WotC Rumor: OGL will not be supported starting with One D&D

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Ugh. Just saw another article about this pop up, this one on Gamerant. It's full of so much nonsense I don't even know where to start. The author doesn't even have a cursory familiarity with how the OGL works.

The writer probably just watched the video from the OP, and then wrote an article without doing any more research.

Most online "journalism" doesn't pay enough per article to justify any more work than that

 

[Oofta]

That sounds a bit contorted, logically.
So, they needed this game to keep the franchise alive, but it didn't actually have to be successful?
If the game isn't a success, it doesn't keep the franchise alive in a sense meaningful to mass market media.

Whereas to me it sounds like exactly what happened. Like beyond a reasonable doubt, to the point that I am surprised it is any way controversial.

We know that 4e had a goal of $50 million with a growth path to $100 million, which we know it missed. To my knowledge they never published similar details of their goals for 5e, but given the significantly reduced D&D team and the glacial pace of the initial release schedule, we can safely say they were lower. Ergo, 5e's spectacular and unprecedented success was a surprise to WotC just as much as it was to everyone else.

We know that expectations were low for 5E and they were happily surprised that it did as well as it did, there were several articles about it. We know that Monte Cook was brought on as a consultant and had this to say:

"... But a complete reversal of that initial plan [bringing back a larger staff, faster paced release schedule]--that is to say, a focus entirely on licensing the brand and turning D&D from a game and into a property--that wasn't something I wanted to be a part of ..."​

Of course we weren't at the meetings where development of a new edition was sold to upper management, but sure sounds to me like they were trying to keep the brand alive in large part for the purpose of branching out. Hasbro has tried to get their IPs into movies multiple times with products other than The Transformers, now that the licensing issues with Sweatpea entertainment have been resolved.

 

[Umbran]

Ergo, 5e's spectacular and unprecedented success was a surprise to WotC just as much as it was to everyone else.

I don't argue that 5e's success wasn't a surprise.

I question the "we need this game to keep up the franchise" part of the assertion. I think that's false. They could have gone ahead with other media just fine without 5e in place. Because, if 5e wasn't terribly successful, it wouldn't change the landscape for media. "Surprise success" and "need" do not go together.

 

[Nikosandros]

Ugh. Just saw another article about this pop up, this one on Gamerant. It's full of so much nonsense I don't even know where to start. The author doesn't even have a cursory familiarity with how the OGL works.

Yes, the amount of misconceptions and downright ignorance about the OGL is staggering. A few years ago I went to a seminar at Lucca Comics and Games held by gaming publishers. The speakers clearly didn't understand what the OGL said and they confused the concepts of copyright and trademark...

 

[MockingBird]

Do we think WotC will address the rumors or make a statement? I haven't even been following it that closely and have seen multiple videos pop up. I'm not a business person (I turn wrenches on aircrafts) but with all the panic over compatability and the OGL/SRD I personally would want to make some clarifications.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do we think WotC will address the rumors or make a statement? I haven't even been following it that closely and have seen multiple videos pop up. I'm not a business person (I turn wrenches on aircrafts) but with all the panic over compatability and the OGL/SRD I personally would want to make some clarifications.

From what I'm being told around here, WotC talking to their fans will just upset them.

 

[MockingBird]

From what I'm being told around here, WotC talking to their fans will just upset them.

I kinda get the same feeling

 

[Oofta]

Do we think WotC will address the rumors or make a statement? I haven't even been following it that closely and have seen multiple videos pop up. I'm not a business person (I turn wrenches on aircrafts) but with all the panic over compatability and the OGL/SRD I personally would want to make some clarifications.

Eh, probably not. There will be some other controversial rumor floating around in a few days and this will be forgotten as well. Sometimes acknowledging an unfounded rumor just amplifies it.

Besides, it has zero immediate impact and the vast majority of people who play don't know about it and people that publish understand the law.

 

[darjr]

Yodanno posts about it. WotC should get ahead of this.

 

[vecna00]

Yodanno posts about it. WotC should get ahead of this.

I have no idea who that person is, but they seem to be jumping on that bandwagon!