereactor.eu

Who’da thunk it?

That's very clear that they're not selling the IP/D&D as a whole, though it doesn't seem to rule out selling the videogame rights, something Hasbro have done before. Of course, it kind of backfired horribly and they ended up having to go to court to get them back, but Hasbro absolutely do not learn from mistakes. Rather they just try and do the same thing again and hope it'll work better this time, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Tencent managed to get some kind of exclusive timed licence for D&D videogames - discussion of that may even be the source of the rumour. Unless Hasbro have gone completely insane they'll presumably limit it to 5 years or something though.

Personally I'm always rather concerned when I hear Tencent are involved. I wasn't aware they owned 30% of Larian, but it fits their pattern. They have significant stakes in an awful lot of pretty good videogame developers and publishers, especially ones that succeeded as essentially indies. So far they don't seem to have been using their powers for evil in the West outside of mobile games (they did apparently make SuperCell's games much worse after taking over), all the Western AAA companies they have large or majority holdings of have been allowed to continue pretty much unchanged. But changes in leadership thinking at Tencent could cause that to change very rapidly. WotC saying how keen they are to work with Tencent is at once understandable (particularly via their access to the massive Chinese games market) and rather worrying - it'd certainly be preferable if WotC were keen to work with the various good studios Tencent owns but currently lets act independently, rather than the company itself.

 

[Morrus]

What did you think about the rest of my post?

I wasn't going to say, but since you asked, I don't think it said anything not particularly obvious. It amounted to 'if they need to do a thing they'll do it' which is a basic truism in life. I didn't really see anything to comment on. Sorry, but you did ask