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On November 27, Elon Musk teased the potential purchase of the American multinational toy/video games manufacturer Hasbro. Under podcaster and influencer Ian Miles Chong’s post on X, the tech magnate wrote:
“How much is Hasbro?”
Chong had shared screenshots of game designer and D&D product lead Jason Tondro’s tweets hitting back at the Tesla CEO. It was a response to Elon Musk slamming him and everyone associated with D&D owner Wizard of the Coast (WoTC) and its parent company Hasbro for their alleged wokeness and latest DEI strategy.
Tondro explained that he and his team expected backlash from “progressives and people from underrepresented groups who justly took offense at the language” of their game Dungeons and Dragons. However, he said he didn’t expect it from “grognards.”
“I just don’t take those critiques seriously even now. I consider those people not worth listening to, so I didn’t anticipate their ‘outrage,’” the senior designer at Hasbro’s WoTC added.
Jason Tondro might not have named Elon Musk directly. However, he had replied to a netizen asking about the billionaire's recent "unpredictable" and "ludicrous" attention to their business.
Elon Musk teasing that he would buy Hasbro has stirred up an uproar on X. While some people celebrated it, others condemned it.
“D&D has a lot of dedicated players and losing this game to the mind virus would be tragic. If Elon buys Hasbro, it would be an act of philanthropy. Elon’s kindness has no limit. Kids’ minds are precious things…. priceless to say the least,” a person wrote.
“Elon should definitely buy WOTC, make D&D great again!” one person wrote.
“If he fixes D&D I will forgive him. I am happy overall that he owns Twitter, but have been p*ssed at a few changes as well. This will put him back at 100%. If only he would buy Sony, too,” wrote another.
Some people were completely against Musk buying Hasbro, saying he is "one of the last people fit to entrust with D&D's future."
“The only people that actually want Elon Musk to buy Hasbro are the dumbest people you know. Just the most brain-dead, slimy, ignorant f*cks you have ever seen. Traumatically massive levels of brain worms,” a netizen wrote.
“I’d rather see Hasbro pieced out and the properties taken by people who understand what the properties are about and don’t just try to push stuff as fast as possible. Quality over quantity and proper attention and mindfulness shown to each,” another netizen wrote.
“Seeing people genuinely defend Elon Musk wanting to acquire Hasbro when he's literally one of the last people fit to entrust with D&D's future is making me question my faith in humanity even harder then I ever have the past few years,” an individual wrote.
Exploring Hasbro's ownership of the Wizard of the Coast amid Elon Musk drama
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of video games, particularly in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. It was founded by Peter Adkison and his four friends in his basement in the early 1990s as a role-playing game manufacturer.
However, by the mid-1990s, WoTC became famous after its collectible card game Magic: The Gathering became a hit. Over the years, the company expanded and began publishing other games, including board games.
In September 1999, Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast for $325 million. Since then, it has owned WoTC. In 2001, the company joined Hasbro’s game division and lost its semi-autonomous position.
Fast forward to 2021, Hasbro announced its split into three divisions: Consumer Products, Entertainment, and Wizards & Digital. The Wizards & Digital division was a rebranding of WoTC. Through this, WoTC earned its operating rights despite being owned by Hasbro.
Exploring Elon Musk’s past remarks against Hasbro
On November 22, former video game executive Mark Kern, aka Grummz, posted a lengthy tweet chain. He claimed that Jason Tondro and others “erased and slandered” D&D co-creators Ernest Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson at a recent event by claiming that their original designs would never pass today’s DEI standards.
“WoTC and Hasbro just released the new Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as at the 40th Anniversary "Making of DnD" book whose foreword slams the original creators and attempts to distance themselves,” Grummz wrote.
In response, the SpaceX CEO wrote,
“Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the f*ck is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the 53-year-old announced that he would launch his own AI game studio as part of his existing xAI initiative, adding that it will make video games “great again.” This, too, was a response to a netizen @BillyM2k complaining about how “manipulative BS” has been going on in the game development industry.
Notably, Elon Musk is an ardent gamer and set the world record for the hardest challenge of Diablo 4. If he indeed purchases Hasbro, he will secure the rights to not only D&D but also to Monopoly, Axis & Allies, Transformers, Magic The Gathering, and My Little Pony, among others.
