Rumours: WotC Announcement Today; Insider Email Reveals Plans

There's a couple of rumours going round today. I cannot verify either, but I'm reporting them as most of the recent OGL rumours have proven true.

First -- it is rumoured that today at 3pm ET Wizards of the Coast will make some kind of video statement about the current Open Game License situation. This rumour came from the folks at Roll For Combat who were the first to break the draft OGL scoop.

[[UPDATE -- This didn't happen!]]

Second -- an email has been circulating from an anonymous WotC insider. Again, I must reiterate I cannot myself verify this, so read this with that in mind, but the email says:

Hi,

I'm an employee at WotC currently working on D&Dbeyond (DDB) and with D&D business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.

I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

-They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.
-Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line.
-Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.
-They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through.

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn't take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.

I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.

Hope your day goes well,

P.S. I will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders.

If both rumours are true, I guess at 3pm ET today we'll find that out.

 

[Nikosandros]

It looks like

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Suffocate? Or set free? Not to discount the real hardship in the short term for many companies impacted by this decision, but given the response we've seen from many larger 3PPs, it seems like we may enter the One D&D era with many true competitors to D&Ds dominance, which is not a bad thing for the hobby.

Viewing someone's business crater, having to lay off employees, people possibly losing their houses and having their credit ruined as being "set free" is the privilege of someone not having to go through this kind of crisis themselves.

Yes, flowers bloom after a wildfire. That doesn't make the wildfire not horribly destructive.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've written multiple business plans that included worst-case scenarios and how to deal with them.

Nobody ever writes a business plan that accounts for failure of any kind. Worst case scenarios are always "we only make X dollars instead of Y"

 

[darjr]

Youtube, Twitch, WoTC site?

I guess it’s scheduled in twitch. DnDBeyond twitch

 

[Haplo781]

Either their main channel

https://youtube.com/@DNDWizards?si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

Or here

https://youtube.com/@DnDBeyond?si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

Subscribe and click the alert button.

Also it’ll be in Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

Pushed back 40 minutes lol

 

[darjr]

Looking

 

[darjr]

Bin Win Brinze bottom is in the live stream.

 

[Charlaquin]

For example, I don't recall many people in 2016 saying they were going to continue boycotting WotC over the GSL.

Was there a big movement to boycott WotC over the GSL? I was much less in-tune with the broader RPG community at the time, but I thought the sentiment was “let’s just ignore the GSL and keep using the OGL,” since back then they weren’t trying to revoke the OGL.

 

[darjr]

@Morrus nobidy has a link. Keep checking thier YouTube.

 

[see]

2008. And droves left for Pathfinder.

The year 2016 is entirely my point. If Wizbro reverses course, people will cool down. People who declared eternal enmity to WotC over the GSL in 2008 did not hold on to that in 2016.