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Rules (wip):
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
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.
BG3 literally is the reason they make a Profit last year.
Yeah, but what about this quarter?
Fuck, ain't that the truth?
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
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
Keep it on-topic. This is not the place for flamewars about exactly how bad China's human rights abuses are.
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.)
Found the person that has never heard of TenCent before.
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.
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.
Hasbro selling it is in theory not a bad thing. Them selling it to Tencent is an awful idea.
Yeah, probably so. The people in this thread convinced me.
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.
Yeah but ten cent?
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.