So it's finally happened? D&D reduced to board games...

[smtwtfs]

oops... didn't mean to get my Spellfire card mixed in with your D&D.

 

[Dausuul]

But what about the collectible game aspect? TSR never did anything collectible to try to get in on that market ever, did they?

Nope, they never tried anything like that... twice.

 

[Sonny]

TSR went backrupt, WOTC wont. Why? Because they know how to expand there market.

Really? Because they've done anything but expand D&D's market in the last few years. Quite the opposite in fact.

I honestly don't think any of the worries presented by the OP are valid. And no,
I don't think Wizards is destined to fail. But, I do think their efforts in recent years has given people good reason to doubt the validity of their current plans.

Of course, many companies have taken large hits in the market, only to come back stronger then ever. Just look at both Apple and Nintendo. Here's hoping Wizards will do the same.

 

[delericho]

Yes, it's true. D&D is doomed. The apocalypse is upon us.

Fortunately, I've survived one of these apocalypses before, when the end of the old WoD unleashed hordes of zombie-storytellers on the world. I can suggest the following:

1) Bury your game books. If you keep them close to you, the unique scent of the books will draw the shambling hordes towards you. It may well hurt to give up something you love, but the alternative is certain nerdrage.

2) Scatter a liberal coating of d4s on your basement steps. This will apply the slowed condition to invaders, and thus make them easier to avoid.

2a) Wear thick-soled boots at all times.

3) Stand in the corner of the basement with your arms folded. This ancient technique will prevent them from seeing you. (Note, however, that this technique was developed during the Gehenna/Apocalyse/Awakening troubles, and therefore may not work against D&D zombies.)

Oh, yes, and

4) Cardio.

Good luck!

 

[MerricB]

I have no animus towards the board games- heck, I enjoyed my copy of Dungeon! from the 1980s- but I'm not all that optimistic. Hasbro's recent 15% decline in profits stemmed largely from an underperforming board games division.

That makes board games a seemingly unlikely lifeline for the brand.

That might work as a theory... if not for the fact that the boardgames that Hasbro was selling were mainly new sets of Monopoly and Battleship.

You know, the ones everyone has already, and that don't sell to the hobby market.

Cheers!

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Rumors of this has circulated a number of years back, especially when WotC first acquired D&D. We thought it'd never happened and lashed at those who prophesied it would happen.

And it has. What's with D&D reduced to using cards like MtG? And now all these board games being released...BOARD GAMES!? Have we dumbed things down that much? Has D&D really lost its entire base and embraced the Mountain Dew/WoW crowd?

I fear for D&D as a whole. How do we get it sold to a more proper company (and not corporation) that will make the game for the sake of the game and not uber-profit?

Someone like...TSR was...minus the bankruptcy and random splat books issue.

WotC...I didn't want to believe you'd run this game into the ground, but I am seeing the signs myself. Please, sell it off. You're not going to make Blizzard's money with D&D. Ever. I mean, come on, rookie Paizo tied with you in sales. And, yet, you have the all-time famous TTRPG in the world to compete with and still nearly got wiped.

Sad times indeed.

 

[Ryujin]

The answer is really quite simple, as Wizards/Hasbro IS a corporation; don't buy the cards. If no one buys the cards, then they'll be retired as a non-starter. As profit is the motive of any corporation, unprofitable initiatives are discontinued. It happened when they tried, and failed, to market miniatures as a collectible item set. It could happen again.

What I would like to see, in place of the collectibles aspect, is more adventures. I loved the old 1e modules. I have dozens of them, in a box somewhere, that I never even ran anyone through. Nice, well thought out, and somewhat lengthy adventures. I bought them because even if I was never going to use them, they gave me ideas for my own stuff. Despite not having a whole lot of money, at the time, I considered them money well spent.

 

[mudbunny]

Even if we don't count product sales, I've seen a figure floating around that has DDI subscriptions at around (if memory serves) 30,000. Even if they're only pulling in $5/mo per subscriber after expenses, that's still $150k per month. Just on DDI. Not even counting physical product. Is there another RPG company out there pulling in this kind of scratch?

A little over 47,000 subscribers, according to the DDI group membership.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That might work as a theory... if not for the fact that the boardgames that Hasbro was selling were mainly new sets of Monopoly and Battleship.

You know, the ones everyone has already, and that don't sell to the hobby market.

Cheers!

I realize that...but do they?

If their heads are well & truly wedged, they may not remember how to properly handle a good, new boardgame.

And here's another problem: according to a 2003 article about the health of the board game market, historically, such common, familiar games do better in tough economic times, not worse. That's echoed in this piece from NPR in 2009:

NPR
While electronic games remain popular, another sector of the game industry is doing very well. Toy manufacturers and major retailers won't disclose national sales figures, but industry insiders say board game sales increased by more than 20 percent last year. They're expected to be even higher this year.

That the standbys of Hasbro's boardgame division are doing significantly worse could mean a lot of things: mismanagement, product glut, market saturation...or even a shrinking of the market itself as consumers find other things to spend money on.

And remember, those are games with broad historical international appeal.

Do you honestly think D&D based boardgames are going to sell enough to make a big difference on WotC's bottom line? Big enough to make Hasbro happy with it's ROI?

 

[BryonD]

Speaking as an infamous 4E critic....

The board games look really cool!!!!