Sunday, February 22, 2009

What if Hasbro gets itself out of the RPG business?

So, what would happen if the D&D brand fails and the RPG development department is suddenly out of a job due to Hasbro's corporate bullying and draconian tactics to protect its D&D sales? One thing for sure, people won't stop playing Dungeons and Dragons. Plus, a lot of talent from WotC will look to find work doing what they do best: create games.

Dungeons and Dragons is forever. There would be no official supplements, but it will be subsumed into the community. The community of gamers will support Dungeons and Dragons on the web and the internet. And various companies will fight to become top dog.

One person hopes that if WotC tanks due to Hasbro mis-management of the D&D brand, it would be sold to Iron Crown Enterprises and the Rolemaster revision of the game would be the 5th incarnation of the Game. Since wizards did everything to make D&D not D&D, Dungeons and Dragons is just a marketing brand if nothing else.

Just something to ponder . . .

Although, if WotC does tank due to mis-managment by the PARENT company; I do hope that D&D is sold to a company that understands how the D20 System and the OGL worked for Dungeons and Dragons. OR . . . even better . . . make it totally open sourced and COPYLEFTED; allowing anyone to produce work for the game with a simple game license like the OGL was.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's far more likely that they'll keep the brand, but quietly drop the game. Merge it with Magic:the Gathering to create a D&D-themed collectable card game, bring out a D&D Monopoly set (hey, I'd buy one!) and the like.

Rumour has it that the D&D movies (terrible though they are) earned Hasbro more than the D&D rpg ever has, so branding would be the way for them to go. More movies. *shudder*.

Elton said...

They are up to Consumer HELL if they do that. If HASBRO does drop the game, then the D&D RPG would belong to the community.

No more official product, but fan product. And HASBRO will be fighting all of Fandom to try and keep the RPG side of its brand under wraps.

It's better if they either open the Game totally up to the community when they take it down. Or give it a company that understands the fans.

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