WotC Roll For Combat: Hasbro Downgraded. Toys Rotting on the Shelves

[MockingBird]

Well, I may or may not have ordered Owlbear Coffee for our Christmas white elephant since several of them play a monthly game with us. So yeah, stupid branding got my money (although it was an impulse buy because of a coupon).

Don't feel bad. I have a couple D&D branded blankets. One with a red dragon the other with a blue beholder (it's the alt cover from Xanathar’s).

 

[mamba]

They keep going at this

 

[bedir than]

They keep going at this

Betteridge's Law remains undefeated

 

[MockingBird]

They keep going at this

If only they would listen to him, he has it all figured out. Win-win-win! (I'm being sarcastic)

 

[Oofta]

Yeah, the video came up on an auto-feed while I was exercising this morning. Umm ... right. HASBRO is going bankrupt(!!!) so Larian Studios, which is supposedly "owned by a Chinese conglomerate with a valuation in the billions"* is going to buy D&D and save the day. HASBRO will, of course retain rights to DndBeyond and the VTT. He then states "I may not be right, but I'm pretty darned accurate on these predictions."

I used to find his videos interesting and entertaining but now ... sheesh.

*Which would be quite a shock to Swen Lincke which after about 10 seconds of googling I found is the majority shareholder of the publicly traded company.

 

[MerricB]

Yeah, the video came up on an auto-feed while I was exercising this morning. Umm ... right. HASBRO is going bankrupt(!!!) so Larian Studios, which is supposedly "owned by a Chinese conglomerate with a valuation in the billions"* is going to buy D&D and save the day. HASBRO will, of course retain rights to DndBeyond and the VTT. He then states "I may not be right, but I'm pretty darned accurate on these predictions."

I used to find his videos interesting and entertaining but now ... sheesh.

*Which would be quite a shock to Swen Lincke which after about 10 seconds of googling I found is the majority shareholder of the publicly traded company.

He's commented later saying Tencent (that's the Chinese company) own 30% of Larian...

Which makes me wonder why it isn't Tencent buying D&D outright.

If you don't know Tencent, they're big. Really big. But they're sailing into very choppy waters at the moment, because the Chinese government is cracking down on the monetization policies they favour. (Their shares dropped 12% in December as a result of the announcement - that's a stunning $46 BILLION dollars).

Larian isn't worth anywhere near that much. So is his idea that Tencent will lend Larian the money to buy D&D?

How does he thinks finance works?

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Oofta]

He's commented later saying Tencent (that's the Chinese company) own 30% of Larian...

Which makes me wonder why it isn't Tencent buying D&D outright.

If you don't know Tencent, they're big. Really big. But they're sailing into very choppy waters at the moment, because the Chinese government is cracking down on the monetization policies they favour. (Their shares dropped 12% in December as a result of the announcement - that's a stunning $46 BILLION dollars).

Larian isn't worth anywhere near that much. So is his idea that Tencent will lend Larian the money to buy D&D?

How does he thinks finance works?

Cheers,
Merric

Ah, the 30% makes more sense; I was multi-tasking at the time. Of course that means it makes even less sense as you state.

 

[LordEntrails]

Larian isn't worth anywhere near that much. So is his idea that Tencent will lend Larian the money to buy D&D?

How does he thinks finance works?

He apparently doesn't know or care. He just hopes discussions like this one keeps people clicking on his bait so that he can keep the money headed to his bank account. Why anyone keeps clicking his bait befuddles me.

 

[CleverNickName]

If only they would listen to him, he has it all figured out. Win-win-win! (I'm being sarcastic)

"At least you clicked the link, then shared it. That's the important part."
- RFC, apparently

 

[SteveC]

This latest video is another case of where I learned something. I didn't know that Tencent owned part of Larian studios. And the sale of D&D to them with letting Larian manage the brand would be something that I'd be happy with. Will that happen? Almost certainly not, but it could. I was fortunate enough to get a great presentation about what happened to Marvel during their bankruptcy days (something he also talks about) so I can see this making sense.

All of this really comes down to how bad things are for Hasbro, and how the launch of D&D goes. Combine that with "does Magic have another Lord of the Rings style property to leverage into the game?" I say this because there is no real sign of a next big thing for Hasbro's toy business. I know a lot of people are saying "there's no problems and it will be fine," and I can see this happening if D&D has a big launch, which I still expect it to do.

I just sort of have to shake my head sometimes at these threads because no matter what happens, Stephen has broken a lot of big stories about the game and has been right about things. Yes, he also speculates way too much, but that speculation comes after talking with people on the inside that I sure don't know, so I'll give him a bit of a break here.

Edited to add: I don't want to do another post about this, but I'll mention what's all the snark about? If someone posts something you don't like, posting about it just gives it more attention which is what I expect you wouldn't want.