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.

 

[darjr]

right well how many times i have heard this line, oh CD's are a fad, records are better or case tapes, i will go as far to say that small USB chips will at some point replace this as well down the road, heck you can fit many gigs on a small chip plug and play now. Once this becomes the norm you will never see many going through ther process of making a book. How many pay phones can you find in your town compared to 10 years ago. The digital age is great but, people love to use things to gain an advantage or make money, remember when you can buy a game own it and play it when ever you want. Now it's all about an online connection to a server so you don't really own the game or any thing in it, you just bought the right to access it.

Look WotC could get rid of physical books right now.

They could have ten years ago with PDF.

They could have with PDF and DNDBeyond as a profit generating partner five years ago.

They could have done it with 4e and even as much and as hard as they tried to be digital they also had books planed out for years.

I mean some day it's probably going to happen, but not as soon, it'll happen when all physical books also decline, me thinks.

From what I understand print novels still do well against digital, or even better.

This at least shows digital for books isn't a done deal, it looks like a bit of a struggle.

Digital Book Sales Plummet 23.4% in May 2021

April and May were not good months for the ebook industry. The format fell 1.2% in April and generated $90.8 million in revenue, in May the decline was more pronounced, plummeting 23.4% for the month as compared to May of 2020 for a total of $86.3 million. The declines are directly attributed...

goodereader.com

WotC has a physical book that sells in the top 200 of ALL amazon books. It's been in the top 100 recently. it's been bouncing around up there for almost a decade.

Every-time someone says they are going to walk away from books because they like money are wrong, they'll stay with books because they like money. IMHO.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

WotC has already said they want people to use their phones more easily. Why have a physical book when the Beyond version is right there in your phone? Everyone has a phon now.

WotC/Hasbro will do what makes the most financial sense. And not having to print and ship physical books might be a mighty big plus for them.

This reminds of all the MtG doomsayers who were like this is the end of paper cards, the game is going all digital! when Arena came out, a few years later, way, way more paper cards are being printed then ever before with the latest growth being in paper magic.

Digital D&D is not replace paper D&D it will merely expand the options folks have and WotC does enough surveys and marketing research to know this.

What is far more likely is integration between digital and paper for max flexibility and for more collectible focus for physical products, the alt covers are just the beginning. Imagine collectible foil versions of monster and spells cards, collectable versions of character sheets, etc...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

mean some day it's probably going to happen, but not as soon, it'll happen when all physical books also decline, me thinks.

If.

People called the death of books 20 years ago, and it hasn’t happened.

At most, D&D will stop being books when D&D dies off.

Like…books will be made out of some futuristic material that our lazy descendants will incorrectly still call paper, before D&D stops being books.

 

[Parmandur]

If.

People called the death of books 20 years ago, and it hasn’t happened.

At most, D&D will stop being books when D&D dies off.

Like…books will be made out of some futuristic material that our lazy descendants will incorrectly still call paper, before D&D stops being books.

Absolutely this. Though I do think the 5E trend of big production art heavy smorgasbord books will definitely continue: cheap small books aren't in the offering.

 

[Zaukrie]

Absolutely this. Though I do think the 5E trend of big production art heavy smorgasbord books will definitely continue: cheap small books aren't in the offering.

Truth

 

[darjr]

Absolutely this. Though I do think the 5E trend of big production art heavy smorgasbord books will definitely continue: cheap small books aren't in the offering.

Not from WotC. But for D&D from 3rd parties? I'm sure someone will fill the void. Some of them will be good too.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They did! Neverwinter is still kicking and predominantly uses 4E rules and powers. It's pretty fun at first, though super grindy as most MMOs are.

The environments are very fun to explore, but yeah dear lord the grind…Very fun stronghold system, too, if you have an active guild.

If I could reliably play and get about a dozen other people to play regularly…

Absolutely this. Though I do think the 5E trend of big production art heavy smorgasbord books will definitely continue: cheap small books aren't in the offering.

I really hope we get a rules compendium paperback like the one for Essentials. That book was worth its weight in gold.

 

[Parmandur]

I really hope we get a rules compendium paperback like the one for Essentials. That book was worth its weight in gold.

To be honest, seems counterproductive for WotC given Beyond: books are definitely here to stay, but certain formats are somewhat obviate by searchable online databases.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

To be honest, seems counterproductive for WotC given Beyond: books are definitely here to stay, but certain formats are somewhat obviate by searchable online databases.

I disagree, but it’s not an important point of contention.

 

[Jahydin]

I'm not sure what the future holds for physical books, but one thing I would bet on is WotC shooting for the moon when it comes to how much money they can get from everyone. And if that's the primary goal, no better way to do that then to go all in on digital so they can microtransaction absolutely everything.

Seeing them sell Magic card packs for $250 each has made me more than cynical of this company now.