According to a report claiming information from a Tencent insider, the Chinese company is allegedly looking to acquire the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons video game from Wizards of the Coast’s parent company, Hasbro.
Dungeons & Dragons has seen a swell of popularity throughout the last decade. The tabletop roleplaying game has enjoyed a cult following since its first edition back in 1974.
However, since the release of its latest and fifth edition of its rule set, and thanks to content like Critical Role, and the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the popularity of the D&D franchise has seen a massive growth in new players and a surge in interest worldwide.
Toy company Hasbro has owned the rights to the D&D video game franchise since they acquired Wizards of the Coast back in 1997. However, despite the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and D&D 5th Edition, Hasbro has seen itself hit by financial troubles in recent quarters. A factor that lends credibility to claims of talks between the toy company and Tencent.
The success of content like Critical Role has helped bolster D&D’s popularity worldwide.
A report on Beijing-based pandaily claims Tencent and Hasbro have been in contact about the possibility, and Larian Studios have served as an intermediary between the two during preliminary discussions.
According to the claims from a Tencent insider, “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.”
The report goes on to explain Hasbro initially floated the idea of selling the D&D video game rights to Larian directly, however, due to the studio’s inability to put up the funds for such a large IP, “Larian ultimately introduced this deal to shareholder Tencent.”
Despite the very interesting claims, there’s been no word from any official sources about any talks or potential deals between Hasbro and Tencent.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has been one of Hasbro’s highest-performing assets over the last quarter.
As pointed out by Christian Hoffer on comicbook.com, much of the report’s speculation bears a strong similarity to a YouTube video posted by Roll for Combat.
So, exactly how much weight these claims from pandaily’s insider hold is still up for debate.