WotC WotC to power other IPs with D&D and M:TG

In Hasbro’s recent conference call, a few things were mentioned. Using D&D and Magic ‘play systems’ to power other IPs via their ‘Universes Beyond’ initiatives Using D&D Beyond as a hub Other physical and digital tie-ins The Universes Beyond initiative has been running since early 2021 for Magic: The Gathering, and initially featured a The Walking Dead expansion (grandfathered in from 2020)...

In Hasbro’s recent conference call, a few things were mentioned.
  • Using D&D and Magic ‘play systems’ to power other IPs via their ‘Universes Beyond’ initiatives
  • Using D&D Beyond as a hub
  • Other physical and digital tie-ins
The Universes Beyond initiative has been running since early 2021 for Magic: The Gathering, and initially featured a The Walking Dead expansion (grandfathered in from 2020), and a Stranger Things set (2020). 2022 will see Warhammer 40K, Fortnite, and Street Fighter; and a Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set is going out in 2023.

In addition, properties like Godzilla and Dracula have featured as MtG sets, but not as part of the Universes Beyond initiative; and in 2019 there was a My Little Pony crossover. There have also, of course, been D&D/MtG crossovers in both directions.

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Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment President Cynthia Williams said:“You'll see us continue to expand the number of formats and reach new customer segments by expanding our Universes Beyond initiatives, which brings IP from outside of Magic into the Magic play system, We've talked a lot about universes beyond in Magic, which is this concept of thinking about Magic as a play system and bringing in outside brands or outside IP into that play system. We see potential for that with D&D as well."

She also talked about other tie-ins: "And then we see a lot of e-commerce and direct opportunities working in partnership with our Hasbro Pulse team to have physical digital tie-ins that are unique to the platform".

Hasbro’s Chris Cocks mentioned the recent D&D Beyond acquisition: “And then we’ll add on top of that the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons in 2024, where that entertainment, consumer products, and gaming momentum will continue. So, we see a lot of growth vectors and a lot of lifts for D&D with the D&D Beyond platform being central to that.”

IcV2 has a good summary.

 

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Runeterra(League of Legends) could be adapted to d20.

Star Wars is, or it was, a very loved franchised, but fandom doesn't like any things from the last movies. There is an open door for a "reboot", the time travel and parallel universes. This idea would easier to be added to the TTRPG.

Hasbro could talks with Square Enix to create a new Final Fantasy line from zero, but adding elements from other SqEn's franchises, for example PC races.

Some franchises can't be adapted to D&D without any "retouch", for example the spellcaster classes in Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian or the Witcher.

If I was Modiphius I would rather Hasbro/WotC wanted to publish a Star Trek d20 when the current licence deal expired.

A crossover "Ravenloft-Dead by Daylight"? Ravenloft is perfect for crossovers with (almost) all horror franchises.

Or WotC could talk with Dark-Horse for a crossover Hellboy-Ravenloft, or Scooby-Apocalypse (* comic in an alternate continuity with a darker tone)/Ravenloft

We shouldn't see a moden-age franchise in D&D if WotC doesn't publish its own titles before.

A crossover is easier with Magic: Beyond Universe because you only need artists painting new pictures, but, for example, Pirates of the Dark Water would need to writte the lore, and stats for characters and monsters, and if we talk about to give more crunch, PC races or subclasses, then more work.
 

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teitan

Legend
Runeterra(League of Legends) could be adapted to d20.

Star Wars is, or it was, a very loved franchised, but fandom doesn't like any things from the last movies. There is an open door for a "reboot", the time travel and parallel universes. This idea would easier to be added to the TTRPG.

Hasbro could talks with Square Enix to create a new Final Fantasy line from zero, but adding elements from other SqEn's franchises, for example PC races.

Some franchises can't be adapted to D&D without any "retouch", for example the spellcaster classes in Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian or the Witcher.

If I was Modiphius I would rather Hasbro/WotC wanted to publish a Star Trek d20 when the current licence deal expired.

A crossover "Ravenloft-Dead by Daylight"? Ravenloft is perfect for crossovers with (almost) all horror franchises.

Or WotC could talk with Dark-Horse for a crossover Hellboy-Ravenloft, or Scooby-Apocalypse (* comic in an alternate continuity with a darker tone)/Ravenloft

We shouldn't see a moden-age franchise in D&D if WotC doesn't publish its own titles before.

A crossover is easier with Magic: Beyond Universe because you only need artists painting new pictures, but, for example, Pirates of the Dark Water would need to writte the lore, and stats for characters and monsters, and if we talk about to give more crunch, PC races or subclasses, then more work.
Scooby Apocalypse is DC! Great series. I'd rather see them update Urban Arcana though since it's a similar theme.
 

True, Scooby Doo is Hanna-Barbera/DC/Waner, and I hope you understood I was talking about a different publisher. Today after the merger with Discovery and an internal purge within the company, the new Warner-Discovery could talk with Hasbro for partnerships deals.

Urban Arcana is easier to be adapted to an action-live version, but I suggest a fictional world with modern technology, because you can't know when anything becomes politically incorrect.

If any 3PP doesn't survive enough time, maybe its IPs could be acquired by WotC, and in this case we couldn't blame them because it could be by some videogame studio.

Other point is if WotC publishes a new "d20 Modern", maybe some videogames studios could use it for their own titles. Or maybe there is a dream project of a d20 metaverse. I doubt this would happen soon because other publisher is working with this.

I have seen Blackrock and Vanguard are the main shareholders of Hasbro, (and Capital Groups, who also owns 6% Amazon). This means potential links and contacts with other megacorporations, extra help to knock the right doors for partnership deals. I mean if the opinion by Balckrock and Vanguard (the two most important invesment fund in the word) is Hasbro can make more money with intercompany crossovers, then they can send instruction to other megacorporations. Even if some big fish of the entertaiment goes bankrupt, Hasbro could receive funding to buy those franchises and IPs to keep the control. A couple of phone calls and Hasbro can publish TTRPG of Microsoft videogames, for example.
 



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