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

[dmccoy1693]

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.

When you said this, I remembered the 4E rumors page, specificly these:

A plan to possibly sell off RPGs entirely? Check.

it would suggest the corporation wants squeeze the game for what it was worth and then dump it,

I should state that the way I framed monte's quote isn't entirely in the context that he ment it in, but it does show that even these guys thought of this possibility a year ago and didn't consider that option "crazy-talk."

 

[Mistwell]

At one time, I had some reason to believe that Peter Adkison was contemplating purchasing the D&D portion of the business back from WOTC, through Hidden City Games. I no longer think that is the case, but it's still vaguely possible.

 

[Ranger REG]

What if D&D got sold to White Wolf?

If this is a hypothetical question, my hypothetical opinion would be, "OH, HELL NO!!!"

 

[Angel Tarragon]

If it happened, I'd wash my hands of support for D&D.

 

[Imruphel]

Here's an alternative scenario to those proposed. A private equity banker in his late 30s with fond memories of D&D in his teen years decides to make a play for D&D and wins. Imagine if the PE guys got a hold of D&D with their "hold for 5 years and prep for sale"-mindset?

That said, I don't think that will happen because the real value is in the electronic rights and they're already sold.

 

[hong]

Here's an alternative scenario to those proposed. A private equity banker in his late 30s with fond memories of D&D in his teen years decides to make a play for D&D and wins. Imagine if the PE guys got a hold of D&D with their "hold for 5 years and prep for sale"-mindset?

So! It's YOUR fault that Margaret Jackson resigned!

 

[Thulcondar]

What if D&D got sold to White Wolf?

It would be like selling the Led Zeppelin song library to Marilyn Manson.

 

[DaveMage]

Personally, I like what WotC has done with D&D, and I hope they keep it for as long as they are willing to make version 3.5 products.

The only thing that I really think they dropped the ball on was a solid, comprehensive DM computer tool to help prep games. Master Tools/e-Tools just had too many issues and had the potential to be very expensive if you wanted to have all the components.

However, overall I really like the products they've released and the variety among them. (And whoever finally provided the spark to get those dungeon tiles done gets major kudos in my book.)

 

[jmucchiello]

That said, I don't think that will happen because the real value is in the electronic rights and they're already sold.

Sold? I thought Hasbro sold an exclusive LICENSE for electronic rights to all its brand names (which included D&D) to (was it) Atari? That license must have terms for termination. Hasbro is not a stupid company when it comes to licensing. They would never have sold the electronic right to anything OUTRIGHT unless they were selling the whole property outright.

Hasbro should still own the electronic rights to D&D. Those rights are just tied up in an exclusive licensing arrangement at the moment. If Hasbro were selling the D&D brand to a 3rd party, the sale would have to make an arrangement for Hasbro paying the buyer for exclusive electronic rights to D&D until such time as Hasbro could remove D&D from the prior license agreement.

Movie rights to D&D are probably a big snarly mess because that's how motion picture companies deal with IP rights. Getting those back would be a pain.

 

[dmccoy1693]

It would be like selling the Led Zeppelin song library to Marilyn Manson.

Sir, You win the "Best Response of the Day in my Book" Award.