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

[Luminous]

Hopefully a businessman who also has a family?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was going to say that Fandom would buy WotC (as far as I can tell, Fandom Inc is privately held). They purchased Cortex Prime and transitioning it online. So, purchase WotC, further integrate it with DDB, and create a VTT to completely capture that space.

Yep, one of the few I could see actually happening.

 

[Deset Gled]

Ok, ICv2 is doubling down on it. I guess the first article got lot of clicks?

Rolling For Initiative -- Who Could Buy WotC?

Column by Scott Thorne

icv2.com

Oh, man, that's a terrible news article. An interesting history piece, but a terrible news article. Just like Scott Thorne's last rumor piece it ignores many changes to Hasbro, WotC, the gaming industry, and the publishing industry over the past decade. I highly doubt that Hasbro is looking to sell D&D. But on the off chance they are, I know for sure it's not for any of the reasons in these articles. Not a good look for ICv2.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Jon Favreau. Seeing what he did with Mandalorian, saving the Star Wars franchise (hyperbole, but just a bit lol), he's the man for the job

 

[Umbran]

Jon Favreau. Seeing what he did with Mandalorian, saving the Star Wars franchise (hyperbole, but just a bit lol), he's the man for the job

I would guess that he's at least played D&D at some point, so there's that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I would guess that he's at least played D&D at some point, so there's that.

you could say that

 

[Luminous]

Oh, man, that's a terrible news article. An interesting history piece, but a terrible news article. Just like Scott Thorne's last rumor piece it ignores many changes to Hasbro, WotC, the gaming industry, and the publishing industry over the past decade. I highly doubt that Hasbro is looking to sell D&D. But on the off chance they are, I know for sure it's not for any of the reasons in these articles. Not a good look for ICv2.

I agree with you on half of that.

 

[Deset Gled]

I agree with you on half of that.

I'll bite. Which half?

 

[BRayne]

Legendary buys it and shuts Critical Role out as a spite move

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh, man, that's a terrible news article. An interesting history piece, but a terrible news article. Just like Scott Thorne's last rumor piece it ignores many changes to Hasbro, WotC, the gaming industry, and the publishing industry over the past decade. I highly doubt that Hasbro is looking to sell D&D. But on the off chance they are, I know for sure it's not for any of the reasons in these articles. Not a good look for ICv2.

It's not a news article. It's an opinion column from a game-store owner who's been in the biz for quite some time.

It's not a "rumor piece" . . . it's just a dude, with a level of expertise and knowledge of the industry, doing what nerds do. Taking a small bit of news and speculating what it COULD mean.

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh, man, that's a terrible news article. An interesting history piece, but a terrible news article. Just like Scott Thorne's last rumor piece it ignores many changes to Hasbro, WotC, the gaming industry, and the publishing industry over the past decade. I highly doubt that Hasbro is looking to sell D&D. But on the off chance they are, I know for sure it's not for any of the reasons in these articles. Not a good look for ICv2.

I'll add that I really enjoyed the speculation in the second article. It covers a possibility not much discussed on gaming message boards, that a traditional book publisher might be interested in purchasing D&D. And with the discussion of TSR's history publishing novels, it makes perfect sense to me.

I totally buy the idea that a major book publisher would love to get their hands on the D&D back catalog of novels AND a chance to revitalize a top-selling novel franchise. I can see Random House, or some other publisher, focusing on revitalizing the novel line, but also deciding to jump into RPG publishing, especially considering how popular and visible the D&D game has become in recent years. Or, focusing on the novels and licensing out the game to a smaller RPG publisher.

Thorne is right on the money that the D&D novel line(s) were BIG in the 90s. Hundreds of books taking up lots of real estate in book stores, with a good number of reliable NYT best-sellers from certain authors. Heck, even today D&D novels take a up a good deal of shelf space in your local Barnes & Noble. Mine has the complete "Legend of Drizzt" series and the Dragonlance Chronicles, which alone is a pretty long list of titles. They are also carrying a good selection of the game books, the newer Endless Quest books, and D&D collectibles.

I'm not sure why WotC has mostly abandoned novel publishing, although I'm sure they have their reasons (lack of profit isn't one of them) . . . but it's something the right publisher could potentially make a lot of money on.