https://pandaily.com/hasbro-seeks-to-sell-ip-dnd-and-has-had-preliminary-contact-with-tencent/

Seems like a case of killing your one performing kid to keep the other kids alive, but it's not entirely implausible.

My video on this subject is uploading as we speak. I think there was a problem in translation going on...

Quote from: Habitual Gamer on January 31, 2024, 08:15:21 AM
https://pandaily.com/hasbro-seeks-to-sell-ip-dnd-and-has-had-preliminary-contact-with-tencent/

Seems like a case of killing your one performing kid to keep the other kids alive, but it's not entirely implausible.

Seeing what happened to the World of Darkness after the IP was sold to Paradox (ie: flood of terrible games both rule & lore wise kept up while good game lines were effectively killed to avoid competition), let's say that I'm not optimistic....

My guess is that they are selling rights to Tencent to create and publish in China.

Much more research is warranted before a firm opinion is given.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 Well...I think there is one thing you will not see from a Chinese owner...and that is the woke.  So...probably be a mess but the woke will be gone.

Quote from: BadApple on January 31, 2024, 08:40:24 AM
My guess is that they are selling rights to Tencent to create and publish in China.

Much more research is warranted before a firm opinion is given.

China requires any foreign licenesee to have a Chinese company hold majority stake in any venture such as this.  Hence, it would make sense that Hasbro would sell 51% of the rights for the D&D IP just for the Chinese market to appease the Chinese regulators. 

C'mon it's kind of obvious (I say without having read anything on this) that Tencent wants the videogame license. To buy the entire IP?? That's a Hasbro call.

Granted Hasbro has lost 50% of its stock value in the last year... so maybe? Doubt it though. Hasbro (and most corporations) don't sell IP's. Of course Tencent could probably buy all of Hasbro if they really wanted.

BG3 was a huge success. Maybe it was a spit and shine job to attract a big player like Tencent to either buy or license the IP.

Tencent invested in and then outright bought Funcom, makers of Conan Exiles. Tencent is invested in Larian. So, Tencent securing a long-term license or even the purchase of the D&D IP makes sense given these investments. They might have Funcom make a D&D MMPOG and have Larian pump out BG4, 5, etc.

Outright purchase of the IP would be safest for Tencent, but a strong license can be just as good.

In any case, I doubt much of it relates to books and IRL table games.

Money talks. Hasbro is pretty weak right now - and getting weaker. Their toylines are in a bad way.

Tencent *has* the money. I still think it'll be licensing thing (if at all). But weirder shit has happened. Like I said, if they really wanted to buy Hasbro... they probably could. Hasbro has a lot of IP's they could mine (if they had smart people). But I don't see Tencent getting into non-electronic gaming sectors for that exact reason.

Think about it - GI Joe, Transformers, Power Rangers, Magic the Gathering, D&D are pretty big IP's. I'd even say most of these *could* make for powerhouse PC/Console gaming franchises with the right hand behind them.

Edit: And let's not forget Hasbro is the license holder for some pretty big IP's but those are in non-electronic gaming sectors.

But the devil is in the details.

Like others have opined, Tencent probably wants the video game license. And they have billions of dollars to make it happen. But if Hasbro is struggling, and they can buy the whole IP outright, why not?

So I think it's just the license but if the price is right, they'll take it all.

It'd be very interesting if they decided to sell to Tencent, but like the others said it sounds like they're selling the rights to use D&D rather than the entire IP. Could be wrong, but that sounds more likely.

That said, it'd probably ruin D&D. I don't know much about Tencent other than they're located in China. You'd see a lot of stuff going away in order to meet with Chinese censorship and the tone of the game would probably shift too. Who knows what that would mean for places like DTRPG, I mean you might not be able to buy reprints anymore.

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on January 31, 2024, 11:37:53 AM
It'd be very interesting if they decided to sell to Tencent, but like the others said it sounds like they're selling the rights to use D&D rather than the entire IP. Could be wrong, but that sounds more likely.

That said, it'd probably ruin D&D. I don't know much about Tencent other than they're located in China. You'd see a lot of stuff going away in order to meet with Chinese censorship and the tone of the game would probably shift too. Who knows what that would mean for places like DTRPG, I mean you might not be able to buy reprints anymore.

I disagree. Content won't be crossing borders, only money will be. I don't see how Chinese censorship could apply to a Tencent-owned studio in Norway or Belgium making video games under license. Case study: Conan Exiles is about as un-woke as you can get. Two character models: ripped male, hot female. Cock and boob size sliders. Slavery as a core game mechanic. Races loosely based on real-world stereotype. Basically all of Howard without apology. All the things that WotC has been scrubbing from D&D for years now.

Quote from: tenbones on January 31, 2024, 10:11:26 AM
C'mon it's kind of obvious (I say without having read anything on this) that Tencent wants the videogame license. To buy the entire IP?? That's a Hasbro call.

Granted Hasbro has lost 50% of its stock value in the last year... so maybe? Doubt it though. Hasbro (and most corporations) don't sell IP's. Of course Tencent could probably buy all of Hasbro if they really wanted.

If true, it'll be like Atari then. A brand owned by a shell company that just keeps rehashing old 2600 games. No love or care for the original IP and what made it great, owned by uncreative business people. A line item on a spreadsheet.

As Pundit said, this might just be a translation error. It is too early to jump on the news.

Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

A foreign company with an eye only on the bottom line is how you get classic versions of IPs, because they sell. A soulless Chinese IP milker is, ironically, how we get GI Joe without gurlpower, and Transformers without gay robots.