D&D 5E D&D Digital Plans To Be Revealed On February 21st

Brian D. Goldner, Chairman of the Board and CEO at Hasbro took part in the company's Quarter 4 2019 earnings call. This included several references to D&D.

• D&D grew again for the sixth year in a row.
• Streaming D&D content was up nearly 50% on last year.
• Substantial new (digital) gaming plans for D&D will be revealed on February 21st at Hasbro's Analyst Day
• Total games category grew by 6%, as D&D, MtG, and Monopoly bolstered declines elsewhere.
• Profit declined due to digital D&D and M:tG digital games investment.

"Well, good morning, and we did see very strong growth for Magic: The Gathering and increased growth for Dungeons & Dragons. "

"Magic: The Gathering revenues increased more than 30% in the year, behind double-digit growth in tabletop play and a strong first year for Magic: The Gathering Arena. Dungeons & Dragons revenues grew for the sixth straight year, and we are meaningfully investing in both brands to drive engaging storytelling, while developing new digital games with high margin profitable growth longer term. We look forward to sharing our 2020 new gaming plans for Magic and D&D on February 21. MONOPOLY had double-digit revenue growth and grew in each region with new themes and relevant entertainment tie-ins. We advanced our consumer products licensing business growing revenues double digits and expanding operating profit margin. We've broadened our licensed brand portfolio and expanded our reach with original live events that drive consumer engagement."

"In addition, for D&D, we did see our sixth straight year of growth. We are seeing about 150 million hours of content viewed on Twitch and YouTube, which is up nearly 50% year-on-year. In the first half of 2020, we are seeing a lot of new initiatives coming for the brand, but again I'm going to let Chris walk us through at at our Analyst Day, our plans for digital gaming, which are again substantial for D&D that begins in 2020."

"You'll also see great digital game development for D&D. And we will see you on February 21 to outline that."

"Our total games category grew 6% for the year, fueled by growth in Magic: The Gathering and MONOPOLY. Higher revenues from Dungeons & Dragons and several classic games titles did not offset declines in our Hasbro Gaming portfolio"

"Adjusted operating profit and profit margin declined as we invest in digital gaming initiatives including Magic: The Gathering Arena and future Magic and Dungeons & Dragons digital games."

"We delivered compelling gaming experiences, led by the work of our teams at Wizards of the Coast. Our positive results to date have us on plan to double Wizards of the Coast coast revenues over five years from 2018 to 2023."

You can read the full transcript at The Motley Fool.

• WotC acquired Tuque, a video games company last year which is working on a brand new D&D video game called D&D: Dark Alliance.
• There is also, of course, Baldur's Gate 3 coming soon.
• Archetype Entertainment is WotC own new video game studio headed by ex-Bioware staff.

 

[Zardnaar]

They were revealed today, they 7 D&D video games are in development and we will get at LEAST 1 D&D game per year. We know 2 of these 7 games, meaning there are 5 new D&D games being developed that we don't know about. I pray they aren't garbage.

LET THE SPECULATION OF THE NEW 5 D&D GAMES BEGIN!

What do you all think they will be? I'm thinking Pool of Radiance 3, an Eberron game, Neverwinter 3, Azure Bonds 2, Demon Stone 2.

Garbage knockoff 1-6 with D&D label slappped on it, the 7th is a D&D microtransaction simulator.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Who cares about Star Wars and Monopoly, I thought this was about D&D. Until Wookie becomes a playable race in the Forgotten Realms I don't care about Star Wars.

Considering that nothing new actually came out for D&D today (I already new 7 games were in development), I'm taking about Wars in the Stars!

Mostly discussions on the Big Purple (rpg.net). It's all speculation in the absence of any official announcement, but so far there hasn't been any word that they are giving up the license.

Ok... if it's just speculation, I'll probably default to the source in this article.

Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development - d20 Radio

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020. We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed [...]

www.d20radio.com

Now this isn't 100% confirmed by anyone yet, but the scoop seems to be that yes, the RPG side of FFG will be finished. It may be completely unrelated to the status of their license, and more related to their parent company Asmodee prepping for a sale, or focusing more on board games. I think whatever the issue is, it's unrelated to the license, as Disney pulling that wouldn't make shutting down Genesys make sense.

So here's what I think (could) be happening;

• Asmodee (FFG parent company) shut down the RPG business. Not sure why, but they seem to want to slim FFG down, either for a sale or to be more specialized.
• Disney (and by extension Star Wars) is reviewing their license agreement with FFG. They may keep whatever FFG is still able to sell (the miniatures game I believe is still selling strongly) but they pull the RPG license, knowing FFG can no longer support it.
• Disney goes to its other licensing partner, Hasbro, and offers them the Star Wars license for RPGs, knowing that they've used it before, and that their current RPG D&D 5E is the best-selling game in the world and still growing.
• Hasbro and Disney extend their partnership publicly, and are privately moving forward not just with more toys, but also with a new RPG line for Star Wars. It's not D&D exactly, but shares some elements and is easy for 5E players to pick up and play.

This is conjecture based on the rumors and little official news we actually know. To me it is entirely possible, and even logical to some extent. I'll also admit that it can totally be wrong, and even if it's true, there may not be an actually announcement of anything for some time.

 

[gyor]

Considering that nothing new actually came out for D&D today (I already new 7 games were in development), I'm taking about Wars in the Stars!



Ok... if it's just speculation, I'll probably default to the source in this article.

Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development - d20 Radio

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020. We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed [...]

www.d20radio.com

Now this isn't 100% confirmed by anyone yet, but the scoop seems to be that yes, the RPG side of FFG will be finished. It may be completely unrelated to the status of their license, and more related to their parent company Asmodee prepping for a sale, or focusing more on board games. I think whatever the issue is, it's unrelated to the license, as Disney pulling that wouldn't make shutting down Genesys make sense.

So here's what I think (could) be happening;

• Asmodee (FFG parent company) shut down the RPG business. Not sure why, but they seem to want to slim FFG down, either for a sale or to be more specialized.
• Disney (and by extension Star Wars) is reviewing their license agreement with FFG. They may keep whatever FFG is still able to sell (the miniatures game I believe is still selling strongly) but they pull the RPG license, knowing FFG can no longer support it.
• Disney goes to its other licensing partner, Hasbro, and offers them the Star Wars license for RPGs, knowing that they've used it before, and that their current RPG D&D 5E is the best-selling game in the world and still growing.
• Hasbro and Disney extend their partnership publicly, and are privately moving forward not just with more toys, but also with a new RPG line for Star Wars. It's not D&D exactly, but shares some elements and is easy for 5E players to pick up and play.

This is conjecture based on the rumors and little official news we actually know. To me it is entirely possible, and even logical to some extent. I'll also admit that it can totally be wrong, and even if it's true, there may not be an actually announcement of anything for some time.

But why talk about Star Wars, I don't mean now, I mean period, it's the second worst IP in Science Fiction, even Battlefield Earth was better then at least 75% of Star Wars movies.

 

[Panda-s1]

Garbage knockoff 1-6 with D&D label slappped on it, the 7th is a D&D microtransaction simulator.

not sure why you'd think of baldur's gate 3 and the new dark alliance games as "garbage knockoffs" but okay.

also not sure how I'd feel about a d&d gacha game since they're usually not great, but also I can get the appeal of trying to get a rare Drizzt or Minsc, hell having an event to get old ass characters like Melf or Murlynd sounds really cool.

But why talk about Star Wars, I don't mean now, I mean period, it's the second worst IP in Science Fiction, even Battlefield Earth was better then at least 75% of Star Wars movies.

proof????

 

[Morrus]

Well?!? Uh.

OK! Seven new D&D video games.

We already knew that. Well, six. Seven is one more.

 

[LordEntrails]

Today is the 21st... When is the announcement? Anyone know?

 

[Morrus]

Who cares about Star Wars and Monopoly, I thought this was about D&D. Until Wookie becomes a playable race in the Forgotten Realms I don't care about Star Wars.

Fortunately for us all, this site does not revolve around what gyor cares about. Please stop threadcrapping.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

But why talk about Star Wars, I don't mean now, I mean period, it's the second worst IP in Science Fiction, even Battlefield Earth was better then at least 75% of Star Wars movies.

Star Wars has it's ups and downs, but calling it the 2nd worst IP in Sci-Fi... it's the 5th highest grossing media franchise of all time at $69.7 billion... the next biggest you could technically call sci-fi is Shonen Jump ($40 billion), and Star Trek is only $10.8 billion. People like Star Wars.

Today is the 21st... When is the announcement? Anyone know?

The announcement is that D&D is getting 7 digital games, one per year. This was already known, so not really news.

Fortunately for us all, this site does revolve around what gyor cares about. Please stop threadcrapping.

Just curious, was the "does" a typo?

 

[Oofta]

Nevermind.

 

[Panda-s1]

I never played FFG Star Wars (i'm a WEG fan) however they all had different names so I assumed they were same system but not compatible (like the 40k series of RPGs).

you had to finagle the games a bit, but they're upfront about it and how to get around it. it's largely a narrative issue since the games focus on different aspects of the rebellion era of the star wars universe and you need to give your character different things to overcome. edge of the galaxy was about smugglers and outlaws and you had to give your character debts, while rebellion is more military oriented and gave you... duties? obligations? something like that. force and destiny was the jedi one and that I think just gave you destinies. otherwise they were basically the same game with different talent trees.