'Dungeons & Dragons' fights for its future

[OchreJelly]

I think I will at least try the DDI. I compare the benefit to the benefit I gain from my Netflix account, which I barely use these days. I'm basically throwing $15/month bucks away. The real irony is that I don't watch as much TV / movies because I'm spending more time playing WoW.

As a former smoker it's also easier to justify what amounts to 3 packs of smokes / month

 

[xechnao]

I apologise if I read the above incorrectly, but if that's the amount of content (Dungeon PDF, Dragon PDF, the rulebooks that are released that month in PDF, the novels released that month in PDF, the functionality of the VTT, the character generator, et al.) that you want before you think that 10 bucks a month is a fair deal, I'm afraid WotC will never meet your expectations.

Actually, "never" is too weak a word to describe the odds that WotC will offer that amount of content for 10 bucks a month.

/M

Yes I understand this. So lets say whatever you listed above without the novels -just the books. Alternatively what we are getting right now but at 5$ a month.
And don't forget that we know they probably intend to be selling the virtual minis with the VTT.

 

[lexoanvil]

they will keep the D&D name regardless of how little profit they make simply to publish books and games. R.A salvator regularly tops the best selling lists with his books and other authers bring in a fair amount of coin. D&D computer games have always brought in money as well. the only way they would sell/drop D&D is if it was hemoraging money.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

There are two interesting things about the presentation of this AP article in my local paper.

One: The paper edited it slightly, removing the hokey "throws fireballs" kid at the end, changing the title to "D&D luring 'em Back" and making a few other omissions, probably for space, that generally improve the tone of the article.

Two: The paper had a big picture of Scott Rouse with a computer that had a PHB page for the dragonborn on it.

 

[Rauol_Duke]

Two: The paper had a big picture of Scott Rouse with a computer that had a PHB page for the dragonborn on it.

Way to ham it up, Scott

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't think Hasbro cares about which edition it is, they care about the brand name. D&D is a well established product with a brand recognition among people. If Hasbro is interested in fantasy games in any way, they will keep D&D as long as it is not failing horribly.

Hasbro doesn't care if the brand remains in its original form or if it completely transitions into electronic gaming and/or films, etc. If the underlying RPG falls below a certain ROI but D&D related projects remain successful by their standards, they'd do a little research to see how much the RPG's continued existence would impact the bottom line of those other products.

If the underperforming RPG's continued publication was key to the success of the ancilary products, the RPG would continue to be printed. They'd have to decide if they were going to let the product remain unchanged or if it was worth further expenditures to improve the underlying product- read "D&D XEd."

However, if the RPG's continued publication was not important to the success of the ancillary products- they had become independently viable- there is no guarantee that the game would continue publication without a "Champion"- a company insider with enough pull and desire to keep it in production- or leasing the rights to a different company.

 

[Wolfspider]

Sadly, ALL news is like this when you are actually THERE for the event the news reports.

man what