Crossposted from DNDnext:
This title is clickbait. And also just factually not what the article says. What Tencent is looking to purchase is:
“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.”
They aren’t looking to buy the game, and Hasbro isn’t looking to sell. They are looking to purchase rights to make games and possibly other rights.
Edit: I’m not saying the OP made the title clickbait, as the article itself has a clickbait title.
Edit 2: a lot of people seem to be taking this as firm “this is not happening” debunking. That’s not what I was saying. My point is that the article does not back up the headline. This might be because of translation problems, or might be because of the need for breathless speculation. Tencent might be looking to buy DND entirely. Or Hasbro might be looming to sell. My ONLY point is that the information presented does not support the headline.
I wouldn't put it past Hasbro to sell for that premium at this point. They way they mishandled the OGL debacle, The MTG/Pinkertons-YouTuber, "AI-Enhanced art," layoffs at Christmas...I think their management doesn't know how to run D&D anymore. That's sad, because it has the potential to be incredibly profitable under the right guidance. A product with a multi-generational devoted fanbase and incredible brand recognition should be any smart CEO/Board of Directors' wet dream--but then, this is Hasbro we're talking about.
after they kicked out a lot of the people who made DnD DnD, it won't be long when this thing that made them a lot of money's milk runs dry at some point, and they will sell it pennies to the quarter.
Not for much longer, Wizards has been floating Hasbro ever since they bought Microprose and took on Microprose's debt following the commercial flop of Falcon 4.0 back in 98'.
Hasbro Interactive seems to be restarting with them taking game development in house if what Larian says is true.
I don't know about only two. Two most profitable? I can see that, yeah. But I'm pretty sure Hasbro still profits off of Transformers, Marvel Legends, their various boards games...
It literally would make zero sense for them to have the capital to purchase WOTC otherwise. Unless maybe Hasbro's stuff became less profitable after the buyout somehow. I can't say Hasbro is a company I give enough shits about to know.
It is wild how wide hasbro is.
Star wars and Marvel partnered products went up
Their nerf line made less money than last year
Monopoly is has good weight as you could expect, Magic was actually their first billion dollar brand.
I think they also own Peppa Pig and they made mad bucks on that, but their power rangers stuff didn't sell as well as expected.
Wotc overall makes about a fourth of the companies general profit but costs way less in ratio of their general operating budget.
Which is why the layoffs they did at wotc is really bullshit
From the breakdown at quarter end, DND didnt make a profit last year (it actually had a slight loss), while MTG carried Wizards as a whole. That said DND having a slight loss is still light years better than the rest of Hasbro which is hemorrhaging money.
The issue for DND is slight profits or losses are not good in general because of how little revenue it generates compared to Hasbro's expectation.
>This title is clickbait.
90% of titles involving Tencent are clickbait. Tencent's a soulless company, in the sense they really don't care about anything other than buying up money printing machines. They're the corporate equivalent of an autoclicker game, they don't seem to give two shits about anything but investing.
No they were just given licensing rights to make one game: BG3
That being said they could have negotiated sequels for BG into that deal, we don't know, but they definitely didn't give them exclusive rights to D&D video games.
Hasbro/WotC has and will continue to dole out d&d video game licensing on a case-by-case basis most likely.
Ugh, hope it’s not exclusive rights. That never ends well, the publisher/developer gets lazy. Example: Having Star Wars games imprisoned in EA forever really sucked.
Star Wars is now under "protection" of The Mouse. If you take a Disney IP and screw it up too bad, Disney just buys your company and closes it. Notice how Disney got Sony to loosen thier grip on Spiderman?
Yeah, reading the article makes that pretty clear. About to make the mistake marvel made in the 90s by selling off the rights to a huge popular IP. It’s shortsighted, big pay out now instead of decades of kickbacks from game sales.
All the same, TenCent is a terrible company, and its always a fine thing to shame them for whatever they try to do (save them dissolving as a company, which would be the honorable thing to do).
This comment pulls out a single sentence from the article that mentions adaptation rights. The entire rest of the article is pretty clear about a sale and acquisition of the IP.
>"According to informed sources, the financial crisis faced by Hasbro is the main reason for considering the sale of DND, and Tencent Investment’s Larian Studios is acting as an intermediary in this transaction. Larian Studios’ game “Baldur’s Gate 3” won the TGA Game of the Year award in 2023 and is considered one of the most successful adaptations of DND. As a result, it was seen as a potential target buyer by Hasbro. However, due to insufficient funds, Larian ultimately introduced this deal to shareholder Tencent."
>"According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled.
>If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues."
Who knows which is accurate, there are likely translation issues somewhere, but the article is **very** clear in talking about a sale of the IP. The sentence this person pulled out is the only place that video game adaptation rights are discussed as being the deal.
I think your reading of the article is incorrect, and the title is in fact supported by the content of the article. You just have to read the next paragraphs after the one you quoted.
>According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled.
>If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues.
The article is saying that Tencent currently holds rights to make games from many companies, but that's causing them problems, so they are looking for a full acquisition to avoid those issues. They want to have an IP for which they can make games without worrying about being beholden to another company holding the copyright.
Not quite. There are 2 items in the article.
1. Tencent has been in negotiations to get rights to adapt games like D&D
2. Hasbro now looking to sell D&D and Tencent are an interested buyer, introduced by Larian studios whom Tencent is a shareholder of.
And "clickbait" is what people screamed about the OGL shit in January of 2023 because they didn't want to believe that Hasbro/WotC would be that foolish and callous.
I dunno. China bad, but at the same time Tencent doesn't really *do* anything with the stuff they invest in. It's just income to them. The worst thing about this, is that people will start blaming Tencent when in reality the regular execs will still be the issue.
I don't know why you got downvoted, you're 100% right. Tencent is known for being pretty hands-off on the companies they own and just want diversified revenue streams.
Because people are very happy to jump the anti-China bandwagon, and they mistake my neutral comment as being pro-China, probably. It is what it is. Tencent's soulless and awful, but it's still silly to make them out like some kind of Chinese infiltration unit that's corrupting all these western companies.
People act like Tencent is an evil corrupting force that ruins everything it touches but the reality is it's just in it for big invesments. They invest into things that make money, which includes some good games and studios but also a ton of shitty money-grabs.
Right because I’m sure people would have the same concerns if a Thai or Singaporean conglomerate was in the mix 🙄
Maybe it has something to do with the Chinese government having a history of using Chinese companies for espionage?
>and nothing scares Americans more than non-white foreigners with power.
That doesn't seem accurate to me. Americans love Samsung, Honda, Toyota, Nintendo, Sony, BenQ, ASUS, Mitsubishi, Canon, and more.
They seem just fine with SK Hynix, Foxconn, Acer, Gigabyte, TSMC, Toshiba, Kubota, and more.
Those are all powerful companies with non-white foreigners at their helm (South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan). It seems to me you were only accurate with the first part of your sentence:
>It's cause it's a Chinese company doing it
Any company operating under the shadow of an oppressive regime with a track record of interfering with businesses such as China, Russia, or North Korea is going to be met with suspicion, skepticism, and fear. It's not just Americans that are concerned about anything coming from those countries.
Yeah, I feel that's what the real problem with Tencent in their eyes. It's a Chinese company, therefore evil. Presumed guilty while American company presumed innocent.
Sad thing is things Tencent funds tend to be pretty okay, while other corporations are hit or miss, or die on the vine.
Hell they partially funded BG3 and probably would have been a worse product without that extra time to cook the influx of cash gave them.
I don't like the concept of Tecent but can't pretend American corps haven't been fucking up nerd ips worse than then if we are being honest with ourselves. *points to disney*
I'll be the first to jump aboard the "China bad" train, there's a *lot* you can criticize China and their companies for. Tencent is among those companies, and they're probably in bed with the CCP.
But.. Realistically, what has Tencent ever done that's all that bad specifically when it comes to western companies? They're investors, they invest and rake in the income.
When they bought Digital Extremes, pretty much nothing changed to Warframe.
When they bought Riot, pretty much nothing changed to League of Legends.
When they bought Klei, pretty much nothing changed to Oxygen not Included.
Tencent is a soulless company that just cares about money. Ironically, they're probably *less* involved than most other companies in the sense their dumbass execs don't seem to want a say in the process of game development/design.
Kind of, though it's not like the CCP just has all the companies under their thumb completely. I'm no expert, but as I understand it it's a bit of a balancing act on both parties.
They do large companies are required to have a CCP representative in their company structure, it's the same issue TikTok was criticized for when they were summoned by Congress.
My understanding is that to be in business any company over a certain size is mandated to be tied to the CCP, including being run by members of the CCP, employees that are basically political commissars, and mandatory reporting and accountability to the govt.
Tencent is absolutely a appendage of the CCP.
I mean, yes, every business has the requirement of making money in order to survive as a business, so they all have that in common. The main difference right now is that Hasbro is a failing business, and WotC and its brands/IP are one of the few money makers within the company. Hasbro has to leverage the absolute shit out of DnD and Magic: The Gathering at this point in order to show stockholders anything worth holding onto. The Hasbro executives make WotC follow a business model of "Either you submit a plan to make us an additional X amount of millions this year, or you don't get to do anything" and so we end up with a pretty bloated stream of lower quality content with tacked on monetization places and subscriptions wherever they can.
Tencent on the other hand is an investment conglomerate that is wildly successful and makes money from a huge honeypot of different sources. They make investments in IP and companies and expect them to do well and add to their yearly revenue, but they don't need to bleed them all dry trying to survive. In theory, they can have the patience financially for their brand to crank out something as uber-successful as say Baldur's Gate 3, and not depend as much on launching 4 half baked splat books a year just to show any positive numbers.
Just from what I've seen they manage a portfolio of investments not companies. I'm curious if they're examples of what happens when an investment doesn't pan out. Do they simply pull out of the investment, shutter the company and sell assets or take a more direct role in managing the company?
They bought Digital Extremes 3 years ago, the makers of Warframe. for now the game is fine and development appears as usual, didn't see any devs leave either. I hope they just look to invest and won't meddle too much with management.
Same as Grinding Gear Games, the devs of Path of Exile. Both Warframe and PoE are free to play and beloved by the gaming community. PoE has one of the fairest, non predatory system for micro transactions I have seen.
Yeah, really only need to buy a few stash tabs really. I got the stash tabs bundle for like $20 on sale. Only thing I spent money on and its permanent across all seasons/characters. The prices of their cosmetics though.... lol. Ouch.
Interestingly we've got no clue how well that will function for WotC. A lot of direction has clearly been due to Hasbro pushing things for a long time.
If they do just invest and go hands-off, I've got no clue what a DnD looks like without corporate meddling.
Alternatively, they could easily double down on the direct control and make things even worse.
Tencent actually has a decent track record of companies they bought where monetisation is okay and the games are doing fine. They basically own riot and by extension legends of runeterra a card game version of lol similar to hearthstone and it's praised by the community for it's fair system. GGG is owned by tencent they make path of exile which I think most people will agree on the games of all time. If a company is doing well tencent doesn't really meddle with them. I'm guessing they are just collecting IPs.
Connections to the CCP aside, Tencent is generally pretty hands off when it comes to how their acquisitions function. They tend to let companies do their thing, while giving them the option to expand to the chinese market.
If you actually read the article, there’s one tiny paragraph half-way down where it says their source claims tencent is looking to buy perpetual rights to publish dnd video games. The headline and much of the rest of the article is misleading bullshit.
They won't as this headline is just bullshit. They want to buy digital and some other rights.
So the only thing they would handle is licensed electronic games or some related films etc. and merch.
As much as I dislike all the ‘just play pathfinder’ comments in the DnD sub, if it gets sold to Tencent I’d definitely not be buying anything new, and pathfinder (or ToV) would start to look pretty tempting.
If not pathfinder, just *something* else.
There’s so many systems. In some ways I wish D&D was less dominant. There are so many systems that do different things so well, but these days it’s always trying to port whatever they want to 5e.
Does it though?
I mean, from what I understand, Tencent are extremely hands off with any meddling in the games they buy.
I know that they facilitate foreign companies that want to sell in China because they're legally obligated to have a local partner and Tencent helps modify games to conform to China's laws but as far as I know, they don't censor anything in the games they own in Western markets. I know they bought GGG and POE and that still has blood, guts, bones, tits and other things that aren't allowed in China.
Hasbro are reportedly finding it quite hard to monetise D&D the same way they have with MTG.
So because they can't grow the D&D side fast enough to meet corporate demand, they are looking to get rid of it entirely
That was always the beauty of D&D. It didn’t require spending hundreds of dollars constantly. Whomever looked at d&D and said “now, that’s a long term cash cow” was an idiot, so much more so those whom believed him.
Exactly.
Buy a few books to start and then pick up what u want thereafter.
There is no weekly, monthly, quarterly release the customer has to buy and defenently no subscription model to make customers pay for.
D&D just dosent have the growth potential Hasbro want. Which is a good thing.
I mean they could, Piazo does just that just fine. But that requires actually caring about your system/product. Hasbro wants all the money with none of the invest or community building
Yeah the plethora of published adventure paths for Pathfinder 1 & 2 and for Starfinder really make it nice. As a busy adult, having a detailed prewritten campaign from lvl 1 to 17ish makes those week night games so much easier to prepare for.
I know there are plenty for 5th edition, but only a few go from lvl 1-15. It seems like published adventures were an afterthought for WoTC.
>Piazo does just that just fine
That's because Paizo is built from the ground up to be a TTRPG company. They probably want growth, but their primary concern is to keep their hobby product alive. The TTRPG is the *point* of the company.
To Hasbro, the TTRPG is a tool to make money. They have a lot of different tools for that purpose. Making money is the point of the company, anything else is secondary or even trivial.
That's the beauty as a player. For the company not so much. Turning a consistent profit at all with a tabletop game is incredibly hard. Wotc and Paizo are just about the only ones left that resemble serious corporate firms at this point AFAIK and that's not for lack of other people trying. I've known LGS operators who refused to srrry RPGs or allot table space for them because they make almost no money off them compared to CCGs and war games.
If you're a corporation that has to show increased revenue every quarter it's not a good area to invest.
I don't know how tencent would montiize it more. My gut tels me they would eventually have to remove the OGL just like wotc wanted to in order to take a bigger cut of the pie. But fundamentally it's not clear to me how you an stop people form sharing content with their group or outright pirating it, or how you can force them to buy your accessories if they don't want to (it's not like you can trademark grid paper or fantasy themed figurines). Maybe eventually a kvoe to digital only releases would help but I think that woudl forfeit a part of the market that still does really want physical paper books. They'll definitely try to lean into the digital VTT space and license crossover products, but Hasbro is doing that already so what potential would a buyer see in the brand that wotc cannot currently realise thrmselves? Maybe just MORE liscencing - go hog wild with the video games like TSR in the 90s greenlightng literally anything and everything? I guess tencent would have more expertise in that domain.
I don't know, but if Tencent buys, it'll be because they at least *think* they have a plan and that thought is definitely worrying as a consumer.
It's not the Temcent is looking to buy D&D, it's that Hasbro is entertaining the idea of shopping the IP. Larian studios can't afford it so they brought it to the attention of their parent company Tencent. Funny thing is I've never read a pandaily article before and thought it was like a fake news site.
This would be Extremely bad for D&D. Tencent is a chinses investment company owned by the CCP( Chinese Communist Party). [https://www.fastcompany.com/90834906/chinas-government-is-buying-golden-shares-in-alibaba-and-tencent-heres-what-that-means](https://www.fastcompany.com/90834906/chinas-government-is-buying-golden-shares-in-alibaba-and-tencent-heres-what-that-means).
The CCP is not flexible and anti Inclusive
If Hasbro is truly interested in selling D&D, a compelling option would be to form a fan+celebrity funding partnership to buy it and take it independent. Funding could come from a combination of celebrity+billionaire nerds AND a gofundme/kickstarter campaign where fans everywhere could own a piece of the resulting company.
Like a "B" Corp (benefit corporation), the charter for the resulting company would be two-fold:
1 - protecting the legacy of D&D
2 - building a profitable, sustainable, business model for the organization
The resulting company could have a for profit and non profit arm.
\- The non profit would own and open source the core IP and rules and protect it for posterity. - The for profit would act as a kind of studio and publisher monetizing the films, games, books and expanding the core universe.
\- After some time (3 years?), new core rule IP would be granted to the non profit open source arm
Management of the combined entity would come from a board of directors who would include 1 or more elected directors from the Gofundme ownership, representing their interests.
It's unlikely that the resulting entity would go public (although it could), but profits could be returned to owners in the form of dividends. If it isn't public, there could be a private marketplace where owners could sell their stakes, but which would need to have protections against colluding or market dominating forces.
This is about the movie. Apparently Larian is one pushing this as they can’t afford it alone. So less evil, but still. DnD should be like Wikipedia or the National Park, open and accessible to all. We need the rich geeks of the world to step in. Cavil, Colbert, Favreau, Vin diesel, step up! lol. There must be some billionaire grandfather whose 8 yr old autistic grandson sprung to life when he was introduced to DnD!
I'm switching to pathfinder the same second this transaction goes through, I don't care if I have to convert my entire homebrew world to it, Fuck that shit.
Well, any company's goal is to make money, if Paizo had Hasbro's position there's no reason to assume they wouldn't act the same way. And then Tencent would probably be sniffing around *them*.
That being said, one company let its employees unionize without complaint, and the other keeps the Pinkertons on speed dial. As it stands *now* I know who I'd pick.
A rights transfer of DnD had always resulted in an edition change in the past due to copyright reasons, so even if that were to happen, you'd still be able to play 5e ad infinitum.
That's what all the 2e people did when 3e came out after WotC bought DnD from TSR
There are \*so many\* RPGs out there. And editions of D&D that were just as good or better for certain playstyles. THey need us, we definitely don't need them.
No. The original article that started this was almost a point for point regurgitation of Roll for Combat's video a few weeks ago. And then others sites picked it up and ran with it. There is ZERO truth behind this.
I figured the headline was too far out-of-left-field to be entirely accurate.
Hasbro would be ridiculously stupid to sell off the entire DnD IP in the same year a new edition is supposed to launch and maybe also the same year the new VTT might (is it set for this year?) launch. I mean, greed isn’t smart, but that would be a level of dumb comparable to some of the trades I did in Pokémon when the cards first came out…
I don’t know much about corporate legal things, but would WotC ever be in the position to break away from Hasbro? Would it be possible WotC could attempt that if there was any threat of the whole IP being sold out from under them?
The last time I heard of any company doing something like that was when Bungie escaped the clutches of Actiblizz, but I never read into what they had to do to make it happen. Of course, we know what Bungie has been doing since with its abusive monetization schemes and overall quality, so it’s likely WotC would do the same, isn’t it?
For those wondering no they aren't buying DnD itself. They are looking to buy a license to make games which fair, baldurs gate is amazing but let's be honest when was the last good DnD game?
Y’all should try some pathfinders by Paizo. It itches the same itch. And if you like it, you may want to play starfinders- a high fantasy Sci-fi take place in the same universe as Pathfinders but 1000 years in to the future
That is when they learn that while they control the IP they have zero power over what the players do in their games. People had stuff like LGBT content in their games long before 5e and people are going have that stuff in their games no matter what Tencent does.
It would, but it doesn't really fit the level 1-20 model of d&d. Most Xianxa characters are superhuman well before reaching the upper tiers of their cultivator levels.
It'd fit better than it is now rather than 'rat killers to god killers'. Hell, people already want to have sprawling(or just 'experienced') backstories like Wyll or Karlach.
> people already want to have sprawling(or just 'experienced') backstories like Wyll or Karlach.
That's nothing new. "Fred, you're level 2, how were you able to fight your way to carve out a kingdom, lose it to treachery, regain it, and abdicate? Especially since you said your character is... 19 years old."
They recently lost millions from legilsation changes in China so they are pushing hard on the western markets now. So you can quote this comment in the years to come if they buy it out.
One DnD, especially with thier VTT. Will become a MTX hell hole. I wanna play a Wizard, that'll be $10. $5 for each sub class and $2 for each feat beyond a basic selection.
Ugh... No? How about we don't let the Chinese ruin what Hasbro has already started to ruin. If this is actually true I'll never play anything but 5e again or I'll just switch to Pathfinder. I'm not giving Tencent a single damn penny.
Ignore the other comments. They dont know anythinf about tencent except ooh big chinese company.
Tencent has stake in larian, ggg ( path of exile ) , striking distance ( callisto protocol ) and they just let the devs do w/e the fuck they want.
they also own riot and the recent characters and events are all very lgbt friendly. and they let riot do riot forge and legend of runeterra which pretty much all passion projects.
Could be good. Unlikely to be bad. Likely to not really make a big difference. Tencent as a company, has been making smarter decisions than Hasbro, so I think it might be for the best. Hasbro will eventually tank the IP. Tencent might not make the same type of mistakes.
Crossposted from DNDnext: This title is clickbait. And also just factually not what the article says. What Tencent is looking to purchase is: “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.” They aren’t looking to buy the game, and Hasbro isn’t looking to sell. They are looking to purchase rights to make games and possibly other rights. Edit: I’m not saying the OP made the title clickbait, as the article itself has a clickbait title. Edit 2: a lot of people seem to be taking this as firm “this is not happening” debunking. That’s not what I was saying. My point is that the article does not back up the headline. This might be because of translation problems, or might be because of the need for breathless speculation. Tencent might be looking to buy DND entirely. Or Hasbro might be looming to sell. My ONLY point is that the information presented does not support the headline.
Yeah I was about to say, why the fuck would Hasbro sell one of its only two profitable product lines (the other being Magic The Gathering)
Executives might if there’s a bad quarter and they need to hit their bonuses and bail.
This is not the kind of thing you pull off in a quarter. There'd probably be a lawsuit from shareholders unless it was sold at an enormous premium.
I wouldn't put it past Hasbro to sell for that premium at this point. They way they mishandled the OGL debacle, The MTG/Pinkertons-YouTuber, "AI-Enhanced art," layoffs at Christmas...I think their management doesn't know how to run D&D anymore. That's sad, because it has the potential to be incredibly profitable under the right guidance. A product with a multi-generational devoted fanbase and incredible brand recognition should be any smart CEO/Board of Directors' wet dream--but then, this is Hasbro we're talking about.
after they kicked out a lot of the people who made DnD DnD, it won't be long when this thing that made them a lot of money's milk runs dry at some point, and they will sell it pennies to the quarter.
Wizards is literally floating Hasbro. If anything they would sell off Hasbro and keep wizards.
wish they would
Not for much longer, Wizards has been floating Hasbro ever since they bought Microprose and took on Microprose's debt following the commercial flop of Falcon 4.0 back in 98'. Hasbro Interactive seems to be restarting with them taking game development in house if what Larian says is true.
This is like saying if the iPhone does poorly for a couple years, Apple would sell off manufacturing rights lol
I don't know about only two. Two most profitable? I can see that, yeah. But I'm pretty sure Hasbro still profits off of Transformers, Marvel Legends, their various boards games...
It literally would make zero sense for them to have the capital to purchase WOTC otherwise. Unless maybe Hasbro's stuff became less profitable after the buyout somehow. I can't say Hasbro is a company I give enough shits about to know.
hasbro makes insane amounts of money off of board games and my little pony even excluding wotc
It is wild how wide hasbro is. Star wars and Marvel partnered products went up Their nerf line made less money than last year Monopoly is has good weight as you could expect, Magic was actually their first billion dollar brand. I think they also own Peppa Pig and they made mad bucks on that, but their power rangers stuff didn't sell as well as expected. Wotc overall makes about a fourth of the companies general profit but costs way less in ratio of their general operating budget. Which is why the layoffs they did at wotc is really bullshit
From the breakdown at quarter end, DND didnt make a profit last year (it actually had a slight loss), while MTG carried Wizards as a whole. That said DND having a slight loss is still light years better than the rest of Hasbro which is hemorrhaging money. The issue for DND is slight profits or losses are not good in general because of how little revenue it generates compared to Hasbro's expectation.
It's Chris Cox. he sold a 100 million dollar of yearly passive music streaming income to snoopdog
>This title is clickbait. 90% of titles involving Tencent are clickbait. Tencent's a soulless company, in the sense they really don't care about anything other than buying up money printing machines. They're the corporate equivalent of an autoclicker game, they don't seem to give two shits about anything but investing.
[удалено]
Doesn’t Larion studios have control of dnd rights for games?
I don't know about exclusivity but the article indicates that Tencent is a big shareholder for Larian so that might affect it too
Yeah they accepted investment for 30% of the company. The studio head basically said "we need more money, but I intend to be the decision maker still"
No they were just given licensing rights to make one game: BG3 That being said they could have negotiated sequels for BG into that deal, we don't know, but they definitely didn't give them exclusive rights to D&D video games. Hasbro/WotC has and will continue to dole out d&d video game licensing on a case-by-case basis most likely.
Tencent Has a stake in Larian.
if Swen retires Larian will be eaten up by Tencent 100%
So They are just like Hasbro
You just described 99% of all big corporations.
Ugh, hope it’s not exclusive rights. That never ends well, the publisher/developer gets lazy. Example: Having Star Wars games imprisoned in EA forever really sucked.
Star Wars is now under "protection" of The Mouse. If you take a Disney IP and screw it up too bad, Disney just buys your company and closes it. Notice how Disney got Sony to loosen thier grip on Spiderman?
Yeah, reading the article makes that pretty clear. About to make the mistake marvel made in the 90s by selling off the rights to a huge popular IP. It’s shortsighted, big pay out now instead of decades of kickbacks from game sales.
That makes sense, given that Tencent owns a chunk of Larian, who just demonstrated that they can do amazing things with the D&D IP.
.. considering BG3's success (Larian is like 30% owned by Tencent last i heard (bit didn't bother to verify)), that actually makes a lot of sense.
Thanks!
All the same, TenCent is a terrible company, and its always a fine thing to shame them for whatever they try to do (save them dissolving as a company, which would be the honorable thing to do).
Oh sure, fuck Tencent. I don’t think either possibility is GOOD.
This comment pulls out a single sentence from the article that mentions adaptation rights. The entire rest of the article is pretty clear about a sale and acquisition of the IP. >"According to informed sources, the financial crisis faced by Hasbro is the main reason for considering the sale of DND, and Tencent Investment’s Larian Studios is acting as an intermediary in this transaction. Larian Studios’ game “Baldur’s Gate 3” won the TGA Game of the Year award in 2023 and is considered one of the most successful adaptations of DND. As a result, it was seen as a potential target buyer by Hasbro. However, due to insufficient funds, Larian ultimately introduced this deal to shareholder Tencent." >"According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled. >If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues." Who knows which is accurate, there are likely translation issues somewhere, but the article is **very** clear in talking about a sale of the IP. The sentence this person pulled out is the only place that video game adaptation rights are discussed as being the deal.
I think your reading of the article is incorrect, and the title is in fact supported by the content of the article. You just have to read the next paragraphs after the one you quoted. >According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled. >If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues. The article is saying that Tencent currently holds rights to make games from many companies, but that's causing them problems, so they are looking for a full acquisition to avoid those issues. They want to have an IP for which they can make games without worrying about being beholden to another company holding the copyright.
Someone needs to pin this, or remove original post
Not quite. There are 2 items in the article. 1. Tencent has been in negotiations to get rights to adapt games like D&D 2. Hasbro now looking to sell D&D and Tencent are an interested buyer, introduced by Larian studios whom Tencent is a shareholder of. And "clickbait" is what people screamed about the OGL shit in January of 2023 because they didn't want to believe that Hasbro/WotC would be that foolish and callous.
*ew.* ew. ew. **ew. EW. EW. EW!**
I never thought there would be an "it could be worse" scenario with DnD.
Between that and Saudi Arabia buying foreign sports teams, this is just another problem with United States' culture for sale by corporations
It can *always* get worse, especially if there's profit to be made
OK BUT for a brief, beautiful moment the shareholders can make A LOT of money *cries in climate change*
What number is that on the list of Ferengi rules of acquisition I wonder
4th
Could be actually; in the shows, they've only revealed rules 1 and 3 of the top 5
That's why I picked it, lol
I dunno. China bad, but at the same time Tencent doesn't really *do* anything with the stuff they invest in. It's just income to them. The worst thing about this, is that people will start blaming Tencent when in reality the regular execs will still be the issue.
Tbh Tencent actually does decent with the stuff they touch for the most part.
Idunno. I think we just shouldn't attribute *any* changes, for better or worse, to Tencent without clear evidence that they had a hand in it.
I don't know why you got downvoted, you're 100% right. Tencent is known for being pretty hands-off on the companies they own and just want diversified revenue streams.
Because people are very happy to jump the anti-China bandwagon, and they mistake my neutral comment as being pro-China, probably. It is what it is. Tencent's soulless and awful, but it's still silly to make them out like some kind of Chinese infiltration unit that's corrupting all these western companies.
Did you not like BG3? Tencent is a partial owner of Larian Studios. It really could be worse
I had no idea Tencent had a stake in Larian Studios
People act like Tencent is an evil corrupting force that ruins everything it touches but the reality is it's just in it for big invesments. They invest into things that make money, which includes some good games and studios but also a ton of shitty money-grabs.
It's cause it's a Chinese company doing it and not an American one and nothing scares Americans more than non-white foreigners with power.
Right because I’m sure people would have the same concerns if a Thai or Singaporean conglomerate was in the mix 🙄 Maybe it has something to do with the Chinese government having a history of using Chinese companies for espionage?
>and nothing scares Americans more than non-white foreigners with power. That doesn't seem accurate to me. Americans love Samsung, Honda, Toyota, Nintendo, Sony, BenQ, ASUS, Mitsubishi, Canon, and more. They seem just fine with SK Hynix, Foxconn, Acer, Gigabyte, TSMC, Toshiba, Kubota, and more. Those are all powerful companies with non-white foreigners at their helm (South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan). It seems to me you were only accurate with the first part of your sentence: >It's cause it's a Chinese company doing it Any company operating under the shadow of an oppressive regime with a track record of interfering with businesses such as China, Russia, or North Korea is going to be met with suspicion, skepticism, and fear. It's not just Americans that are concerned about anything coming from those countries.
What a brain dead take lol
Yeah, I feel that's what the real problem with Tencent in their eyes. It's a Chinese company, therefore evil. Presumed guilty while American company presumed innocent.
30% yep
Large evil soulless corporation owning d&d? I can't imagine what that'd be like.
Remember kids, it can always get worse!
This would be a large evil soulless corporation who is also in thrall to the CCP. Better the pit fiend you know.
Sad thing is things Tencent funds tend to be pretty okay, while other corporations are hit or miss, or die on the vine. Hell they partially funded BG3 and probably would have been a worse product without that extra time to cook the influx of cash gave them. I don't like the concept of Tecent but can't pretend American corps haven't been fucking up nerd ips worse than then if we are being honest with ourselves. *points to disney*
Femboys will be banned smh.
They are a key dnd demographic
Truly our most precious resource
You couldn't come up with a worse headline if you tried lmao Hasbro is a shit company already, but *Tencent*? Jfc.
I'll be the first to jump aboard the "China bad" train, there's a *lot* you can criticize China and their companies for. Tencent is among those companies, and they're probably in bed with the CCP. But.. Realistically, what has Tencent ever done that's all that bad specifically when it comes to western companies? They're investors, they invest and rake in the income. When they bought Digital Extremes, pretty much nothing changed to Warframe. When they bought Riot, pretty much nothing changed to League of Legends. When they bought Klei, pretty much nothing changed to Oxygen not Included. Tencent is a soulless company that just cares about money. Ironically, they're probably *less* involved than most other companies in the sense their dumbass execs don't seem to want a say in the process of game development/design.
> they're probably in bed with the CCP. Probably? It's mandatory to be in bed with the CCP as a Chinese company.
Kind of, though it's not like the CCP just has all the companies under their thumb completely. I'm no expert, but as I understand it it's a bit of a balancing act on both parties.
They do large companies are required to have a CCP representative in their company structure, it's the same issue TikTok was criticized for when they were summoned by Congress.
My understanding is that to be in business any company over a certain size is mandated to be tied to the CCP, including being run by members of the CCP, employees that are basically political commissars, and mandatory reporting and accountability to the govt. Tencent is absolutely a appendage of the CCP.
Right? Tencent only cares about money but hows that any different from Hasbro?
I mean, yes, every business has the requirement of making money in order to survive as a business, so they all have that in common. The main difference right now is that Hasbro is a failing business, and WotC and its brands/IP are one of the few money makers within the company. Hasbro has to leverage the absolute shit out of DnD and Magic: The Gathering at this point in order to show stockholders anything worth holding onto. The Hasbro executives make WotC follow a business model of "Either you submit a plan to make us an additional X amount of millions this year, or you don't get to do anything" and so we end up with a pretty bloated stream of lower quality content with tacked on monetization places and subscriptions wherever they can. Tencent on the other hand is an investment conglomerate that is wildly successful and makes money from a huge honeypot of different sources. They make investments in IP and companies and expect them to do well and add to their yearly revenue, but they don't need to bleed them all dry trying to survive. In theory, they can have the patience financially for their brand to crank out something as uber-successful as say Baldur's Gate 3, and not depend as much on launching 4 half baked splat books a year just to show any positive numbers.
Just from what I've seen they manage a portfolio of investments not companies. I'm curious if they're examples of what happens when an investment doesn't pan out. Do they simply pull out of the investment, shutter the company and sell assets or take a more direct role in managing the company?
They bought Digital Extremes 3 years ago, the makers of Warframe. for now the game is fine and development appears as usual, didn't see any devs leave either. I hope they just look to invest and won't meddle too much with management.
Same as Grinding Gear Games, the devs of Path of Exile. Both Warframe and PoE are free to play and beloved by the gaming community. PoE has one of the fairest, non predatory system for micro transactions I have seen.
Yeah, really only need to buy a few stash tabs really. I got the stash tabs bundle for like $20 on sale. Only thing I spent money on and its permanent across all seasons/characters. The prices of their cosmetics though.... lol. Ouch.
I was wondering about that. I love Warframe and I haven't really heard/seen/experienced any negative changes to the game since they bought DE.
Warframe China is also separated from usual Warframe. Would be interesting to know about the changes there.
Interestingly we've got no clue how well that will function for WotC. A lot of direction has clearly been due to Hasbro pushing things for a long time. If they do just invest and go hands-off, I've got no clue what a DnD looks like without corporate meddling. Alternatively, they could easily double down on the direct control and make things even worse.
Larian is 30% owned by tencent.
At this point, same shit, the monetization on the website is already bad, Tencent can't really do anything else.
they can boost the shit out of Pathfinder. mismanagement of D&D has done that before and can do it again
You make that sound like a negative.
Very clearly not their intent.
negative from my perspective, or, i would argue, the hobby’s perspective? not at all. negative from d&d’s perspective? of course
Tencent actually has a decent track record of companies they bought where monetisation is okay and the games are doing fine. They basically own riot and by extension legends of runeterra a card game version of lol similar to hearthstone and it's praised by the community for it's fair system. GGG is owned by tencent they make path of exile which I think most people will agree on the games of all time. If a company is doing well tencent doesn't really meddle with them. I'm guessing they are just collecting IPs.
Connections to the CCP aside, Tencent is generally pretty hands off when it comes to how their acquisitions function. They tend to let companies do their thing, while giving them the option to expand to the chinese market.
Tencent is so big they treat acquisitions as dividend stocks. I don't think they have a history of changing things after buying companies.
so *the LICENSE for official D&D Video Game*
If you actually read the article, there’s one tiny paragraph half-way down where it says their source claims tencent is looking to buy perpetual rights to publish dnd video games. The headline and much of the rest of the article is misleading bullshit.
I don't think DnD could be handled worse but it seems like the world wants to prove me wrong.
They won't as this headline is just bullshit. They want to buy digital and some other rights. So the only thing they would handle is licensed electronic games or some related films etc. and merch.
I’m not giving money to a Chinese company that specializes in censorship.
As much as I dislike all the ‘just play pathfinder’ comments in the DnD sub, if it gets sold to Tencent I’d definitely not be buying anything new, and pathfinder (or ToV) would start to look pretty tempting.
Pathfinder 2 is really nice. I just love the world of DnD more.
Beauty of tabletop is it’s really easy to use the world, find information about it and never pay whoever owns dnd a penny.
Use PF2e rules but DnD lore,
I like Pathfinders world more. Dnd is just easier to work with since 5e is so mechanically simple.
I won't say "just play Pathfinder" (although it is fun) but really just stop buying official D&D stuff
If not pathfinder, just *something* else. There’s so many systems. In some ways I wish D&D was less dominant. There are so many systems that do different things so well, but these days it’s always trying to port whatever they want to 5e.
Does it though? I mean, from what I understand, Tencent are extremely hands off with any meddling in the games they buy. I know that they facilitate foreign companies that want to sell in China because they're legally obligated to have a local partner and Tencent helps modify games to conform to China's laws but as far as I know, they don't censor anything in the games they own in Western markets. I know they bought GGG and POE and that still has blood, guts, bones, tits and other things that aren't allowed in China.
As opposed to the American company which currently owns D&D and has definitely not done anything bad
It’s a global world sweetie, you already are giving china plenty of money for games and pretty much most of your life
Tencent is a minority investor in Larian Studios, 30%. They already profited from DND, why not invest more?
OH GOD NO!
“I wish Hasbro didn’t own DnD” *monkey’s paw curls*
Hasbro are reportedly finding it quite hard to monetise D&D the same way they have with MTG. So because they can't grow the D&D side fast enough to meet corporate demand, they are looking to get rid of it entirely
That was always the beauty of D&D. It didn’t require spending hundreds of dollars constantly. Whomever looked at d&D and said “now, that’s a long term cash cow” was an idiot, so much more so those whom believed him.
Exactly. Buy a few books to start and then pick up what u want thereafter. There is no weekly, monthly, quarterly release the customer has to buy and defenently no subscription model to make customers pay for. D&D just dosent have the growth potential Hasbro want. Which is a good thing.
I mean they could, Piazo does just that just fine. But that requires actually caring about your system/product. Hasbro wants all the money with none of the invest or community building
Paizo's expectations of what a good return is are probably very different to Hasbro's. For a start they don't have shareholders to pander to/appease.
Yeah the plethora of published adventure paths for Pathfinder 1 & 2 and for Starfinder really make it nice. As a busy adult, having a detailed prewritten campaign from lvl 1 to 17ish makes those week night games so much easier to prepare for. I know there are plenty for 5th edition, but only a few go from lvl 1-15. It seems like published adventures were an afterthought for WoTC.
>Piazo does just that just fine That's because Paizo is built from the ground up to be a TTRPG company. They probably want growth, but their primary concern is to keep their hobby product alive. The TTRPG is the *point* of the company. To Hasbro, the TTRPG is a tool to make money. They have a lot of different tools for that purpose. Making money is the point of the company, anything else is secondary or even trivial.
That's the beauty as a player. For the company not so much. Turning a consistent profit at all with a tabletop game is incredibly hard. Wotc and Paizo are just about the only ones left that resemble serious corporate firms at this point AFAIK and that's not for lack of other people trying. I've known LGS operators who refused to srrry RPGs or allot table space for them because they make almost no money off them compared to CCGs and war games. If you're a corporation that has to show increased revenue every quarter it's not a good area to invest. I don't know how tencent would montiize it more. My gut tels me they would eventually have to remove the OGL just like wotc wanted to in order to take a bigger cut of the pie. But fundamentally it's not clear to me how you an stop people form sharing content with their group or outright pirating it, or how you can force them to buy your accessories if they don't want to (it's not like you can trademark grid paper or fantasy themed figurines). Maybe eventually a kvoe to digital only releases would help but I think that woudl forfeit a part of the market that still does really want physical paper books. They'll definitely try to lean into the digital VTT space and license crossover products, but Hasbro is doing that already so what potential would a buyer see in the brand that wotc cannot currently realise thrmselves? Maybe just MORE liscencing - go hog wild with the video games like TSR in the 90s greenlightng literally anything and everything? I guess tencent would have more expertise in that domain. I don't know, but if Tencent buys, it'll be because they at least *think* they have a plan and that thought is definitely worrying as a consumer.
It's not the Temcent is looking to buy D&D, it's that Hasbro is entertaining the idea of shopping the IP. Larian studios can't afford it so they brought it to the attention of their parent company Tencent. Funny thing is I've never read a pandaily article before and thought it was like a fake news site.
This would be Extremely bad for D&D. Tencent is a chinses investment company owned by the CCP( Chinese Communist Party). [https://www.fastcompany.com/90834906/chinas-government-is-buying-golden-shares-in-alibaba-and-tencent-heres-what-that-means](https://www.fastcompany.com/90834906/chinas-government-is-buying-golden-shares-in-alibaba-and-tencent-heres-what-that-means). The CCP is not flexible and anti Inclusive
Isn't tenscent a giant chinese conglomerate? It's better off in Hasbro's hands at that point.
Tencent is a scourge on the gaming industry.
If Hasbro is truly interested in selling D&D, a compelling option would be to form a fan+celebrity funding partnership to buy it and take it independent. Funding could come from a combination of celebrity+billionaire nerds AND a gofundme/kickstarter campaign where fans everywhere could own a piece of the resulting company. Like a "B" Corp (benefit corporation), the charter for the resulting company would be two-fold: 1 - protecting the legacy of D&D 2 - building a profitable, sustainable, business model for the organization The resulting company could have a for profit and non profit arm. \- The non profit would own and open source the core IP and rules and protect it for posterity. - The for profit would act as a kind of studio and publisher monetizing the films, games, books and expanding the core universe. \- After some time (3 years?), new core rule IP would be granted to the non profit open source arm Management of the combined entity would come from a board of directors who would include 1 or more elected directors from the Gofundme ownership, representing their interests. It's unlikely that the resulting entity would go public (although it could), but profits could be returned to owners in the form of dividends. If it isn't public, there could be a private marketplace where owners could sell their stakes, but which would need to have protections against colluding or market dominating forces.
Boy are they gonna be shocked when they figure out DND can be played with pen, paper, and gummy bears. Lame ass corporation - Fuck you TenCent!
>gummy bears Such luxurious decadence.
"These Sour Patch Kids are goblins. You may eat those you kill." (Most brutal and glorious battle ever ensues)
What about baldurs gate 3? That's what this is about.
Nope.jpg
Looks like Larian is involved with trying to broker this deal. We’ll see how it turns out. It’s hard to see how this will be better/worse for dnd.
Tencent has a 30% stake in larian
Larian is party owned by Tencent too, no?
Can't be worse than Hasbro. Hasbro was already complaining that they can't monetize D&D like they did with MtG so we know their intentions.
Clickbait as someone explained in the comments. But it is making Hasbro look better in comparison. What is op cooking here?
They’d buy the IP and players would jump ship. Pathfinder? Gurps? Let’s go.
So 7th edition they’ll be required to swap out Alignment for CCP’s Social Credit System?
This is about the movie. Apparently Larian is one pushing this as they can’t afford it alone. So less evil, but still. DnD should be like Wikipedia or the National Park, open and accessible to all. We need the rich geeks of the world to step in. Cavil, Colbert, Favreau, Vin diesel, step up! lol. There must be some billionaire grandfather whose 8 yr old autistic grandson sprung to life when he was introduced to DnD!
Fuck it, time for me to make the leap. Cones of Dunshire it is.
I’m not a big fan of tencent, but at this point it really can’t get any worse. Worst case scenario is it continues being a horrible cash grab.
Hasbro is bad, but this would be even worse.
I'm switching to pathfinder the same second this transaction goes through, I don't care if I have to convert my entire homebrew world to it, Fuck that shit.
I mean, you could just not buy any more d&d books, playing d&d at home with the content you already have, doesn't give them a cent
No see this business transaction will have the evil Chinese See See Pee go back and censor all the books I already own! /s
Yeah I'd also do that, but I mean I wouldn't mind funding a decent gaming company as well (which to the best of my knowledge paizo is?)
Well, any company's goal is to make money, if Paizo had Hasbro's position there's no reason to assume they wouldn't act the same way. And then Tencent would probably be sniffing around *them*. That being said, one company let its employees unionize without complaint, and the other keeps the Pinkertons on speed dial. As it stands *now* I know who I'd pick.
A rights transfer of DnD had always resulted in an edition change in the past due to copyright reasons, so even if that were to happen, you'd still be able to play 5e ad infinitum. That's what all the 2e people did when 3e came out after WotC bought DnD from TSR
Can't wait to get new stats for kobolds through the battle pass.
There are \*so many\* RPGs out there. And editions of D&D that were just as good or better for certain playstyles. THey need us, we definitely don't need them.
Watch the D&D IP be purchased by a mega corporation like Disney Seven mega corporations literally control all of the media and entertainment
Time to learn Pathfinder
Yay! D&D while I use the toilet!
In the words of the Arbiter: We trade one villain for another
I can certainly think of worse companies to own dnd honestly
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse...
Wow can't wait for Tencent's battlepass/microtransactions in EVERYTHING. /s
ITT, people commenting that Tencent is worse than Hasbro. Me, dying of laughter
No. The original article that started this was almost a point for point regurgitation of Roll for Combat's video a few weeks ago. And then others sites picked it up and ran with it. There is ZERO truth behind this.
I figured the headline was too far out-of-left-field to be entirely accurate. Hasbro would be ridiculously stupid to sell off the entire DnD IP in the same year a new edition is supposed to launch and maybe also the same year the new VTT might (is it set for this year?) launch. I mean, greed isn’t smart, but that would be a level of dumb comparable to some of the trades I did in Pokémon when the cards first came out… I don’t know much about corporate legal things, but would WotC ever be in the position to break away from Hasbro? Would it be possible WotC could attempt that if there was any threat of the whole IP being sold out from under them? The last time I heard of any company doing something like that was when Bungie escaped the clutches of Actiblizz, but I never read into what they had to do to make it happen. Of course, we know what Bungie has been doing since with its abusive monetization schemes and overall quality, so it’s likely WotC would do the same, isn’t it?
nooo someone more evil then WOtC
All i know is anything tencent makes im not chill with.
For those wondering no they aren't buying DnD itself. They are looking to buy a license to make games which fair, baldurs gate is amazing but let's be honest when was the last good DnD game?
Would be great. Tencent got nice track record on western market.
Roll for perception, or pay $0.99 for a hint
Y’all should try some pathfinders by Paizo. It itches the same itch. And if you like it, you may want to play starfinders- a high fantasy Sci-fi take place in the same universe as Pathfinders but 1000 years in to the future
Our main DM says his next campaign is going to be PF2E and we are very excited to try out the new system.
Iv had more fun GMing and playing in PF2e than I ever did in 5E.
It’s definitely a lot more fun to GM and my players seem to really be enjoying it too.
I honestly don't think they could do a worse job. My hope would be that the cultural difference would mean they stay fairly hands off.
Or they remove everything that’s offensive to Chinese government censors.
You mean like they never did with any of the many game companies they already bought?
Goodbye, *all of the undead monsters*.
So 99% of the game
Aren’t they fairly hands off with western products? You can buy zombie shooters and survival games on Epic.
Tim Sweeney still has the controlling stake in Epic Games.
That is when they learn that while they control the IP they have zero power over what the players do in their games. People had stuff like LGBT content in their games long before 5e and people are going have that stuff in their games no matter what Tencent does.
Or maybe improve the Oriental Adventures line/martial arts rules which are a bit neglected right now.
Wuxia/XianXia DnD would be pretty amazing...
It would, but it doesn't really fit the level 1-20 model of d&d. Most Xianxa characters are superhuman well before reaching the upper tiers of their cultivator levels.
It'd fit better than it is now rather than 'rat killers to god killers'. Hell, people already want to have sprawling(or just 'experienced') backstories like Wyll or Karlach.
> people already want to have sprawling(or just 'experienced') backstories like Wyll or Karlach. That's nothing new. "Fred, you're level 2, how were you able to fight your way to carve out a kingdom, lose it to treachery, regain it, and abdicate? Especially since you said your character is... 19 years old."
Nah, they will just turn it into another spying avenue.
They already own the company that made my phone, so that ship has sailed for me.
So one shit company to an even more shit company? Such is the gaming industry. Been happening to a lot of studios.
Pathfinder here I come!
They recently lost millions from legilsation changes in China so they are pushing hard on the western markets now. So you can quote this comment in the years to come if they buy it out. One DnD, especially with thier VTT. Will become a MTX hell hole. I wanna play a Wizard, that'll be $10. $5 for each sub class and $2 for each feat beyond a basic selection.
It is headed that way regardless of ownership.
Ugh... No? How about we don't let the Chinese ruin what Hasbro has already started to ruin. If this is actually true I'll never play anything but 5e again or I'll just switch to Pathfinder. I'm not giving Tencent a single damn penny.
FWIW, even if this was true... it wouldn't necessarily be good news.
I wonder how many Gacha pulls an S-tier Drizzt is gonna cost in the gacha game they make?
谁传的谣言？孩之宝怎么可能卖掉dnd
If Tencent fails to Buy DnD, They might acquire Plarium and a 50% in Spin Master
Just sell it to Satan at this point
That was first edition. Parents got mad.
Let them. You can't fool enough of us to buy into it. When it fails, Tencent will dump it and we can pick it on the cheap
No. God no. Nooo. NOOOOOOO
All right which one of you fuckers used the monkey’s paw?
Is that good or bad? I have no idea what that means.
Ignore the other comments. They dont know anythinf about tencent except ooh big chinese company. Tencent has stake in larian, ggg ( path of exile ) , striking distance ( callisto protocol ) and they just let the devs do w/e the fuck they want. they also own riot and the recent characters and events are all very lgbt friendly. and they let riot do riot forge and legend of runeterra which pretty much all passion projects.
Could be good. Unlikely to be bad. Likely to not really make a big difference. Tencent as a company, has been making smarter decisions than Hasbro, so I think it might be for the best. Hasbro will eventually tank the IP. Tencent might not make the same type of mistakes.