D&D General Ben Riggs on how to make D&D a $1 billion brand

[vecna00]

I did appreciate the slipcover format for Spelljammer, and a box set may have fit that even better (with a mite higher pace count)...but how much more might that have cost?

I can safely admit that I have absolutely no idea. My unfounded hope is that the price would be comparable. To my mind, hardcovers are just more expensive to produce. I have zero evidence other than hardcover books are more expensive than their trade paperback counterparts. That could just be their size difference, I honestly do not know.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I wouldn't say it's flopped. Going from Box Office Mojo, it's stayed in the Top 10 - the films that have dropped it down in the rankings are either films that are very much for kids (Mario Bros) or horror films that aren't going for the same audience (Renfield - Horror-comedy, The Pope's Exorcist - psychological/supernatural horror). Further, going from the total box office, it modestly surpassed its budget, and is still in theaters, so it has time to make more money.

By comparison, if you're looking for a flop, Babylon was nominated for multiple Academy Awards and had an approximately $80 million dollar budget, but only made $63 million worldwide. So, wait until it's out of theaters maybe before declaring it a flop?

The film had a $150 million production budget, likely a $100 million or more advertising budget, and the movie is going to make $200 million or less in it's theatrical run (of which theaters take around half). It's not the biggest theatrical flop we've ever seen but it's not going to make back it's money in theaters.
Will it eventually crawl to profitability when all revenue streams are accounted for? Maybe but I doubt Paramount will be rushing forward to make a sequel.

 

[Parmandur]

I can safely admit that I have absolutely no idea. My unfounded hope is that the price would be comparable. To my mind, hardcovers are just more expensive to produce. I have zero evidence other than hardcover books are more expensive than their trade paperback counterparts. That could just be their size difference, I honestly do not know.

Hmmmm, the trend in the RPG industry suggests to me that boxed sets are more pricey to make, but I have no inside knowledge on that. The Starter and Essentials boxes ate fairly Inexpensive, but they ate also small. The actual box might make up any cost savings on the bindery, I would be interested if anyone here has some insight.

Mist companies aren't doing box sets, aside from minimalistic begginer products or deluxe premium products.

 

[Random Task]

The most important is create D&D GPT GM so a single player can campaign at any time of their day, without needing to find other players on the same schedule.

 

[S'mon]

If WoTC put in anything like the effort of serious RPG companies like Free League, Paizo, Kobold Press, then they would make more money I think. So much of the WoTC stuff is astoundingly low effort, piggy backing off brand strength. The quality difference between WoTC stuff and the best 3PP stuff these days is incredible.

Anyway they aren't making $1 billion off TTRPG product. $150 million is already a ridiculous amount of income for the amount of effort WoTC put in. They look like they'll be putting even less effort into the TTRPG product and focusing on their VTT. I don't think this will work.

 

[Zardnaar]

If WoTC put in anything like the effort of serious RPG companies like Free League, Paizo, Kobold Press, then they would make more money I think. So much of the WoTC stuff is astoundingly low effort, piggy backing off brand strength. The quality difference between WoTC stuff and the best 3PP stuff these days is incredible.

Anyway they aren't making $1 billion off TTRPG product. $150 million is already a ridiculous amount of income for the amount of effort WoTC put in. They look like they'll be putting even less effort into the TTRPG product and focusing on their VTT. I don't think this will work.

Yeah that laxkbof quality has stopped my purchases of 5E. Last one was Mordenkainens or Ravenloft iirc.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

If WoTC put in anything like the effort of serious RPG companies like Free League, Paizo, Kobold Press, then they would make more money I think. So much of the WoTC stuff is astoundingly low effort, piggy backing off brand strength. The quality difference between WoTC stuff and the best 3PP stuff these days is incredible.

Anyway they aren't making $1 billion off TTRPG product. $150 million is already a ridiculous amount of income for the amount of effort WoTC put in. They look like they'll be putting even less effort into the TTRPG product and focusing on their VTT. I don't think this will work.

Yeah, I think Free League, with all its licenses could do better than WotC in terms of money. Slap that Official 5e D&D on all their licenses and profit.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The quality difference between WoTC stuff and the best 3PP stuff these days is incredible.

I would love to have a former employee explain the thinking inside WotC. There's no way they don't have a library of stuff from other publishers, and it cannot escape their notice that smaller companies find it profitable to have more deluxe covers, sewn-in bookmarks, vastly better layout and countless other innovations.

The argument that WotC couldn't turn a profit doing the same doesn't hold water, since they can leverage economies of scale even companies like Free League cannot.

For whatever reason, going with the state of the art from 23 years ago is a choice they've made.

 

[Parmandur]

I would love to have a former employee explain the thinking inside WotC. There's no way they don't have a library of stuff from other publishers, and it cannot escape their notice that smaller companies find it profitable to have more deluxe covers, sewn-in bookmarks, vastly better layout and countless other innovations.

The argument that WotC couldn't turn a profit doing the same doesn't hold water, since they can leverage economies of scale even companies like Free League cannot.

For whatever reason, going with the state of the art from 23 years ago is a choice they've made.

One big difference between WotC and a lot of third parties is thar WotC often prints in the USA, so the margin situation is a differballgame.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One big difference between WotC and a lot of third parties is thar WotC often prints in the USA, so the margin situation is a differballgame.

What's the price differential of not organizing their books like it's a first printing 3E core book?

Even if they didn't want printed endpapers or anything else that costs even a little more, reorganizing the books and putting in navigational cues that publishers have used for decades is essentially free. And once you've got the template, you can do it from then on.