Tencent already owns all of Robert E Howard's work. So there is a bit of synergy here.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on January 31, 2024, 02:04:43 PM
Tencent already owns all of Robert E Howard's work. So there is a bit of synergy here.

Correction, it owns the rights to some trademarks, REH's work is in the public domain.

 Conan Exiles was the primary reason I feel if D&D or any part of D&D that goes to 10 cent might be a lot of things...but woke will not be one of them.

Tencent seems fairly hands-off as long as their acquisitions make money for them; the companies they've bought out haven't notably deviated in course that I've seen.  They are however beholden to the Chinese government, so if the commies came in and told them to do something, they would do it.  They really have no choice in the matter.  However, my understanding of Chinese culture is that the whole US "wokeness" is considered an object of ridicule, so while they may not put a stop to it if it's already part of the IP, I can't imagine they would add to it either.  Of course, while they might put the brakes on DEI, there's still no assurance of actually putting out a decent product.  Given that Wizards fired most of the actual game developers, Tencent would need to get some good talent on board to replace them.

As I mentioned in Pundit's own topic, the clear thing being missed here is Tencent has a 30% stake in *LARIAN*.

The guys who made Baldur's gate 3.

Professor Dungeon Master went into more detail in his video... But it was apparently Larian who tipped off Tencent to the proposal... as Larian most likely wanted it for themselves, but couldn't afford it. So they tipped off their Sugar Daddy Tencent.

Most likely, if this goes through Tencent will buy all of it, and then hand the reigns off to Larian to be in charge of the IP.

Quote from: Orphan81 on January 31, 2024, 09:41:55 PM
As I mentioned in Pundit's own topic, the clear thing being missed here is Tencent has a 30% stake in *LARIAN*.

The guys who made Baldur's gate 3.

I mentioned that relationship on page 1. And yeah I agree, Tencent wants the license long term and they will likely just buy the rest of Larian if they can secure the license.

Quote from: rytrasmi on January 31, 2024, 10:16:53 PM

Quote from: Orphan81 on January 31, 2024, 09:41:55 PM
As I mentioned in Pundit's own topic, the clear thing being missed here is Tencent has a 30% stake in *LARIAN*.

The guys who made Baldur's gate 3.

I mentioned that relationship on page 1. And yeah I agree, Tencent wants the license long term and they will likely just buy the rest of Larian if they can secure the license.

I don't think Larian would completely sell themselves to Tencent. They're not a publicly traded company so Tencent can't just buy them... and the owner Swen Vincke likes running the company too much to fully sell it.

But yeah I definitely think Tencent would be willing to sub-liscence to Larian and tell them to keep doing what they're doing.

Quote from: Orphan81 on January 31, 2024, 09:41:55 PM
As I mentioned in Pundit's own topic, the clear thing being missed here is Tencent has a 30% stake in *LARIAN*.

The guys who made Baldur's gate 3.

Professor Dungeon Master went into more detail in his video... But it was apparently Larian who tipped off Tencent to the proposal... as Larian most likely wanted it for themselves, but couldn't afford it. So they tipped off their Sugar Daddy Tencent.

Most likely, if this goes through Tencent will buy all of it, and then hand the reigns off to Larian to be in charge of the IP.

We can only speculate. Without knowing the terms that went along with that 30% stake, Tencent may not automatically have an option to acquire the entire company.

Hasbro would be crazy to actually sell off the IP itself when it could simply do a license for X amount of time for Y markets.

Another consideration also is that this is a strategic leak for some other purpose, such as to raise interest by other potential licensees.

I agree with Pundit that this is just about the video game rights. If Tencent actually did acquire the entire IP, it could very well grant a license for the tabletop version of D&D to another company. Btw, Tencent makes some good animated shows. I'm especially enjoying the rather oddly named "Law of Devil", which is basically a mash-up of LotR, GoT, and D&D. It's much more entertaining Western fantasy than what we've been getting from Hollywood lately.

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.

The pandaily article includes this sentence: "Companies in Europe and America attach great importance to the value of intellectual property (IP), while Chinese companies have limited opportunities to acquire top-tier IP from overseas." Interestingly, the series Law of Devil that I mentioned in my previous post contains a wizard called Gandalf as well as an "Emperor Aragorn". Perhaps Tencent is in negotiations to acquire Middle-earth Enterprises from the Embracer Group, which is also in financial difficulties. The show also contains ents who are called "treants" in the English sub, but that might just mean that the translator has a passing familiarity with Dungeons & Dragons.

Quote from: Rhymer88 on February 01, 2024, 02:30:34 AMBtw, Tencent makes some good animated shows. I'm especially enjoying the rather oddly named "Law of Devil", which is basically a mash-up of LotR, GoT, and D&D. It's much more entertaining Western fantasy than what we've been getting from Hollywood lately.

It look like 'Video Game Cutscene: The Series.'

"Wizards of the Coast dispels rumours that Tencent wants to gobble up D&D like a tarrasque: 'To be clear: We are not looking to sell our D&D IP'"

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/

I heard that the asking price for D&D was one billion dollars.  Is it worth that much?  Hazards-of-the-bro has been trying to properly monetize D&D for a while now and they are loosing money because no one wants their poorly-written books, their cheap chachki key fobs and t-shirts, and their malformed miniatures of people in wheelchairs. 

Maybe the people at Tencent are smart enough to turn a profit on D&D, but how can you truly "own" a game that anyone can copy?  You will have to invest a lot to make your "official" version of D&D better than everyone else's version of D&D.  Can they do it?

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on February 01, 2024, 12:46:35 PMMaybe the people at Tencent are smart enough to turn a profit on D&D, but how can you truly "own" a game that anyone can copy?  You will have to invest a lot to make your "official" version of D&D better than everyone else's version of D&D.  Can they do it?

The value in D&D is in the worlds and background lore, not in the rules. But the lore is fairly vanilla and not worth much. The only part of Baldurs Gate they provided value was the name.

Quote from: Rhymer88 on February 01, 2024, 12:31:00 PM
"Wizards of the Coast dispels rumours that Tencent wants to gobble up D&D like a tarrasque: 'To be clear: We are not looking to sell our D&D IP'"

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/

It was nice to have hope D&D could be saved as an IP for awhile.

Oh well.