[Speculation] What if D&D got sold...

[dmccoy1693]

What if D&D got sold to White Wolf? We're all speculating about when will WotC release a 4.0 and will there be an OGL. Well, what if something completely out of left field happens? What if Thog decided to become good and fill the missing fighter role of the OotS (mind you, not the leadership role). You know, what if something that scale of .... surprise happens? Any thoughts?

EDIT: Let me preface this by saying that I don't actually believe this will happen. I just want to bring in a new dimension to the debate.

 

[TerraDave]

They say its not for sale. But it could be sold. Issues:

-who gets the minis, how are electronic licenses handled and what about other things tied to the "D&D" brand, because that is definately where the money is and what the managment thinks about. (but the trick being that the RPG still underlies all those things, eg RPG fans by a lot of minis)

-who buys it? The rise of Wizards created a unique opertunity (old D&D fans running a game company and actually making money at it) that may not happen again. Ideally, it would be some sort of group led by Peter Atkinson (or some one like him) to create a company really focused on D&D (and recombine with Pazio and Gencon), but its a real long-shot.

-the new edition: 4ed is coming, and ideally you want to buy and then do your new edition, which is what happened the last two times. So could they launch and then sale? Maybe only if it is a flop and sold cheap, or for something related to my first point.

 

[der_kluge]

I think a more likely scenario is that Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Starcraft, et al.) would buy D&D.

 

[Mark Hope]

>makes obligatory joke about it being renamed "Dungeon: the Dragon" or somesuch...<

I wouldn't really be all that surprised if something like this happened. I don't think that it will, but it's not all that unreasonable to expect the brand to be sold on at some point.

In such a case, I'd much rather see Paizo get their hands on it than WW, however. In fact, they've already sort of become the Guardians of the Flame as far as the soul of D&D is concerned in my perception. Not sure how or when that happened, but that's kind of how I see things these days. Never really thought about it until just now. Odd.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Never really thought about it until just now. Odd.

Neither had I until this morning. I talked to the office at my apartment complex recently about renewing my lease. They said they're not renewing anyone's lease (as in letting everyone's contracts run out) and are not raising anyone's rent (as in not rocking the boat by changing the "rules" on people). Scuttlebutt around the complex is that either we're going to be sold off or the place is going to be turned into a complex of condos. When I realized the parallels, I got thinking and put the question up. Like I said, I don't believe it'll happen .... buuuuut ....

 

[dmccoy1693]

-who buys it? The rise of Wizards created a unique opertunity (old D&D fans running a game company and actually making money at it) that may not happen again. Ideally, it would be some sort of group led by Peter Atkinson (or some one like him) to create a company really focused on D&D (and recombine with Pazio and Gencon), but its a real long-shot.

Only reason I said WW is because I believe they're the only ones that have that kind of cash to pick up a game that is 50% of the industry (without 3rd party supplements). They bought what remained of GoO (Game of Thrones, BESM) so they're willing to buy other properties, and they recently merged with CCP (EVE Online).

I mean I don't believe they will sell the game (at least before 4E's release) or else they wouldn't have developed a new system for Star Wars.

 

[Kester Pelagius]

The real question is what IP would be included in such a sale. As has been mentione D&D has become a brand and, if you've seen any of the Hollywood re-makes in the last few years you know that "brand recongition" (as in using the TITLE and basic premise of a existing property) does not necessarily mean that the re-make has anything to do with the original.

Ideally what would happen is that a new company would pick up the property and give it a fresh brand new edition that ties up loose ends and makes gamers happy. However as I've yet to encounter any RPG that's actually done this I have my doubts. Of course there's also the question of what the company that buys it does with it.

Anything is for sale, for the right price, but if a company over extends itself buying a property. . .

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I'm not sure how much actual cash CCP brings to the table, as MMORPG costs and profits are not as easy to find and/or calculate as for other, non-subscription electronic games. Certainly they aren't in the same financial ballpark as, say, Blizzard, but that would have been true *before* World of Warcraft, too.

According to Wikipedia, Eve Online has 155,000 active subscribers at about $15/month each, which would be $27,900,000/year - that surely dwarfs the gross of Dungeons and Dragons, but how much CCP actually nets, I have no idea; it depends on their server costs, their salaries, etc.

Now, the BIG question is, WHY would CCP buy D&D (the White Wolf component probably isn't relevant; they don't have even close to the cash without relying on their new partners-in-design). WotC/Hasbro doesn't hold the electronic rights to the property anymore, so the number one reason (attempting to garner a larger following than the present D&D online) isn't in the cards right now. Does anyone know when (if?) those rights revert?

Blizzard, on the other hand, has no incentive to purchase D&D aside from nostalgia. Warcraft is a stronger brand, anything electronic they put out under the D&D license would compete with their own brands, and anything they put out in the pen and paper market could be done without the D&D license.

 

[Nebulous]

I wish they WOULD sell it...

 

[kigmatzomat]

I will say that by pulling all the licenses in house, they are positioned for a sale. I could see hasbro either a) selling it off just before the release of 4e because they think it might flop/see flatter returns than they want or b) selling it ~2 years after 4e releases when the bulk of the revenue recoupment is complete.