WotC Who should own Wizards of the Coast if/when it is sold?

[Luminous]

Hopefully a businessman who also has a family?

 

[Morrus]

Very silly thread.

 

[Umbran]

None of the above. If it must be sold, let it be spun off into its own freestanding game company.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Anybody but Disney ...

 

[zarionofarabel]

TSR!

 

[nevin]

Someone who plays the game and cares about it being fun. Never going happen as big as it is but that's what it needs. That and it needs to be a privately owned company that can make decisions long term instead of quarter to quarter.

 

[Shiroiken]

Doubt it will be sold, but if it was I can only think it'd go to a video game company. Analog gaming companies just don't have the same level of clout, otherwise Hasbro would never have been able to buy WotC in the first place. Despite a lot of complaining about Hasbro, I don't think it's really been that bad for D&D. Ideally you want a company that just takes a cut of the profit without interfering too much with the business itself.

 

[Hussar]

Who should own it if it's sold - me. Prepare for more Dark Sun than you can handle, plus everyone responsible for the 4e FR book doing the Game of Thrones 'shame!' walk along a major road near you.

Who will own it if it's sold - Amazon or Netflix.

Will it be sold? No. It's making Hasbro an absolute mint right now, with very low overheads. Why on earth would they get rid of it?

To be fair, selling a business when it is red hot is generally the best time because that's when you get the best sale price. If the business is doing terrible, no one wants to buy it.

 

[Aaron L]

At first glance, selling WotC seems similar to what happened with Bungie and Halo, but I don’t think WotC is more than just the D&D and M:tG company now. They’re more like 343 Industries than Bungie.

I assume if WotC were sold, it would be to private equity with Hasbro’s retaining the IP rights and licensing them back to WotC. The goal would be to externalize development costs while also turning it into a source of revenue (via licensing). Hasbro could also return some of the proceeds to shareholders, which their institutional investors would love.

Good gawd I hope not. D&D would be quickly dissasembled and sold off for parts (Forgotten Realms to one bidder, Greyhawk to another, Dragonlance to another, etc.) and the game itself left to rot, like a poacher who shoots an endangered animal just to cut off its tusks/claws/head and leave the rest. Private equity firms are a bane upon our culture, and have destroyed other beloved things.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

When Hasbro has sold an IPs or subsudiary? Heroquest was an almost totally forgotten board game but they notices it deserved a second opportunity, and the crowdfunding has been successful. Transformer was an "old glory" but thanks Michael Bay's productions are again in the crest of the wave. Who would guess the reboot of My Little Pony would so popular, even more than the original?

My mind is very open about future merger and acquisitions, sometimes speculating fool ideas about future movements amongs the entertaiment megacorporations but I don't believe Hasbro was willing to sell WotC. If something happens, it will be linked with the complete corporation.

My theory is WotC will use a multiverse event to justify parallel worlds, and then the DM Guild would allow sourcebooks linked with the lore or fluff of the D&D worlds, for example a total reboot of Jakandor. And if some idea is very good, then allowed to become oficially canon.

 

[Zsong]

Luke Gygax