D&D General Dan Rawson Named New Head Of D&D

Hasbro has announced a former Microsoft digital commerce is the new senior vice president in charge of Dungeons & Dragons. Dan Rawson was the COO of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Hasbro also hired Cynthia Williams earlier this year; she too, came from Microsoft. Of Rawson, she said "We couldn’t be bringing on Dan at a better time. With the acquisition of D&D Beyond earlier this year, the digital capabilities and opportunities for Dungeons & Dragons are accelerating faster than ever. I am excited to partner with Dan to explore the global potential of the brand while maintaining Hasbro’s core value as a player-first company.”

Rawson himself says that "Leading D&D is the realization of a childhood dream. I’m excited to work with Cynthia once again, and I’m thrilled to work with a talented team to expand the global reach of D&D, a game I grew up with and now play with my own kids.”

Interestingly, Ray Wininger -- who has been running D&D for the last couple of years -- has removed mention of WotC and Hasbro from his Twitter bio.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Looks like they are partnering with Lego......

I will take D&D mini figs

 

[bedir than]

I saw the Dungeons and Dragons will be a franchise brand, and that franchise brands must have a plan to get to $500 million or greater revenue by 2027 and a 20% profit margin. (in Deb Thomas's statement).

Also that Hasbro Pulse, new digital games, and live services like D&D Beyond combined will drive over $1 billion in profit revenue. (in Chris Cocks's statement)

I didn't find the D&D doubling to a billion in 5 years -- where should I look for that one?

Two statements from Deb Thomas indicate the billion-dollar D&D plan (admitted some of this may come through digital gaming, licensing and eOne).

To achieve this, we have a plan to double the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment revenue from 2021’s $1.29 billion. Our significant investments in Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and digital gaming drive a planned high single to low double-digit revenue segment CAGR over the next 3 years, through 2024, and a mid- to high CAGR in the latter years as we begin to see the benefits of our investments in digital gaming. By 2027, we are targeting close to 40% of the segment’s revenues in digital, both developed in house and through very high margin licensed partnerships.

and

As you heard today, our goal is to have three $1 billion brands, and they will come from this category.

and the list of Franchise Brands

MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, HASBRO GAMING - which includes MONOPOLY, NERF, PEPPA PIG, PLAY-DOH, and TRANSFORMERS

For Wizards to double from at least 1.29 billion (2021) while already having a one billion dollar brands (Sept 21 to Sept 22) and having another Franchise Brand underneath its wing while a few of the Franchise Brands under Hasbro actually went down in '22 would seem to be a rather strong indicator that there's a plan to have D&D hit a billion and that it's already in low-to-mid 9 figures, and there's a movie coming out with wide release in the several thousands of theaters world wide (how they divvy that success up between Wizards and eOne will not be apparent until '24 investor meetings).

 

[DataDwarf]

Wizards of the Coast.

but the link is dead and I don't know how to look at old links (maybe someone can help)

Using the way back machine (aka archive.org). I believe this is the original thread (there are some redirects so I'm not 100%).

Edit: Adding the link usually helps...

TLC's Future Release Newbie Guide/FAQ - aka. The what happened to X? thread.

Welcome to Future Releases! Odds are your a new or infrequent poster who's itching to ask all sorts of questions about your favorite class, future settings, or various sundries related to 4E Dungeons and Dragons.

web.archive.org

 

[DarkCrisis]

Aside from people who only play digital, which i suppose is what the world is evolving into, I don't see how they could hope to monetize a game that can be played with 3 books, a set of dice and some pencils and paper.

It took me a long time to learn that you don't need to buy every book. Especially adventure books. And it will be a long time until I buy into D&D Beyond, but I also have tried and do not like playing online and much prefer in person.

I wonder what the ratios are on "Only plays in person", "Only plays online", and "Plays both in person and online."

 

[Zaukrie]

Aside from people who only play digital, which i suppose is what the world is evolving into, I don't see how they could hope to monetize a game that can be played with 3 books, a set of dice and some pencils and paper.

It took me a long time to learn that you don't need to buy every book. Especially adventure books. And it will be a long time until I buy into D&D Beyond, but I also have tried and do not like playing online and much prefer in person.

I wonder what the ratios are on "Only plays in person", "Only plays online", and "Plays both in person and online."

Minis. Dice. DNDbeyond to manage characters. Novels. Movies. LEGO. Adventures. Rule books. Dmsguild. It's a rare group that only uses one to three books. Maps. Board games. I gave this no thought, and came up with that list.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Wish I was head of D&D. I'd bring back all the editions, publish material for all 5 of them, bring back Dragon and Dungeon Magazine, allow content creators to publish on the DMs Guild material for any edition they want, release all NDA on the Forgotten Realms and rework the problematic parts of it (Maztica, Kara-Tur, Zakhara), and never make another "new edition" again.

 

[bedir than]

Aside from people who only play digital, which i suppose is what the world is evolving into, I don't see how they could hope to monetize a game that can be played with 3 books, a set of dice and some pencils and paper.

It took me a long time to learn that you don't need to buy every book. Especially adventure books. And it will be a long time until I buy into D&D Beyond, but I also have tried and do not like playing online and much prefer in person.

I wonder what the ratios are on "Only plays in person", "Only plays online", and "Plays both in person and online."

Shirts, jewelry, conventions, movies, stickers

 

[DarkCrisis]

Minis. Dice. DNDbeyond to manage characters. Novels. Movies. LEGO. Adventures. Rule books. Dmsguild. It's a rare group that only uses one to three books. Maps. Board games. I gave this no thought, and came up with that list.

My point is, you don't need all the stuff to play the game.

 

[Zaukrie]

My point is, you don't need all the stuff to play the game.

Which has nothing to do with the ability to monetize the game..... Which seemed to be your point. If not, I misunderstood.....

 

[darjr]

Back when 5e was coming out it was a “soft mothballing” of the game. Licensing was going to be the way forward. They had no idea what level of success was about to steam roller them.