Disney's Gamma World? More Likely Than You Think...

The RPG blogosphere is starting to tremble with recent rumblings and rumors that Disney is in talks to buy Hasbro. I haven’t found anything concrete to confirm this other than the usual “iffy” online sources, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be true. After all, I never thought I’d see the day when the House of Mouse would own The X-Men, Spider-man, Darth Vader, and Indiana Jones, yet here we are.

Anyway, Hasbro’s subsidiary list is far reaching, as they in turn own Parker Brothers, Kenner, Milton Bradley, Playskool, Tiger Electronics, and Tonka. Yes, they will own your childhood. But here’s the twist: Hasbro also owns Wizards of the Coast, Avalon Hill, and TSR. So if Hasbro goes to Disney, they will officially own Dungeons and Dragons, Magic The Gathering, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Suns, and – yup – Gamma World. (Not to mention a bazillion other RPGs, games, and licenses to numerous to list here.)

It will be interesting to watch, to be sure. If this does happen, the question on every OSR fan and retrogame player should be “What will this mean for the Open Game License?” Disney is crazy-nuts-super-protective of its rights and products, so would they be able to overturn and/or end any further projects created under the OGL? Stay tuned…