D&D General No, Hasbro Is Not Selling D&D

I wasn't going to comment on this rumour in article form--despite a 20-page-and-counting thread about it--but it seems some clarification is needed as it's all over social media and the usual click-bait YouTube channels.

First off, Dungeons & Dragons is not being sold. That's the short version.

WotC, including D&D, is Hasbro's most profitable division and, as many put it, it's 'golden goose'. Despite an article on Pandaily being entitled "Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent"--and much of which is a close copy of a recent YouTube video rumour--buried halfway down the article is the important paragraph:

A Tencent IEG (Interactive Entertainment Group) insider revealed that Tencent, represented by its overseas business department IEG Global, is in negotiations with the aim of acquiring a series of rights including the adaptation rights for electronic games such as DND.

That means they wish to license the D&D IP to make video games. WotC licenses the D&D IP all the time--that's why you see all those D&D lunchboxes and plushies and t-shirts and miniatures and foam dragon heads and, indeed, movies and video games. Licensing an IP is not buying an IP. Modiphius is licensing the Star Trek IP for their TTRPG; Modiphius hasn't bought Star Trek. I published the Judge Dredd TTRPG for a couple of years, but I didn't own the Judge Dredd IP.

Tencent, incidentally, owns 30% of Larian Studios, who made the recent Baldur's Gate 3 video game--under license, of course (Larian didn't buy D&D either). Tencent is a massive Chinese company known for venture capital, social media, mobile games, internet services, and more, and is one of the world's largest companies. Tencent Games is a division of the company. It has stakes in a lot of companies.

So what does WotC have to say? "We are not looking to sell our D&D IP". The following statement was sent to outlets who reached out for clarification:

We regularly talk to Tencent and enjoy multiple partnerships with them across a number of our IPs. We don't make a habit of commenting on internet rumors, but to be clear: we are not looking to sell our D&D IP. We will keep talking to partners about how we bring the best digital experiences to our fans. We won't comment any further on speculation or rumors about potential M&A or licensing deals."

So, to be clear, Hasbro is not selling D&D to a Chinese company. They are in--as always--talks to license their IP to various companies for various purposes, including electronic games, movies, and lunchboxes.

 

[Hussar]

This. I have watched my local TV news on YouTube for years. I also use it to watch things like the BBC and the NTSB. CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg, and lots of other mainstream outlets have channels.

The important thing to remember is that YouTube is an aggregator. It would be odd if someone said they got news exclusively from there. But IMNSHO it would be a lot less scary than people who only trust news from one specific cable TV channel.

Again. There is a significant difference between something like the BBC putting a news clip on Youtube, and some random Youtube creator.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm just saying:
If you tell me you got your "news" from YouTube, I'm going to make some assumptions about you and they won't be flattering.

I do sometimes.

France 24 and DW News/documentary.

Pop culture stuff as well but usually ones that source their stuff.

 

[Autumnal]

This. I have watched my local TV news on YouTube for years. I also use it to watch things like the BBC and the NTSB. CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg, and lots of other mainstream outlets have channels.

I watch almost no general news. But I’m very curious about space and other science news. In that field we’ve got a guy named Anton Petrov, a Russian who used to be a teacher in Japan before making Youtubr his full time gig. He check arxiv and other places people post research not yet formally published and reads a bunch of journals, and does well-regarded daily videos with engaging but not clickbait titles and contents. (His signature opening, “Hello, wonderful person!”, is also great.)

Beyond the occasional marvel like him, there are scientists speaking for themselves. I follow several astronomers and cosmologists, a couple archeologists, several marine biologists and research institutes, some geologists, and so on.

Similarly for horror, science fiction, and fantasy. There are some outstanding individuals (any day with a new video by Michael K. Vaughan is a better day, with his “Hello, my friends, hello!” And his buddy Roger the mummy) who are just informative and entertaining lay folk plus some dedicated reviewers & critics and some creators.

You sometimes have to slog through a lot of sludge to find them, but there are a bunch of folks that I’d be as happy & willing to cite regardless of the medium and venue they’re in.

 

[Minigiant]

I've seen repeated posts about how Hasbro would/should never sell off it's "cash cow". But, frankly, that's actually the best time to sell something, if selling something is what you want to do.

Yeah.

It's not "Hasbro would/should never sell off it's "cash cow"", it's "Hasbro can't/won't find a buyer of its "cash cow" for the price it wants in order to maintain stablity and shareholder happiness"

The asking pricewuld be too high for anyone who has experience with this side of entertainment.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah.

It's not "Hasbro would/should never sell off it's "cash cow"", it's "Hasbro can't/won't find a buyer of its "cash cow" for the price it wants in order to maintain stablity and shareholder happiness"

The asking pricewuld be too high for anyone who has experience with this side of entertainment.

Not really the point I was making though.

If you are going to sell a business, the best time to sell that business is when that business is riding at it's highest. You never want to sell a business that's failing. So, all these folks who talk about how D&D is failing so, it's in danger of being sold off, really don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Conversely, the folks who insist that it would be ludicrous and stupid for Hasbro to sell off it's "cash cow" also don't really know what they're talking about.

But, yes, you are right. It's very unlikely that anyone would be offering to buy out WotC from Hasbro. As you say, the asking price would be too high.

 

[Minigiant]

Not really the point I was making though.

If you are going to sell a business, the best time to sell that business is when that business is riding at it's highest. You never want to sell a business that's failing. So, all these folks who talk about how D&D is failing so, it's in danger of being sold off, really don't have a clue what they're talking about.

I understand your point.

I was adding to D&D is so not failing and riding so high that it's likely priced out of the buyers who knows what to do with it.

It's the best time to sell D&D. There is likely just too few good buyers.

 

[Oofta]

But you still remember it, right?....

... Remember the Maine! To h - e - double toothpicks with Spain!

 

[mamba]

It's not "Hasbro would/should never sell off it's "cash cow"", it's "Hasbro can't/won't find a buyer of its "cash cow" for the price it wants in order to maintain stablity and shareholder happiness"

the ‘would never sell’ is in the context of ‘for a reasonable price’. If Elon Musk offered them 20B for D&D, they would sell it, they would be stupid not to…

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I am not a big fan of people who say snarky stuff about the minimum wage -- those arguments largely ignore who is actually on minimum wage in this country and why they remain on it -- so if this argument strays close to that, I apologize and acknowledge the ick factor.

But YouTube-as-a-career isn't something anyone ever said was a good idea. In fact, I suspect nearly every professional YouTuber had parents, spouses, teachers and guidance counselors begging them not to do it. If it turns out to be an untenable career path, one that can only be partially staved off by doing clickbait video, well, yeah, everyone agrees.

For the folks whose real preference is to be an RPG creator, DriveThruRPG, Patreon, Kickstarter, Etsy and other platforms are right there. They all have their issues, but they don't require consciously jerking around your audience with hot takes that you know aren't true, just to please the almighty algorithm. At the very least, doing multiples of these at the same time makes one less reliant on any one algorithm or any one corporation's whims. (At least until further Silicon Valley consolidation, anyway.)

I don't want anyone to starve or be homeless or anything of the sort.

But if your job -- and forget YouTube, any job -- requires you to toss your values out the window in order to eat, the thing to do is to find another job. I know that's a big ask, but I've done it myself, after a previous job almost destroyed my marriage and my health because of what it was doing to me.

It's not my intention to look down on anyone. I have had to stare down the choice of "do I want to do this horrible thing because it's how the rent gets paid or do I want to go through 18 months (!) of job searches and temp work so that I can do something I feel better about" more than once. It sucks.

The fact that doing the objectionable thing is often the easier thing is a big red flag all on its own.

Thank you for the thoughtful response, I guess I feel like there's a much bigger problem underlying all of this which is that facts, honesty and truthfulness have been continually devalued for the last 30 years in the West (and perhaps worldwide though I think in the developing world it's kind of different), and simultaneously, wild lying, just making things up, and being a hypocrite have become basically accepted as something elite people in society are just "allowed to do", so anyone under 30 is going to be kind of in a different world to people our age. But I guess that's getting outside scope. I just don't think it's YouTubers at the root of this, or YouTube's design, or even valuing clicks, I think it's a fundamental failure to value facts, expertise, study, and so on.

I totally feel you re: 18 months trying to get out of a bad job - I had to 11 months of that and even that had me thinking very bad thoughts. I think part of the issue with YouTube and the like though is that for some people, it's 90% a great job they enjoy, and 10% making videos maybe they aren't proud of, so they're not mentally in the same place of "This place is awful and I need to escape". It's Influencers (rather than Vloggers) who seem to have the most awful and demanding and obviously-bad jobs in this environment, and the ones where every single video is a calculated lie and they 100% know it. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of younger people think becoming an Influencer is the best or at least most plausible root to wealth/stability/housing.

Also wow I feel like I'm talking about classes in a cyberpunk game or something! Great! < head desk >

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

... Remember the Maine! To h - e - double toothpicks with Spain!

And don't forget to pull the chain!