Perkins was talking about the 9 Hells...
It should be noted that this LYSK segment is very old. It’s from Jan 2018 and they are replaying it on the eve of the stream, for obvious reasons. It was originally promoting Tome of Foes.
Also no, none of the four big announcements will be board games or accessories. They are books or box sets. They have done board games and dice sets for all the main adventures two years running and those have never been pushed as big product announcements. No reason for that to change here.
I disagree on that. WotC has put out several D&D-related board-game based on their APs, but those have never been counted as part of the releases for D&D or taken up a slot in the D&D production schedule. Whatever the boxed set is, if it's being counted as one of the slots in the D&D production queue, then it's an actual D&D product.
The "Dungeons & Dragons 2019 Annual Storyline Dice & Miscellany Set" product mentioned on the Amazon link is almost certainly the "box set," as having dice and various other things would fit the bill for what was described.
It almost certainly isn’t. The Box Set is going to include more than just dice and maps. Which is exactly what the product page will be. They have done a dice set for the past two adventures and a maps set for Mad Mage and Ravnica. Those were never pushed as heavily as this box set is getting pushed.
People seem to assume that 4 products means they are including the dice sets or board games because they cannot seem to believe that WotC would push more than 3 books a year. But that precedent was broken last year when we got 4 major products.
The same will happen this year, with 4 major books. But this year they are also doing a new Starter Set style box. They will also do dice sets for the major adventure and probably some map packs. Both those can be true without them having to be the same product.
They are increasing production of their major RPG products (Books, Box Sets, anything with crunch and lore, aka not just more dice sets). There’s a reason why WotC just hired more designers.
Also note the Amazon product page lists it as a D&D Accessory. Accessories don’t get (and have never gotten) big announcement reveals. They get mentioned as a side note whenever the product they complement gets announced.
Well, can you elaborate on your reasoning for thinking that (serious question)? Stewart has previously said they were looking at 3-4 RPG main products this year, and Ghosts of Salmarsh, Acquisitions Inc., the "Major AP" and probably a setting book round it out. They said they would be announcing 4 "products" during this stream, but products is a broad category, and they produce a number of ancillary items. Yes, they did dice sets and map packs before. But are they really "pushing" this box set? I know they mentioned there would be a box with dice and nice goodies...and this product that Amazon has a placeholder pending announcement at the stream will almost certainly come in a box. Fits the bill. Heck, maybe it comes with an intro adventure, too.
They do already have a new intro product this year, incidentally.
And notice the language that was used on the stream. He didn’t refer to the product as a dice set. He referred to it as a box set. And he specifically said it’s better than the last box set they did. They have only ever done one other box set for 5e. .
If they announce their big book products for the Summer and Fall, and incidentally roll out two ancillary products, that is four products announced. I see no reason to suppose that all four must be big productions and not side notes to "The Descent", unless I am missing something...?