Rumours, speculation and hearsay? “Interesting” at least.
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.)
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.
Yes because a Chinese multinational corporation is going to any better…
Micro transactions, battle pass, dlc
The Terrible Three
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So like dndbeyond?
Yes, but if you don’t log 8 hours with 2 other paying Campaign Pro players that week, you won’t get your content unlock.
Not every big conglomerate is just a relentless fuckup machine. Baldur’s Gate 3 was made by a Tencent subsidiary. 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.
Tencent has a minority stake in Larian. That’s very different from being wholly owned and managed by them.
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.
Not every big conglomerate is just a relentless fuckup machine
Do you have any examples?
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.
Most of those are just minority investments rather than directly ran by Tencent
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.
Tencent owns 3% of Larian shares. This does not make them a subsidiary, or fully owned.
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.
Yah, my fat thumb dropped the zero. Oops.
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.
Yeah but ten cent?
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.
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.
Oh, hey! Thanks for letting me know which fucking idiot to block in this thread. ding ding ding You’re the winner! 🤣🖕🏼
You seem nice
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.
Maybe Hasbro is finally realizing that they never understood why D&D is valuable, and are coming to the conclusion that they’ll never be able to monetize it properly.
With seemingly-comparable game franchises, a lot of the value is in either a business model that’s good at generating consistent sales (selling cards or miniatures) and/or the setting and characters that can be used to sell merchandise. D&D has neither. No one really cares that much about the D&D lore, and the business model is selling books that aren’t even that necessary to play the game.
The value in the D&D franchise is that the game mechanics (which aren’t protected by IP laws) are well-known by a large user base, plus there’s a lot of existing material that is compatible with that system. People play D&D because lots of people already know how to play, and it’s easy to find material to play with. Stuff like Baldur’s Gate is popular incidentally, mostly because the developers have been good at making games, but no one is going to get excited about a mediocre D&D game in the same way that people would for a 40k game.
Hasbro has shown that they don’t understand this dynamic. When they tried to monetize the game system itself with the OGL nonsense, people just said “Okay, I guess I’ll just switch to a different RPG system” because of course that’s what you’d do. The community is interested in the hobby, not the franchise, and if the franchise is going to make it difficult to engage with the hobby, then the hobbyists, including content creators who do a lot of the heavy lifting to keep the franchise relevant, will go elsewhere.
Hasbro likely thought they could take D&D and do the usual “we have this user base and we can get X amount from merch, Y amount from video games, Z amount from some sort of subscription service, etc.” not realizing that no one actually cares that much about D&D as a franchise, at least not in the same way as with stuff like Warhammer or Star Wars. It’s a hobbyists hobby, and the hobbyists aren’t going to go full “consooom!” on D&D lunchboxes and funko pops.
TTRPGs are, to their credit, extremely difficult to monetize. It’s hard to squeeze money out of a game when the players can buy a couple of PDFs and then play for years, only buying new material when there’s an update or a setting book that looks interesting to them. It’s a bad business, which makes it a terrific hobby, and I wish Hasbro a very lmao get owned if they do try to pass it along to someone else.
No one really cares that much about the D&D lore
You uh … might want to walk that back a little before they show up.
The keyword here is the. Lots of folks care about D&D lore, but the official cannon is not sacred. It’s nice to have, but it’s a starting point, a framework, an inspiration.
No, they’re right. The Forgotten Realms novels have been incredibly popular for decades. Sure they might not be pulling in Brandon Sanderson money, but they were absolutely popular in their own right and were profitable until WotC unceremoniously decided to shut them down right at their peak so soon after the Second Sundering.
So excited for DnD fans to get even more racist
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/
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.
If this is true, can’t wait to hear all the gamer-brained dorks whining because Tencent is a Chinese company. As if they can’t handle it worse than Hasbro has already.
They can and their existing track record suggests they will be worse than Hasbro.
@Kbin_space_program @tissek @LaGG_3 elaborate
Tencent has a horrid reputation for microtransactions and being overbearing in China.
And they’re accustomed to microtransactions there, so you can imagine how bad it is for them to complain about it.
Every time i see a hexbear they are sucking dick of a dictatorship…
Get lost, all of you.
in what way is china a dictatorship?
a dictatorship of the proletariatThe one-party rule, the massive censorship, the active genocide, the crushing repression…
- “One-party rule”
A mass-party with ~1 in 10 as a member. Multiple ruling parties doesn’t automatically equal democracy. Read up on the mass line.
- “Massive censorship”
Elaborate.
- “The active genocide”
- “Crushing repression”
Elaborate.
1: The CCP does not allow alternative parties
2: try saying anything about Tibetan Independence or Tianenmen Square in the middle of Beijing, I dare you
3: you accuse me of spreading propaganda and then link to propaganda. Also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_papers#:~:text=The Xinjiang papers have been,China’s internment camps in Xinjiang.
4: remember what happened in Hong Kong during the protests?
Tibet - https://redsails.org/friendly-feudalism/
Xinjiang Papers -
The quote from the New York Times Article discussing the papers [nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html]: “absolutely no mercy” was from a 2014 speech on the terror attacks, specifically was referring to the perpetrators of the terror attacks, and did not scapegoat Uyghurs to any extent (what a wonder a three letter quote could be taken out of context!) in addition, the phrase “organs of dictatorship” from that speech refers to the proletarian class dictatorship The “leaked documents” (provided by anonymous sources) were affirmed by Adrian Zenz (Christofascist racist) and James Mulvenon (former member of the U.S. state adjacent Council on Foreign Relations and member of the National Committee on United States - China Relations, which along with the Defense Group Inc.—of which he is vice-president–provides military policy planning and assessments to the United States Government). Mulvenon also has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a U.S. Government project. His profile for this commission reads in part:“James Mulvenon is Director of Intelligence Integration at SOS International, where he has recruited and trained a team of more than forty-five Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Farsi linguist-analysts and ten cleared software developers, performing collection, analysis, and operations support for US Government and corporate customers”
The principle document (the “bulletins” are rather benign) is a top-secret telegram which the ICIJ describes as:“…from the Communist Party commission in charge of Xinjiang’s security apparatus. The telegram, written in Chinese, is an operations manual for operation. It is marked ‘secret’ and was approved by Zhu Hailun, then deputy secretary of Xinjiang’s Communist Party and the region’s top security official.”Clearly what we have here is a document meant for only the highest levels of the bureaucracy, one which will divulge the actual thought process and rationale behind policy.
The document begins with a set of guidelines for running the facilities. First is “[to] ensure that the training venue is absolutely safe].” The guidelines follow:“It is strictly forbidden for police to enter the student zone with guns, and they must never allow escapes, never allow trouble… never allow food safety incidents and major epidemics, and they must ensure the training center is safe and free of risk”“Through letter writing, phone calls, video chats, visits, meetings, etc., establish a mechanism for students and relatives to interact with each other, to that the ensure students will have a phone conversation with their relatives at least once a month, to make their family feel at ease and the students feel safe.”“…every effort should be made to fix employment work for completed graduates to ensure the smooth development of students with employment aspirations. For those who don’t have the ability to work and have difficulties in life, it is necessary to coordinate grassroots organizations to seriously carry out assistance and relief work, and effectively solve practical difficulties.”
There are further notes on strict time management, preventing earthquakes and fires, and also measures to surveil all areas. These seem comparable to prisons, which is in line with the highest facilities being reserved for radicalized terrorists (bulletin No. 20 deals with those spreading violent propaganda / those who have joined terrorist organizations). When considering that the United States promoted terrorist radicalization in Xinjiang such things lose isolation. The document outlines a very strict process, but one not mentioning forced anti-religious practices such as consuming pork or alcohol [The Independent 29 May 2018], organ harvesting [Falun Gong cult allegations], forced labor [U.S. Dept. of Labor], or physical abuse/torture (we cannot make a case of propaganda, because these are again purportedly top-secret documents).
Show me a picture of the Xinjaing genocide, there are so many of the genocide in Palestine perpetrated by a top intelligence agency/military equipment state so finding photo/video evidence of the Uyghyr should be easy right?
Show me a picture of a civilian death in Tianamen Square, it has been refuted by many academics from many different countries.
Do you support anti-covid lockdown protests in other countries?
@Attaxalotl @robinn_IV lol some westerners are super brainwashed. Seriously. How pathetic.
1: The CCP does not allow alternative parties
Correct, though it’s the CPC. No one is arguing against that (aside from that other parties do exist and are allowed to hold lower offices), they are contesting what it means. Imagining that the DNC was a state organ rather than a private institution, what problem would be posed by there only being a DNC with no RNC or other significant competitor? What does the RNC actually accomplish in this situation?
Do you know what a primary election is?
This shit is why GenZedong had bots, people come in with nothing new to say but pithy one-liners as though their interlocutor even knowing what they are talking about isn’t a refutation of it being an original statement.
Are you not up to date with the latest American propaganda line? Even the UN has admitted that the genocide claims were always outlandish bullshit. You must still think Saddam Hussein had nukes.
No, I don’t. Iraq was a mistake, and the only good thing to come of it was putting one more fascist six feet under. Also: 动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门
Oh yeah, Iraq was just a lil oopsie that killed a million people, nothing anyone should be held accountable for!
Look at you, clamoring against the Designated State Enemy with one side of your mouth and justifying our genocidal crimes against the world with the other. What a Good Little German you are. You’re the only fascist here, freak, and when this rotten empire collapses soon you should find yourself a way to follow it into oblivion so your broken servile mind doesn’t poison the future humanity will build in it’s absence.
How much of a racist moron do you need to be to post one of these?
Also, most of these are completely innocuous phrases. Like, do you think that the CPC is covering up “Anti-Rightist Struggle”? Really?
你个狗屁 白痴 肏你妈的屄 你二大爷的 蠢豬 你应该为自己感到羞耻 笨蛋Simpleton 废话 蠢蛋Fool 二百五 人渣 处男Virgin 沒用 肏你妈Fuck your Mother 请删除您的帐户Delete your Account 生舊叉燒都好過生你! Racist智障呀 大脑进水 去吃大便Eat Shit 傻瓜 傻子 废人 废物 孬种 无用 饭桶 去下地狱 放你妈的屁 你在讲什么屁话Get this bullshit out of here NSA MASS SURVEILLANCE KENT STATE KENT STATE UNI CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY DAVID MISCAVIGE 佔領華爾街 MAY 4 1970 MASSACRE 肯特州立大学枪击事件 MAY 13 1985 MOVE BOMBING「MOVE」組織轰炸 RED SUMMER 1919 HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE 众议院非美活动调查委员会 TRAIL OF TEARS 美国本地人种族灭绝 JIM CROW SEGREGATION 吉姆·克勞法 HUMAN RIGHTS 人權 CITIZENS UNITED 联合公民诉联邦选举委员会案 SAFETY 安全 HIGH SPEED RAIL 人民共和国高速铁路 STRONG MASS LINE 群众路线 REPUBLIC OF HAWAII 夏威夷共和国 THIRTEEN COLONIES 十三殖民地 VIETNAM AFGHANISTAN IRAQ 伊拉克 EDWARD SNOWDEN 爱德华·斯诺登 SCIENTOLOGY 山達基教會 GUANTANAMO BAY DETENTION CAMP 关塔那摩湾拘押中心 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 諾貝爾和平獎 BARACK OBAMA 贝拉克·奥巴马 COMMUNISM SOLIDARITY LABOUR ACTION ANTI-CAPITALIST PRO-REVOLUTION PROTEST MOVEMENT ANTIFA RIOT POLICE BRUTAILITY POLICE OCCUPATION PAID SUSPENSION LEFTIST COUNTER PROTEST CHARLES MANSON MANSON FAMILY JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES BORDER CONCENTRATION CAMPS MKULTRA ASSASINATE FRED HAMPTON JANE FONDA EUGENE DEBS MALCOLM X EAT THE RICH THE CRUMBLING OF AMERICA REAGANOMICS INFOWARS MANUFACTURING CONSENT FASCIST OLIGARCHY FBI HONEYPOT NSA SPYING ICE DEPORTATIONS WAR ON DRUGS PRISON SLAVERY CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE ENHANCED INTERROGATION MY LAI PRISON RAPE DEPORTATION MS13 PIZZAGATE LOLIHENTAI PURCHASING KINDER EGG LOTTERY OPERATION SEA SPRAY PATRIOT ACT AMWAY 21 SAVAGE 奇多贝尼托 SCOTT WARREN NET NEUTRALITY LOVEINT EGLIN AIRFORCE BASE COINTELPRO OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD OPERATION EARNEST VOICE OPERATION AURORAGOLD 1999 BELGRADE EMBASSY BOMBING IRAN AIR FLIGHT 655 QASEM SOLEIMANI JEFFREY EPSTEIN MASS PEDOPHILIA ABROAD AND DOMESTIC OPERATION SNOW WHITE HARVEY WEINSTEIN OPERATION CONDOR AARON SWARTZ WACO SIEGE RUBY RIDGE SIEGE 1998 CAVALESE CABLE CAR DISASTER PROJECT ELDEST SON GUNS FOR ANTIGUA GARY WEBB FREE BURMA RANGERS STRONGHOLD RESCUE & RELIEF MCNAMARA’S MORONS PROJECT APPLE PROJECT MIRROR PROJECT WITCH GEORGE PELL ACQUITTAL FORT DETRICK KILLING OF HUEY LONG BLAIR MOUNTAIN ERIC HARROUN MIRACLE VALLEY JINGMING BUILDING INCIDENT YANGJU HIGHWAY INCIDENT 16754432 JAPANESE WARCRIMES OPERATION ASIAN TOUCH OPERATION FREEDOM DEAL CHILEAN COUP D’ETAT TULSA MASSACRE MERE removed RULE MORO CRATER CUBANA FLIGHT 455 OPIOID EPIDEMIC SACKLER FAMILY JADE HELM 15 NO GUN RI RYAN WHITAKER PROJECT SUNSHINE WECH BAGHTU DASANI FAKE WATER ICE CONCENTRATION CAMPS ICE HYSTERECTOMIES OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX OPERATION MONGOOSE JULIAN ASSANGE EMMETT TILL ANDRE VITCHEK NIKOLA MOTORS FORT HOOD MISSING SOLDIERS AGRICULTURAL ABCD AARON SWARTZ KENTUCKY POLICE HITLER RUSHAN ABBAS GITMO US MILITARY BUYS APP DATA ELAINE MASSACRE LITTLE HIROSHIMA LYSOL INJECTION US RACTOPAMINE MEAT PIKETON WASTE BONUS ARMY DANNY CHEN NORTH DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE PROTESTS 北达科他州接入管道抗议 FERGUSON PROTESTS 弗格森暴动 ST. LOUIS PROTESTS 2017 年圣路易斯抗议活动 NUCLEAR TESTING BIKINI ATOLL 比基尼环礁的核试验 UNITE THE RIGHT RALLY 团结右集会 CHARLOTTE PROTESTS 夏洛特暴动 ATTACK ON SUI-HO DAM 袭击穗河水坝 MILWAUKEE PROTESTS 密尔沃基骚乱 Shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile 奥尔顿·斯特林和菲兰多·卡斯蒂利亚的射击 Occupation of the Malheur NationalWildlife Refuge Malheur国家野生动物保护区的占领 death of Freddie Gray 弗雷迪·格雷的死 Shooting of Michael Brown迈克尔·布朗的拍摄 death of Eric Garner, Oakland California 奥克兰奥克兰市埃里克·加纳（Eric Garner）逝世 Operation Condor 神鹰行动 Occupy WallStreet 占领华尔街 My Lai Massacre 我的大屠杀 St. Petersburg, Florida 佛罗里达州圣彼得堡 Kandahar Massacre 坎大哈屠杀 1992Washington Heights riots 1992年华盛顿高地暴动 No Gun Ri Massacre 无枪杀案 L.A. Rodney King riots 洛杉矶罗德尼·金暴动 1979 Greensboro Massacre 1979年格林斯伯勒大屠杀 Vietnam War 越南战争 Kent State shootings肯特州枪击案 Bombing of Tokyo 轰炸东京 San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing 旧金山警察局公园站爆炸案 Assassination of MartinLuther King, Jr. 小马丁·路德·金遭暗杀。 Long Hot Summer of 1967 1967年炎热的夏天 Bagram 巴格拉姆 Selma to Montgomery marches 塞尔玛到蒙哥马利游行 Highway of Death 死亡之路 Ax Handle Saturday 星期六斧头 Battle of Evarts 埃瓦茨战役 Battle ofBlair Mountain 布莱尔山战役 McCarthyism 麦卡锡主义 Red Summer 红色夏天 Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 Pottawatomie massacre 盆大屠杀 Jeju uprising 济州起义 Colfaxmassacre 科尔法克斯大屠杀 Reading Railroad massacre 阅读铁路大屠杀 Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 Bay viewMassacre 湾景大屠杀 Lattimer massacre 拉蒂默大屠杀 Ludlow massacre 拉德洛屠杀 Everett massacre 埃弗里特屠杀Centralia Massacre 中部大屠杀 Ocoee massacre Ocoee大屠杀 Herrin Massacre 赫林大屠杀 Redwood Massacre红木大屠杀 Columbine Mine Massacre 哥伦拜恩矿难 Guantanamo Bay 关塔那摩湾 extraordinary rendition 非凡的演绎 Abu Ghraib torture and prison abuse 阿布格莱布的酷刑和监狱虐待 Henry Kissinger 亨利·基辛格 TIMBER SYCAMORE DANNY CHEN PROJECT ICEWORM CHINESE EXLCUSION ACT BIKINI ATOLL GUANO ACT LOVE CANAL JIM JONES PEOPLE’S TEMPEL PARENT’S CHOICE HEAVY METALS OPERATION BROTHER SAM 2021 TEXAS BLACKOUT
Love to live in a world where China is committing genocide, everyone was paying close attention and were super concerned, then Ukraine happened and suddenly everyone dropped it. How is anyone meant to take that seriously? You’re telling me China did the second Holocaust and all that came of it was some people stopped buying Nikes? Hello?
It’s so funny (in a
way ) that people are STILL claiming China is doing a heckin’ genocide when Israel is right there, ACTUALLY committing genocide.
Yeah Chinas as democratic as North Korea!
In Tencent’s favor I haven’t really heard about them mismanaging properies or being too heavyhanded when it comes to squeezing out profitability.
Do I want DnD to be owned and controlled by another multinational holding company? No. Will it matter to me? Not really. But I do enjoy the drama.
Tencent is going to release Dark Souls 4
Yeah, at best it’ll be acquired by a company that won’t totally enshittify it, whoever that is. It’s a big enough game that some form of enshittification is inevitable, though.
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’s one of only two properties Hasbro has that makes any money at all.
How comes that Hasbro can make money with D&D ? We know that most of the RPG end-up costing money to their author or bringing them a revenue way under the hourly minimal wage. I know D&D is big and expensive compared to other RPG, so hopefully they bring money. But basically with the 3 base books, you have a few 100 hours of play for 5 persons. So doesn’t look like a good investment for a large company.
I mean, yes there is Baldur’s gate and the movie. but looks like the kind of IP which can be worth nothing in a decade if you don’t keep the game alive
You wouldn’t think DnD would be that expensive to make. It’s just printing books with a couple game designer authors and game testers involved. But selling books also doesn’t make much money.
I think the trick to making money is definitely the licensing. It’s an IP everyone’s knows and lots of nerds love. Whenever someone doesn’t know what to buy me for a birthday or Christmas present they get me some DnD crap and honestly, I usually appreciate it lol. I love my dumb DnD dice ice tray, pajama pants, cool looking minis I pretend I’ll one day paint, or beholder waffle iron. It’s stupid shit I’ll never buy myself but makes a good gift. A good VTT will also help and I know they’re working on that, but software devs are expensive so that feels like more of a gamble. Especially if it only works DnD 5e while the others in the market can work with any game.
Are you having a stroke?
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
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.
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). 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.)
I would have seen it by now if Hasbro had not made me viscerally hate the idea of supporting them in any way.
That’s fair. I was going to not see it but they reversed so hard on the OGL thing I decided to reward them with my $15 lol.
Yeah, I’d have ended my boycott of Hasbro after they backed down had they not immediately sent armed, hired mercinaries to threaten, harass, and bully an MTG player over an order mixup that was the seller’s fault. That happened so soon after they backed down on the whole OGL 1.1 thing. I genuinely thought Hasbro learned a lesson with the OGL backlash, but this Pinkerton thing made it clear they hadn’t.
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.
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?
Hasbro has no clue what to do with the game since their games-as-service, closed ecosystem plan went kaput after they backed down on the OGL revision (which would have been necessary to shut out other VTTs and ensure player & DM subscriptions). I think the recent lay offs of senior people in the D&D related teams suggests this as well. This article doesn’t seem well sourced at all, but a shake-up would be very interesting at this point.
Side-stepping some of the speculation and impact on the traditional market/fanbase, I am curious about the interest in D&D in China, as a Tencent acquisition would presumably make it much easier to market the game there. From the searching I’ve done, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of interest in D&D, and there’s no official translation into Mandarin. The movie didn’t do great at the Chinese box office, although Baldur’s Gate 3 did fine? Obviously, if Tencent does put together a subsidiary to design a version for the Chinese market, I’m not sure if they’d want to start by translating/adapting existing books or using the ruleset to design a bespoke version (either with a fantasy setting or based on relevant Chinese IP.)
I was in China for two years and not once ever found anything related to actual role playing games ever. Anywhere. And I really looked. There is a market there, waiting to be created, and I’m not surprised one bit that Tencent would be interested in that. But as other people have mentioned, monetizing that stuff is gonna be a challenge. I sure am looking forward to it, though. Especially once I get good enough at Chinese. I dream of the day I have a level strong enough to help translating games there…
You didn’t look hard enough. It’s ALL OVER TAOBAO.
Perhaps you didn’t look in the right places?
Here’s a search for “DND”. (I ran the search through Google Translate for you.)
Here’s a search for “克苏鲁” (Cthulhu). (Again with the Google Translate.)
Here’s a search for “TRPG”. (Google Translate again!)
So if you really looked, you might have tried instead really looking where people actually go to buy these things. Different country, different customs, different ways of doing things.
edited to fix up images that my screen capture tool screwed up
Haha, I may have exaggerated a bit for effect ;) I was on Taobao and found myself some reliable suppliers of dice and minis, which made sense since China produces everything for the rest of the world. I found some board games imports. There were a good few card games, too. But i dont recall finding any RPG boss in Chinese. This is very cool! I ended up finding gaming partners through the grapevine, but even they had difficulty finding suppliers and confirmed my suspicion that the hobby is still tiny. Nobody has any idea when I asked about rpg, boardgames, etc. Apart from a few card games board games. I found one gaming shop in the whole of Wuhan and it turns out it was a mini shop (again, no surprise when the manufacturing is all made in China). Anyway, it was 8 years ago, so it’s no surprise things have changed. They do tend to do so very quickly, over there. Seeing translated versions is super encouraging! Thanks for taking the time, though.
Ah, yes, 8 years ago things would have been harder. (And I know the shop you mean in Wuhan for that time frame, I think. Mostly Warhammer 40K and a smattering of imported card and board games?)
Call of Cthulhu is the giant here, though D&D/Pathfinder is a pretty close second. Fate, of all things, is a decently close third as well, and going up. (There’s Chinese-native Fate modules and campaign/setting packs popping up all over the place now, along with some native CofC stuff. Native D&D stuff is rarer.) Make no mistake it’s still a fringe hobby with loads of room for growth, but it is no longer unheard of. Most people now have at least heard of it, even if they don’t know exactly what it is.
Dude if you actually know a gaming shop in Wuhan, I’m interested! I’m going for a few weeks in April and it would be just fantastic to go to a real gaming shop :) The one I found was mostly military modeling, with a mezzanine where people were, I guess, painting (I didn’t dare go up, my level of Chinese was abysmal at the time). And yeah, I noticed Cthulhu in your screenshots. I’m not totally surprised to see it, though. It’s been I the top 3 in France for the last thirty years. Fate is definitely a surprise, though! I guess it all depends on who the “evangelists” are. I’m so getting a copy in Chinese when I get there, hahaha!
Fate was crowd-funded for translation on Modian. They wanted 50,000 RMB for the main rule book’s translation. They got so much money (215,930.76 RMB) that they wound up translating everything Evil Hat had published for Fate up to that point.
Since then Fate has been a juggernaut here.
edited to add
If you run that page through Google Translate and scroll to the bottom, you can see an explanation for why D&D isn’t as much a juggernaut as it is in North America. I’ll quote the relevant bit:
Every time [our American friend Scott] came to JOYPIE, he would bring us a game as a gift and actively encourage us to participate in the DND games hosted by him. I tried to participate out of curiosity and for the purpose of practicing English speaking. In order to facilitate learning and operation, I decided to choose a big “double player” [probably dual-class? — ed.] - Priest profession, and selected dwarves based on racial characteristics. However, after several group experiences, I decided to give up. The reason was not the communication problem in English, but that I felt that our minds were not in the same picture at all.。
Scott and I had a candid exchange about this embarrassing experience. We both believed that it was because the fantasy background of DND was too strong. For people like me who have little in-depth understanding of the background of Western fantasy worlds, there is no way. You can do role-playing with just your imagination. From a cultural perspective, it is the cultural differences between East and West.
One of the things that always seems to come as a surprise to people trying to sell into other cultures is that, well, they’re other cultures. What might be thought of as “common tropes” in North American and European cultures may just be bewildering nonsense to others. (Like as he goes on to talk about after that snippet above, dragons here are WILDLY different than dragons in the west.) D&D is steeped heavily in western mythology and is going to feel too alien. A generic game like Fate will do better until homegrown games start popping up.
(He also takes a bit of a snipe against how D&D players tend to play the game like it’s a wargame, but I’m not certain I agree with him there; I mean yes the tendency is there, but … his rant looked a bit like BadWrongFun™ which I’m opposed to as a concept.)
You’ve no idea how exciting it is to read all this! This is the kind of convo I was desperately trying to find, to no avail, while there. I’m gonna have to parse through that page and see if I can find a few keywords to hook on for future reference. At least I know what I’m gonna look for when I get there in April, haha! Thank you so much for taking the time to show all this! :)
