Why is D&D for sale?

[teitan]

This is like the guy at my local comic shop that swore up and down that Marvel and DC are owned by the same company.

This I can see being a confusing issue because in the 60 DC (then National) was Marvel's distributor but Marvel is owned by Marvel Toys, formerly Toy Biz. Marvel IS for sale though.

 

[eyebeams]

No they wouldn't. It's debatable whether or not White Wolf will still be in the RPG business a year from now, frankly.

Hey, if they keep paying me for the work, I suppose they can not publish all the stuff they've solicited lately. But that would be insane.

 

[Abisashi]

It is not.

I know for a fact that at least two firm, reasonable offers at valuations in the eight digit range (and the significant digit was not a '1' or a '2') were made by parties with more than enough capital to close the transaction, and that both were rejected. Hasbro & WotC consider D&D a 'strategic brand' and they have no interest in selling it.

Ryan

That's really interesting. I'd love to know who made the offers, but I'm sure I'll never know unless I get a job at WotC. :\

Um...

You do realize that the implication here, given that we know Elvis was human, is that you're the three-headed alien half of the equation?

Have you not seen Men in Black?

 

[Abisashi]

[-deleted-]

 

[CharlesRyan]

I haven't been in the building at WotC for 18 months, and things change in business. So I'm making no claim to any inside information. But I am intimately familiar with both Hasbro's attitudes toward the IPs it owns, and D&D's performance history.

I believe in my heart of hearts that Hasbro has never considered, and will not consider, selling D&D.

I am not in a position to know with 100% certainty what Hasbro and WotC are up to with D&D. (And neither is anyone else outside of WotC, not even Ryan.) But this rumor floated a number of times, both openly among the gaming public, and quietly, within the industry, when I was in a position to know. It was always 100% bogus then, and I feel pretty safe saying it's 100% bogus now.

Oh, and I've seen Lurking Lidda's love child, and I can attest to the fact that it has considerably fewer than three heads.

 

[Piratecat]

Oh, and I've seen Lurking Lidda's love child, and I can attest to the fact that it has considerably fewer than three heads.

Charles, can 2.5 really be said to be "considerably" less than three?

 

[Cthulhudrew]

This is like the guy at my local comic shop that swore up and down that Marvel and DC are owned by the same company.

Yes- Microsoft.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Oh, and I've seen Lurking Lidda's love child, and I can attest to the fact that it has considerably fewer than three heads.

Zero is less than three...

 

[Cthulhudrew]

This I can see being a confusing issue because in the 60 DC (then National) was Marvel's distributor but Marvel is owned by Marvel Toys, formerly Toy Biz. Marvel IS for sale though.

I don't think Marvel is currently on the for sale block- especially not after the stellar year they had in 2006.

 

[borc killer]

O.K. I'll bite.

Where's the link to this?

Found the link: OH MY GOD D&D FOR SALE!.