Wizards of the Coast parent company Hasbro has announced that it is acquiring D&D Beyond, the popular Dungeons & Dragons digital toolset with nearly 10 million registered users, from Fandom. The acquisition will make the D&D Beyond toolset and team an in-house asset for Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast. According to the announcement, the acquisition of D&D Beyond is for $147.3 million in cash.
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The transaction remains subject to the usual closing conditions and regulatory approvals but is expected to close during Q2 or Q3 2022. And while the move might make some wary, Wizards of the Coast has explicitly stated that it has no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond despite the teams coming together. “The purchases you’ve made, the characters you’ve created, and the campaigns you’ve run aren’t going anywhere,” the official blog post from the D&D team reads in part.
“The acquisition of D&D Beyond will accelerate our progress in both gaming and direct to consumer, two priority areas of growth for Hasbro, providing immediate access to a loyal, growing player base,” said Chris Cocks, Hasbro Chief Executive Officer, as part of the announcement. “Hasbro’s gaming portfolio is among the largest and most profitable in the industry, and we continue to make strategic investments to grow our brands, including in digital.”
While D&D Beyond was founded in 2017, the digital toolset has historically not directly been part of Wizards of the Coast — until now. It was initially operated by Twitch subsidiary Curse before Curse’s media assets were acquired by Fandom in 2018. Since then, it has continued to operate as the official digital toolset for D&D while remaining part of a separate company.
“D&D Beyond has been one of our most valuable partners in the digital space for the past six years and we’re excited to bring their best-in-class talent onto our team,” said Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming, as part of the same announcement. “The team at D&D Beyond has built an incredible digital platform, and together we will deliver the best-possible DUNGEONS & DRAGONS experience for players around the world.”
What do you think about Wizards of the Coast officially bringing the digital toolset D&D Beyond into the fold? Are you excited to see what sort of changes might be on the horizon for it? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!
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