American toy company Hasbro is seeking to sell its well-known IP

Rumours, speculation and hearsay? “Interesting” at least.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
    36·
    10 months ago

    Not a chance. It’s one of only two properties Hasbro has that makes any money at all.

    Edit: not to mention that the article only refers to “DND” which is only used colloquially and never by the company itself. It’s either D&D or Dungeons (and|&) Dragons

    • tissek@ttrpg.networkOP
      7·
      10 months ago

      It could be that Hadbro only licence the “video game” part or all dynamic electronic content (beyond, vtts etc). But I’m not sure how much of a cash influx that would give Hasbro.

    • Perfide@reddthat.com
      5·
      10 months ago

      Does D&D make them a lot of money, though? I know the movie did well and licensing fees gained from BG3 must be pretty good, but those aren’t really the norm exactly. WoTC makes good money as a whole but I honestly figured that was mostly MTG, cardboard and ink is dirt cheap compared to how much a booster pack costs lmao

      • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
        6·
        10 months ago

        Actually I believe the movie did pretty badly. It was reviewed fairly well by critics and fans who actually went to go see it, but unfortunately it was squeezed between a couple of other popular IP’s at the time (I think it was John Wick and the Mario movie). But hopefully it helped them with streaming or something.

        I think I ended up watching it on Paramount+ in the hopes that it’ll encourage them to make more in the future. Plus it was wholesome enough I thought it might be able to go into my comfort movie rotation with Princess Bride and Stardust. (Although now that I think about it, I should just buy a physical copy.)

        • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          I would have seen it by now if Hasbro had not made me viscerally hate the idea of supporting them in any way.

        • Zagorath@aussie.zone
          2·
          10 months ago

          it was squeezed between a couple of other popular IP’s at the time

          That, plus coming immediately after the whole licencing debacle. Many have speculated that part of the reason they were so quick (in the end) to capitulate and throw out the Creative Commons licence as haphazardly as they did is that they wanted to get fans back onside so they wouldn’t boycott or review bomb the movie.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
        4·
        10 months ago

        The most valuable thing about D&D is the brand. So if there’s one thing they definitely wouldn’t sell, it would be the IP.

      • Zagorath@aussie.zone
        1·
        10 months ago

        Hollywood accounting is weird as fuck, but the general ballpark is that a movie needs to make double its budget at the box office to break even.

        On a budget of $150 million, D&D made $93.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $114.9 million in the rest of the world, for a worldwide total of $208.2 million.

        Now, because of the complicated relationship between WotC/Hasbro and Paramount, some have speculated these numbers may not be as dire as they would be in an original IP. And of course the home viewing market is a huge part of the equation these days. So it’s entirely possible the film did break even or even make a small profit. But sadly, it was not a commercial success.

        Which is a shame, because it was so good. As a fantasy movie fan. As a D&D fan. And even as a Forgotten Realms fan.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
    6·
    10 months ago

    OP, could you please do the responsible thing and update the title and body of this post with a disclaimer that Hasbro has outright denied these rumours. They were clearly baseless from the beginning, but I’m glad to see them make an official statement to get out in front of it.

  • SylvieTG@ttrpg.network
    5·
    10 months ago

    Larian Studios (30% owned by Tencent) was attempting to buy D&D. They weren’t able to afford it, and to they pulled Tencent into the negotiation. I don’t know if that means Hasbro actually is interested in selling - though it’s hard to see a world where they’re not. https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/hasbro-is-selling-the-dungeons-and-dragons-ip-and-tencent-is-the-potential-buyer/

    However, Wizards of the Coast is saying that they don’t intend to sell, as of an hour ago: https://www.pcgamer.com/wizards-of-the-coast-dispels-rumours-that-tencent-wants-to-gobble-up-dandd-like-a-tarrasque-to-be-clear-we-are-not-looking-to-sell-our-dandd-ip/

  • sirblastalot@ttrpg.networkM
    21·
    10 months ago

    Keep it on-topic. This is not the place for flamewars about exactly how bad China’s human rights abuses are.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    225·
    10 months ago

    Honestly? This doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing. Hasbro has been fucking up DND left and right because they simply don’t understand it. At the same time, it’s a valuable IP with quite a bit of potential in the right hands, and they haven’t killed is through mismanagement yet or even close to. If they sell it for a fair value to someone who won’t fuck it up, and use that money to specialize in some things they know what to do with, then it could be win-win for the business guys and for the players.

    (Of course the question of what they could specialize in that they do know how to make money with is a whole different elephant in the room.)

    (Edit: And yes, the chance that Tencent will find a way to ruin it in the name of microtransactions income, and just do a more competent job with that than Hasbro has, is a pretty good one.)

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        118·
        10 months ago

        Not every big conglomerate is just a relentless fuckup machine. Baldur’s Gate 3 was made by (edit: a Tencent subsidiary) a studio partly owned by Tencent. I’m not saying they won’t fuck it up, just that there’s no reason to assume out of the gate that they automatically will. And, it’s legitimately a little hard to see them doing worse than Hasbro has been so far.

          • Kichae@kbin.social
            13·
            10 months ago

            And Tencent has a minority stake in, like, every functioning software company that’s ever done an investment funding around at this point. They make it a point to diversify their holdings across basically the entire software industry at this point.

            They’re fairly hands-off in those endeavours, since they’re doing it to protect themselves against shifts in the market.

            Their in-house made stuff, though, is… Well, let’s just say it’s efficiently monetized.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            19·
            10 months ago

            I mean, just a quick glance at this list shows some things that seem at least competently managed. They’re not a relentless crew of counterproductive own-dick-trippers-over like Hasbro.

            That said, the point that they may turn it into a microtransactions bonanza that makes them money but in no way resembles what DND should be is a pretty good one, yes. I was envisioning this future where they realize that the way to make money with it long-term is to just let it be its own thing, but I think there’s a pretty good chance that that idea is as absurd as everyone here seems to think it is.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
                13·
                10 months ago

                Hm, you are right. The story described it as “owns and has huge holdings,” but that is wrong – for Blizzard it’s 10%, Bluehole 5%, etc.

        • keefshape@lemmy.ca
          51·
          10 months ago

          Tencent owns 3% 30% of Larian shares. This does not make them a subsidiary, or fully owned.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            23·
            10 months ago

            It’s 30%. The point is pretty valid though, and I did have it wrong in saying subsidiary – I edited my comment to reflect my learning.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        511·
        10 months ago

        Most of my knowledge of them comes from this video which I found to be pretty in-depth for a clickbaity Youtube watch. But yes, I’ve heard of them.

        I notice that the culture here is that everyone’s an expert on everything, surrounded by people who need to be enlightened by their knowledge. I feel out of place, I’m the only one who’s not that, I guess.

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
      9·
      10 months ago

      Tencent will microtransaction the hell out of it.

      They are the worst thing in the gaming industry and absolutely need to be taken out back and legislataively shot.

    • TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.pageEnglish
      9·
      10 months ago

      Moving to an even larger company that has less experience with physical “fun” products isn’t likely to be good for the core game. D&D is already at odds with the hardcore community despite the success of the movie and BG3.They don’t need more licensed content, they need to rethink their creative process and how they interact with the core tabletop community. I just don’t see how Tencent is the place for that.

    • Perfide@reddthat.com
      7·
      10 months ago

      Hasbro selling it is in theory not a bad thing. Them selling it to Tencent is an awful idea.

    • ulkesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      Yes, it is a bad thing. D&D needs to be back in the hands of a responsible company and steward, and neither Hasbro nor Tencent are it.