Remember the uproar yesterday when a Chinese website scooped the story about how Hasbro was apparently shopping around the Dungeons & Dragons IP in order to offset its terrible toy business finances, and Tencent was supposedly in negotiations to buy it? And the source was somebody at Tencent itself?
Well, Wizards of the Coast – the Hasbro outfit that actually operates the D&D franchise – denied the entire thing, saying it’s not only not selling to Tencent but also not selling at all.
“We regularly talk to Tencent and enjoy multiple partnerships with them across a number of our IPs. We don’t make a habit of commenting on internet rumors, but to be clear: we are not looking to sell our D&D IP,” WOTC told Video Games Chronicle. “We will keep talking to partners about how we bring the best digital experiences to our fans. We won’t comment any further on speculation or rumors about potential M&A or licensing deals.”
Of course, there’s enough wiggle room in there to keep speculation open; it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a company like Tencent started a rumor to see what happened. Or, for that matter, the first time a company flat-out lied about being sold.
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