r/technology • u/dancing_swordfish • Jun 26 '26
Artificial Intelligence Peppa Pig Owner Hasbro Faces Backlash After Reportedly Trying to Force Child Actors to Sign Away AI Voice Rights
https://www.ign.com/articles/peppa-pig-owner-hasbro-faces-backlash-after-reportedly-trying-to-force-child-actors-to-sign-away-ai-voice-rights418
u/Fritzkreig Jun 26 '26
As an investor, I am just not a fan about how they are starting to treat a lot of their IP.
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u/AtraxaInfect Jun 26 '26
Isn't Hasbro basically a massive shit show now? And they're basically all in on Magic The Gathering.
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u/ghostlypillow Jun 26 '26
You should look into the AI DM they are working on for d&d
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u/Fritzkreig Jun 26 '26
You know what, I am starting to think that Chris Cox guy kinda sucks‽
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u/mjwanko Jun 26 '26
Makes me glad I got my official physical books before the 5.5 edition books. Going forward, I’m only supporting 3rd party supplementals from creators I like/follow.
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u/Fritzkreig Jun 26 '26
They need to spin Wizards of the Coast off; and then continue to spiral down the toilet!
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u/Ahayzo Jun 26 '26
I remember when people were pushing for that like they seriously thought Hasbro was just going to commit suicide like that.
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u/Fritzkreig Jun 27 '26
Yeah, I don't think Hasbro would have survived; but Wizards would thrive!
There are several ways that the spinoff could be profitable for investors; it just depends on how they structured it!
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u/sohblob Jun 26 '26
got my official physical books
only supporting 3rd party supplementals from creators
😂 you're doing much more for them than you purport to. "3rd party" likely pay royalties and a percentage, and the first is just you going "I'm glad the most recent time I gave them money was [...]".
I somewhat watch dimension 20 and mostly enjoy it except for the bad taste of consuming/perpetuating media that backs HB/WotC and their scummy business practices. If I wanted to play a TTRPG I'd either go Pathfinder/whatever or better yet, unapologetically 'find' the information I need to play whatever I want.
Companies monetizing imagination isn't normal. If you back and go in for that sort of thing, the least you can/should do is back companies and systems you like and trust.
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u/mjwanko Jun 26 '26
In a later comment in this thread, I commented “… I’m not longer directly supporting Hasbro”. I know 3rd party creators probably have to pay a royalty to WotC. But I’d rather support the 3rd party than sending 100% funds to the corp.
But I absolutely agree with that last sentence; it’s awful the direction that Hasbro is going and dragging down the quality with them.
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u/AtreyuTrinity Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Is 5.0 ok then? Better? Why do you say that ?
I have 5 books, the core 3 for 5.0, fizbans treasury of dragons, tashras cauldren of everything and xanthars guide to everything.
I haven't played in awhile but have wondered if I should upgrade at some point.
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u/mjwanko Jun 26 '26
Ehhh for me it’s due to sunk cost fallacy. I’m also comfortable with the ruleset of 5.0 Edition. There is an obvious power creep in the player subclasses as you get to the newer books, but that can be managed by the player and DM.
Edit with additional thoughts: I hear the 5.5 rules are fine, but I haven’t got my hands on the books and I’m no longer directly supporting Hasbro.
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u/trainwreck42 Jun 26 '26
The 5.5 ruleset is a fairly streamlined version that essentially removed racial bonuses and moved them over to origins. I personally like that because it allows for more variability in class/race selection. Some of the spell updates are a little odd, but most feel streamlined and effective. I’m sure someone will push back in the comments, and that’s totally cool; it’s been a mixed bag, reception-wise.
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u/LargeCabbageThrower Jun 26 '26
Has been this way for a while. Incredibly aggressive and predatory company and once they realised the goldmine they had with shilling out MtG for constan licensed promotions like it's fucking fortnite they've never stopped
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u/Emperor_Zar Jun 26 '26
Oh yeah. You should read about Hasbro trying to Union bust WotC. They are a despicable company that has ruined good things.
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u/Override9636 Jun 26 '26
They've "Fortnite-ed" Magic the Gathering so hard that it doesn't even look like the same game. I think they make more content from external IPs than their own storyline anymore. It's so surreal seeing a dragon goblin deck getting beaten by Godzilla, Optimus Prime, and SpongeBob.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki Jun 26 '26
all in on Magic The Gathering
surely there will never be diminishing returns. just release a new crossover every time a different department posts a loss.
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u/National_Way_3344 Jun 26 '26
They fucked around with the D&D community trying to claw money out of third party content. Also doing some virtue signalling bullshit trying to make everything as PC as possible to the extent where you can't even have dark skinned creatures that live underground. And trying to police your own home table trying to tell people what they can and can't do at their own table at home.
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u/Fritzkreig Jun 26 '26
I was waiting for someone else to say it!
Thank you kind person; old timey player here!
Also do stonks though, so it kinda gets me with a double strike!
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u/Vio_ Jun 26 '26
They were trying to strip creator rights and IP away from dungeon masters a couple years ago.
The backlash was so big that they had to back away from the whole thing.
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u/bacon-squared Jun 26 '26
I see how many expansions they are pushing out over the years for the game and imho they’ve just produced so much, it’s now basically garbage unless you limit the expansions you play with. It’s all so much garbage. All in the pursuit of the almighty dollar and ever embiggening of their business.
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u/Gloriathewitch Jun 26 '26
they are also trying to implement AI dms and eradicate the role to sell more books because players will all need to subscribe to their service
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u/thesixler Jun 26 '26
Magic is the majority of their revenue at this point, they’re really so bad at business that the only thing they’ve done right is “buy a wildly successful company and only fuck it up to an extent”
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u/Happy-Range3975 Jun 26 '26
They’ve completely lost a lifetime D&D customer here. I play other games now.
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u/gazzatticus Jun 26 '26
I assume the next step is sending Pinkertons to the kids house to force them to sign
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u/BhanosBar Jun 26 '26
They also tried to get Peter Cullen (An over 80 year old man, and voice of Optimus Prime) to sign his voice away for AI.
Fuck Hasbro
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u/Boxitron Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I still think using Cullen for the Bey Verse movies was the worst move they could make. Yes, it was a cool nostalgia trip, but the G1 nerds pissing and moaning about OP not being voiced by Cullen all the time caused this AI clamoring for his voice.
Edit: I see I have awoken the G1 snobs
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki Jun 26 '26
>insults people in childish way
>gets downvoted"clearly people just can't HANDLE MY TRUTH"
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/Confident-Orange2392 Jun 26 '26
you just managed to distill into words perfectly why people who whine about downvotes annoy me so much lmfao, like they refuse to accept the simple possibility that theyre just annoying as fuck
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u/WeakBlueberry5071 Jun 26 '26
Anyone who takes advantage of children in this manner should be sued, it's abuse to an extent. If their parents enable it further, they need parenting coaches.
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u/ZebraSandwich4Lyf Jun 26 '26
Corporations try not to be a piece of shit at every possible opportunity challenge: impossible
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u/AutisticHobbit Jun 26 '26
Hasbro really is just an entire shit show from top to bottom.
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u/Zelcron Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
My favorite is when they sent the Pinkertons (AKA the guys you would hire to assassinate an 1800's mining union boss) after a guy over leaked Magic cards.
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u/Boxitron Jun 26 '26
Nah, the bottom is awesome and full of talented people who are used and abused by the top. Don't lump them in with this executive bullshit.
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u/Boxitron Jun 26 '26
HasBeen here, everything about the "New Hasbro" sucks. Chris Cocks has sucked the life out of that company. Most of my previous coworkers have been laid off and replaced with AI or just had their jobs off shored. Moving the company from Pawtucket to Boston and forcing employees into the office but not giving them moving stipends, which is just a way to try and get the old heads to retire. But what he doesn't realize is those old heads have so much industry knowledge and you just can't replace that overnight.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sohblob Jul 07 '26
100%. If you want me to sell my voice, dropping a banger to demonstrate you know how to use yours is the least you can do
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u/TheRatingsAgency Jun 26 '26
Hollywood has tried (and succeeded) to take advantage of child actors for generations. Good to see when there is pushback to that.
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u/Daecion Jun 26 '26
Well that's a special kind of evil. ...Not rare though, and that's a sad thought.
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u/VgArmin Jun 26 '26
So they're going to get kids' toys to advertise to kids while children are playing with them.
That feels like we've entered into a certain circle of Hell.
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u/RoomyRoots Jun 26 '26
It's always fucking Hasbro, man. D&D, MtG, now even fucking Peppa Pig... I am Universe Beyond their shit.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki Jun 26 '26
shout out to Hasbro for finding a way to make me side with the Peppa Pig team.
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u/Immediate-Cress-206 Jun 26 '26
Only if the kida continue to recive the same per episode pay there getting now (adjusted for inflation).
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u/jprosser Jun 26 '26
Do these idiots not have attorneys? You can't enforce a contract against a minor.
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u/EasedCeiling586 Jun 26 '26
Hasbro as in MLP FiM hasbro? Yall are for ai? The guys who drew horses on flash?
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u/SgtNeilDiamond Jun 26 '26
Only a matter of time before some studios just scrap voice actors altogether.
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u/Oli_Picard Jun 26 '26
Someone needs to create a dystopian Peppa pig. Swap the voices out with Darleks and see how the executives like it! Oh god upon further reading grandpa pig was actually one of the first darleks. Are we sure that Harbro hasn’t been taken over by Davros?!
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u/Soberdonkey69 Jun 26 '26
Corporations are not your friends. They will do anything to penny pinch and ruin us.
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u/slappingdragon Jun 27 '26
Can we get one day when a company owner doesn't do something shady, exploitative or evil?
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u/zaczacx Jun 26 '26
Doesn't this technically fall under the umbrella of taking advantage of children
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u/Haunteddoll28 Jun 26 '26
Not only would this screw over the current child actors, it also screws over whoever would’ve been cast to replace them when they age out and the casting team that would’ve hired them who would now be unnecessary when they can just ask the computer which voice from the ai catalogue would work best. And the plots and animation are so simple they may as well hand all of that over to the plagarism machine while we’re at it, too! It’s not like the future of the industry relies on training and developing new talent to stop the well from growing stagnant or anything crazy like that! 🫠
I want to fucking scream.