No, D&D apparently isn't for sale, despite reported discussions involving Baldur's Gate 3's developer

Following a report which suggested Hasbro had been in discussions with Tencent and Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian regarding a planned sale of the Dungeons & Dragons IP, Wizards of the Coast has denied that it’s looking to execute such a sale.

If you weren’t aware, the rights to D&D currently belong to the toy giant, which Wizards of the Coast - the publisher behind Magic: The Gathering - is a subsidiary of. Given how strongly Baldur’s Gate 3, as a tabletop-style CRPG, has clearly been influenced by people sitting around with their mates and some dice, it’s not surprising to see it and D&D mentioned together, but Wizards of the Coast has suggested it’s planning to hang on to the latter for the time being.

Speculation regarding Hasbro’s plans for the IP has been kicked off by a report from Pandaily, which claims that Hasbro approached Larian Studios about potentially buying it, but was referred on to Chinese megacorp Tencent by the BG3 developer, reportedly due to Larian lacking the kind of cash to make what would be a pricey IP deal. If you’re not aware how Tencent might factor into this corporate chess wise, a 30% stake in Larian is part of the company’s numerous holdings in the games industry, which are headlined by the fact it owns League of Legends developer Riot Games.

However, in a statement to VGC, Wizards of the Coast has refuted the contents of the report. “We regularly talk to Tencent and enjoy multiple partnerships with them across a number of our IPs,” it said, “We don’t make a habit of commenting on internet rumours, but to be clear: we are not looking to sell our D&D IP.”

So, that sounds like a pretty clear-cut no to the whole sale thing then, even if we can’t be sure Hasbro sees things exactly as Wizards of the Coast does. That said, with these kinds of dealings, confirmation of what is, has, isn’t, might be, and/or once was happening often doesn’t arrive until everything’s been conclusively sewn up and all parties are happy.

For now, it’s probably best to chalk this one up as something that’s not happening until proven otherwise.

If you’re after something a bit lighter and less tinged with apparent and alleged corporate machinations to read after that, you’ll probably enjoy this Baldur's Gate 3 speedrun involving some flying stealth bear one-shots.