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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9219941" data-attributes="member: 18">There is absolutely no possibility that the second of those two option is the case. Hasbro wasn't in anywhere near that level of trouble from what we know. So creating imaginary dichotomies in order to "understand" or "defend" Hasbro is actually unhelpful to your real understanding of the situation.Hasbro's profits were down. The company wasn't in serious trouble. So let's not start making pretend-worlds where it was. It's not good for anyone, and it's not good for truth or honesty.Further:[MEDIA=twitter]1735384508923514957[/MEDIA]If WotC/Hasbro wanna more exciting large amounts of essentially free money from Larian making D&D games, they're probably going about it the wrong way by firing, according to Swen, just about everyone who he and his team worked with at WotC. That's probably not a great plan to just absolutely destroy that relationship and all associated institutional knowledge like you dropped a big fat bomb on it.But that was Hasbro's choice. Fire the guys who the effectively made then tens of millions. Destroy the relationship with Larian.You may be about to say "But surely Larian will do another D&D game, because this one was so successful!", and frankly, history does not agree that that will happen. WotC screwed this up before. The reason Dragon Age exists is because WotC were so annoying to work with about licencing D&D, and wanted a cut. If you're getting a very valuable IP, that can be worth it - especially if you're a smaller development studio, as Larian were at the beginning of this process.Now though? Larian are a billion-dollar enterprise. They have both the talent/expertise and the capital to make their IP, and make it succeed in the way Dragon Age did. That way they can keep everything but the Steam etc. cut - they don't even have a publisher - they are their own publisher. Further, the people who played BG3 are loyal to Larian, not to D&D/WotC.That's harder work than using an existing IP and less certain. But again, WotC have messed this up before, and it looks like they're actively in the process of messing it up again. If Swen is saying something like that, in public - you know what that means? WotC fired everyone he'd worked with, and they didn't even bother to contact him and properly renew the relationship. This is one of the most basic and important you need to do with companies who work with you if employees who were their primary contacts leave - you contact them, reassure them, give them new contacts. It the reassurance had been done properly, such dramatic phrases would be going out in public.But clearly that hasn't been a priority for WotC/Hasbro - it should have been. Yes absolutely "already" - tens of millions of dollars of essentially free money came in from Larian. Larian did far more for D&D, than D&D did for Larian - most of the people playing BG3 - the overwhelming majority, haven't even played D&D - for many of them it's first turn-based RPG, or first party-based RPG - surprising, but there you are.And that's just being seemingly cast aside. Great work WotC/Hasbro.</blockquote>

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