Who Will Get the Axe?

[malraux]

This has happened before in the early 2000's (2001 or 2002), Some people lost their jobs, but D&D was doing fine then, despite some people predicting that it meant the brand was in serious jeopardy.

IIRC the main reason that there were the job cuts around 2000 was that HAS decided that every division everywhere needed to cut employees. Hopefully this time management will at least target the cuts.

 

[mattdm]

Probably related at least in part to the Gleemax shutdown, yeah?

 

[Relique du Madde]

Just be thankful that WoTC did not announce that they were outsourcing DDI to some foreign nation to cut production costs.


Here's to hoping that the layoffs don't affect the quality of WoTC's future products.

 

[Orius]

I thought it meant Hasbro's board is lawful evil. But that alignment got cut in 4e right?

Anyway, if people are getting the axe, I'd imagine Gleemax has something to do with it.

In any case, isn't there another similar thread around here? I say a merge might be in order.

 

[AllisterH]

Um, what does that have to do with buying the miniatures you want instead of random boosters?

Can't play Limited without randomized packs

 

[Plane Sailing]

threads merged

 

[Draksila]

Who will get the axe? My vote would be the dwarven fighter.

As to how this reorganization will affect the game and company, I'd say there's not much point in speculation. It won't change Hasbro's game plan. As it is, 4E seems to be a financial success at the moment based on what sales figures have been thrown around by distributors and online stores so far. My guess is that the D&D staffers won't be affected much, and instead we'll see some of the flagging card games, board games, and online initiatives being cut.

 

[Lizard]

Bet Heroscape goes. You know Wizards was dying to get rid of their mini's competition, especially when Heroscape proved you COULD sell packs of non-random miniatures.

That would suck; I just got into HeroScape.

Of course, layoffs suck overall; I'm surprised it's happening this fast. Traditionally, WOTC lays people off in December. I have to wonder if the timing was to make sure they had all the warm bodies they needed to handle GenCon.

Layoffs post-launch -- even a massively successful launch, like 4e -- are pretty common. You need fewer people to maintain a product than to create it. I suspect that the collapse of Gleemax may have created some "redundancies". It might also be the success of 4e set new expectations for sales, and areas that were previously doing "good enough" might now look to be "draining our resources". Corpo-think is hard to follow.

 

[EATherrian]

Really? WotC have shattered your dreams? Crikey. I also note with interest you avoided 'too many broken promises' in favour of 'Too many plans not followed through'.


I so do not want a small, vulnerable company to take control of D&D. I want a large, entrenched player in the market, with plenty of resources and a ton of marketing bulk to throw behind the game. Whatever their mis-steps, I think Wizards are the right people to be holding the reins, just at the moment.

I want a massively wealthy player to buy D&D and run it without worrying about profit. I intend for it to be me after I perfect cold fusion and become wealthier than the 5 richest kings of Europe. *sigh*

 

[EATherrian]

Bet Heroscape goes. You know Wizards was dying to get rid of their mini's competition, especially when Heroscape proved you COULD sell packs of non-random miniatures.

If they sold DDM as non-random I would buy them so I doubt this was much of a revelation to them.