Hasbro has reportedly been in discussions with Tencent and Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian about plans to sell the Dungeons & Dragons IP, while Wizards of the Coast has denied that it intends to execute such a sale.
If you didn’t know, the rights to D&D currently belong to the toy giant, of which Wizards (publisher of Magic: The Gathering) is a subsidiary. Considering Baldur’s Gate 3 is clearly influenced by people sitting around with friends and dice as a tabletop-style CRPG, it’s not surprising to see it mentioned alongside D&D, but Wizards of the Coast says it is planning to stick to the latter for now.
iGamesNews
Speculation about Hasbro’s plans for the IP was fueled by a report from Pandaily, which said Hasbro had approached Larian Studios about potentially buying the IP, but the BG3 developer passed it on to Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Reportedly because Larian lacked the cash to pursue an expensive intellectual property deal. If you’re wondering how Tencent is involved in this corporate chess game, Larian’s 30% stake is part of the company’s many holdings in the gaming industry, most notably its ownership of League of Legends developer Riot Games.
However, Wizards of the Co ast refuted the content of the report in a statement to VGC. “We speak frequently with Tencent and have multiple partnerships with them across our multiple IPs,” it said. “We are not in the habit of commenting on internet rumors, but to be clear: we are not planning to sell our D&D Intellectual Property”.
So, this sounds like a clear rejection of the sale as a whole, even if we can’t be sure Hasbro sees it exactly the same as Wizards of the Coast does. That is, in these types of transactions, confirmation of what is, has been, is not, may be and/or has occurred cannot be confirmed until everything is finally settled and all parties are satisfied.
For now, it’s best to treat this incident as something that won’t happen until proven otherwise.
If you want to read something a little lighter and less obvious and alleged corporate conspiracy, then you might enjoy this Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrun that involves a blast from some flying invisible bears.