Now WotC has taken Dragonlance (merged)

[Twiggly the Gnome]

For all their hard work, Marvel only saw a dime during the years of the licence and no longer gets any benefit from either Red Sonja or Conan. Is this fair?

Feh. I'll shed a tear for Marvel when Steve Ditko gets a cut of the Spider-Man movie profits.

 

[Mistwell]

Hasbro selling D&D... interesting scenarion...

who would buy it?

EDIT: who bought it? if they are "folding back their extensions" it means someone has already made an offer.

Not necessarily. When selling divisions, sometimes you put an attractive package together and then seek out buyers. It can even take up to a year to get things the way you want them internally in preparation for seeking out buyers for a division.

Who knows. It could even be a seemingly crazy match-up that they will seek out next year, like Marvel buying the D&D line (because of their track record with printing costs, distribution, marketing, growth into other entertainment mediums, licensing, etc..). I seriously doubt that will be the case, but it's not inconceivable.

 

[Mistwell]

Feh. I'll shed a tear for Marvel when Steve Ditko gets a cut of the Spider-Man movie profits.

Feh. I'll shed a tear for Ditko when he actually asks for said profits. If Ditko doesn't think he is owed something, then I'm not going to presume I know more than he does about the issue.

 

[Banshee16]

You're assuming they don't plan to do anything with it. We have no idea if that's the case, do we?

They haven't done anything with any of the other settings that were put on hiatus (RL, BR, DS, PS, etc. etc.)...so I'm not sure why we'd think this time would be different.

One of the nice things about the licensing was that those of us who liked some of these settings that WotC didn't see money in could get our fix....in many cases, the products were better than TSR had done for those settings. Now, if they're just back in hiatus, I'm not sure who it really serves..

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Well, it's Margaret's baby, so of course she understands the world and treats it well. That doesn't surprise me.

On your first point, I guess I'm just a little stumped...

They licensed the material out, we got some great books, now the license is over.

How does this make them bad guys? Shouldn't we be happy they licensed it long enough for a fairly substantial game line to be created, instead of being grumpy when licenses end?

Because there won't be any more. And because the *perception* is that they've taken the license away. Nothing has been said to change that appearance of matters. If this was a matter where Margaret Weis Productions was finding the line unprofitable, or was finding it too difficult to produce products, because a good portion of the team left to other companies, that's one thing. I can't fault WotC for that. But if WotC took it away, then yeah, I have a problem with it. Because then it's a knife in the back of a company that's been supporting WotC's game system, and has invested time and money into developing the property....and now after that investment, you're going to take it away, and then sit on the license again?

Nice. Sure, it's legal. But it sure isn't honourable.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

All I can say is I'm glad I decided to roll with Iron Kingdoms for D&D.

Which is great until next week's announcement that they're cancelling D20 or OGL, if that's even possible. That's likely paranoid supposition, but in light of the announcements of the last few days..

Banshee

 

[daemonslye]

Frankly, this action is fascist. Scott Rouse is worse than Hitler!!!

*ducks*

 

[Winterthorn]

...

The only reason I would even contemplate this would happen is that some Hasbro exec on high got his hands on one of the Fiendish Codex's and had a fit.
I mean, its a little far afield from "So Soft Pony Pinkie Pie" (http://hasbro.com/).

~D

Hmmm.... There may be something to that. Hasbro's consumer base is primarily families with young kids. All it takes is some new exec with strong socially conservative sensibilities to step in and stir the pot, cause a stink and order changes...

Hasbro exec: "What is this D&D stuff? Fiendish Codex? It doesn't look exactly family friendly!"
underling Wotc exec: "It is a roleplaying game for the 12+ crowd and its been their hobby since the late 1970's."
Hasbro exec: "Does it make a good return? How come we haven't heard of this before?"
underling WotC exec: "It is a niche market, and returns are - er- modest."
Hasbro exec: "Hmph. Look, if it has been around for 30-odd years and still doesn't rake in the mega-bucks next quarter, then we will not put up with further risks to our reputation with our main customer base. Sell it."
underling WotC exec: "But..."
Hasbro exec: "Go on. The returns aren't worth the risk. Get rid of it. Oh, and see you at Sunday's golf tournament. Don't forget to bring the wife and kids."
underling WotC exec: "Yeah, sure..."

This is a genuine possibility in some manner; it has happened before where companies quietly adjust products, or discontinued them, just to be "safe" PR-wise. (I would say more but then this would become very political discussion about multi-proned attacks from the radical religious right...)

I just hope the whole thing is just the usual mundune business shift and that WotC will speak to it's customers (and not over them).

 

[Nahat Anoj]

This may sound silly, but reading the explanation from Weis, it's not clear whether or not, WOTC didn't not to offer the license again or if Weis et al decided not to bother paying the license again.

All she says is, "Our agreement has come to term and is not being renewed".

According to Margaret Weis, WotC chose not to renew the licence.

http://www.dragonlanceforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=302765&postcount=152

 

[Vocenoctum]

They haven't done anything with any of the other settings that were put on hiatus (RL, BR, DS, PS, etc. etc.)...so I'm not sure why we'd think this time would be different.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft probably made WotC more money than the entire Ravenloft license did.