SRMember

Not only are extreme NDAs a good idea, they are *necessary* when game development takes 5-10 years and the final product often looks very different from the rumors. Or even offical preannouncements.

(Here's looking at you, DRAGON AGE VEILGUARD, which isn't even an RPG much less a proper DRAGON AGE sequel.)

More, publishers need to stop preannouncements.

What's the point of showing a few rendered clips before the game is even started coding? (EVERWILD anybody?) At least Obsidian made a droll joke video of the practice.)

I understand the desire to reassure the market that new games are coming but vaporware announcements only feed the narrative that the game is in trouble or has been cancelled when it fails to show up.

A game should never be announced until it is at least in alpha.

Don't forget that he is allegedly setting up a game development studio to leverage his xAI studio tech. For that he can either start from scratch with a new untested IP or he could buy a still profitable IP.

Plus he can afford it.

Plus he already has the AI tech.

Plus, the Hasbro brands are strong.

Now, consider what happens if he sets up an online D&D "gaming room" where friends can gather virtually (or physically) with an AI Dungeon Master.

Remember, one of the hardest part of any game is setting up lore and balancing the gameplay. Well, what is D&D IP but precisely that; lore and balanced rules?

The type of game will define what else is needed but he doesn't have to create a story and characters; the gamers do that in a typical D&D real world gaming session, no? And if voice actuated it might play something like online poker. That would not be hard to code.

The games he produces don't have to be massive ELDER RING or BALDURS GATE 3 class games. They don't even have to be PALWORLD level. They might even be self-funded by Hasbro's current revenue streams.

This is all speculative: he loves to troll and his targets are really EA and Obsidian. But a good troll needs at least a veneer of plausibility and this one is not impossible.

Musk is known for online trolling (like his whimsical question about the value of MSNBC), especially lately. And his wheelhouse has long been tech and manufacturing industries.

But...

Hasbro took a big hit over 2022-23 and is now trading about 40% lower than their 2021 peak.

If he were to spend $10B it would be turning some of his paper earnings from the post election Tesla bump into a revenue generator. Not that Hasbro is a rain maker but it is somewhat profitable (9% margin) and if he is serious about creating a gaming publisher it's not a bad starting point. Conceivably he could also grab Ubisoft (which is also eyeing LLM game coding) in a merger.

So, not crazy.

But still, likely trolling.