WotC Hasbro Bets Big on D&D

During today's 'Hasbro Fireside Chat', Hasbro's Chris Cocks, chief executive officer, and Cynthia Williams, president of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming mentioned D&D, and about betting big on its name. This was in addition to the Magic: The Gathering discussion they held on the same call.

The following are rough notes on what they said.

D&D Beyond

• Leaning heavily on D&D Beyond
• 13 million registered users
• Give them more ways to express their fandom
• Hired 350 people last year
• Low attrition

What’s next for D&D

• Never been more popular
• Brand under-monetized
• Excited about D&D Beyond possibilities
• Empower accessibility and development of the user base.
• Data driven insight
• Window into how players are playing
• Companion app on their phone
• Start future monetization starting with D&D Beyond
• DMs are 20% of the audience but lions share of purchases
• Digital game recurrent spending for post sale revenue.
• Speed of digital can expand, yearly book model to include current digital style models.
• Reach highly engaged multigenerational fans.
• Dungeons and Dragons has recognition, 10 out of 10
• Cultural phenomenon right now.
• DND strategy is a broad four quadrant strategy
• Like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Marvel
• New books and accessories, licensed game stuff, and D&D Beyond
• Huge hopes for D&D

What is success for the D&D Movie

• First big light up oppourtunity for 4th quadrant
• Significant marketing
• They think it’ll have significant box office
• It has second most viewed trailer at Paramount, only eclipsed by Transformers
• Will be licensed video games, some on movies
• Then follow up other media, TV, other movies, etc.
• Bullish on D&D.

 

[darjr]

I'm fairly heavily invested in Roll20 and even in my most wishful dreams I don't imagine that Roll20 will have a license to support D&D once Wizards rolls out a competing product.

Why wouldn't they? They already support them as a market for their books. The work to turn them into a vtt is all on Roll20's side.

 

[whimsychris123]

When Hasbro sees Wizard's record-breaking sales:

 

[Sacrosanct]

I have an idea. Open up dndbeyond to third parties. Not just game products but character portraits and cartography and when the vtt is open 3d assets. (oh especially dice). Boom, recurring revenue.

Just don't open it up to AI art...OBS is already being flooded with that stuff.

 

[darjr]

When Hasbro sees the current sales:

Wolf Of Wall Street Rookie Numbers GIF - Wolf Of Wall Street Rookie Numbers - Discover & Share GIFs

the CEO of hasbro was recently the president of WotC.

???

He's seen the numbers.

 

[darjr]

Just don't open it up to AI art...OBS is already being flooded with that stuff.

Ooof! Yuck.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I used D&D Beyond (DDB) by manually copying and pasting info into Word documents and into Foundry VTT, no license required to revoke. If DDB wants to hinder copy and paste on their site, they would be shooting themselves in the foot.

I do know for Foundry VTT there are (free, with additional features for modest Patreon support) add-on modules that allow you to pull your DDB purchases and materials into Foundry VTT, and they utilize the DDB API to do this. This is a possible avenue that DDB could put behind a paywall, but I think it would generate a lot of ill will in the community, as well as make digital partnerships more difficult going forward.

Well, Mr, Primate's tool is not cheap over the course of a year. I buy it happily - but I can also do the math.

If DDB closes its doors, all they will do is drive some players to other VTT platforms and other systems. If they think they have a tech advantage? I woldn't bet on that. The stuff that is happening now with AI art is a newborn calf barely able to stand with a wobble. But it will grow strong, FAST.

In the next six months, my guess is that AI art tools will arm us all with astounding visual tools to tell stories with in a VTT that you never dreamed of. And those tools will be out, available -- and adopted by GMs and players -- for at least 2 YEARS before the next DDB VTT is released.

Once this business crosses the threshold into the digital realm, it requires a nimble mode of thinking I am not sure these guys have really recokoned with. Hell, I'm not sure WE have recokoned with them, either.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Okay, but from the perspective of business strategy, that's very different from "D&D is under-monitized," right?

It mostly means that selling new stuff doesn't preclude selling old stuff. I for one doubt they'll stop printing physical books any time soon.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

D&D Beyond

• Leaning heavily on D&D Beyond
• 13 million registered users
• Give them more ways to express their fandom
• Hired 350 people last year

HOLY HELL!

Wow. 350 people is AAA developer levels of staff. Now obviously we don't know how those staff are arrayed, but WotC's "3D VTT by 2024" plans just got a whole lot more plausible, because as I said before, they're kind of doing 60% of an AAA game, and couple 350 people do that in two years? Certainly not impossible.

Brand under-monetized

This on the other hand will 100% end in tears.

 

[MGibster]

I don't know why D&D players hate the idea of spending money on their hobby. Video gamers will buy loot boxes and cosmetic items and special weapons up the wazoo... but roleplayers think that if they bought three books 8 years ago for $40 a pop that they have spent as much money as they need and anything beyond that is them getting gouged by the company.

I play fewer video games these days, in part, because of how many of the companies treat me, a customer, with utter contempt. They want me to pay $60 for crummy unfinished products, they offer me microtransactions that give me in-game benefits such as gear or even increasing the amount of experience I get so I don't have to grind, a problem they created in the first place, and they want me to pre-purchase. I hate to use such strong language, but to heck with that! They can take a long walk off a short pier.

To the moderators: I apologize for my salty language here.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I don't know why D&D players hate the idea of spending money on their hobby. Video gamers will buy loot boxes and cosmetic items and special weapons up the wazoo... but roleplayers think that if they bought three books 8 years ago for $40 a pop that they have spent as much money as they need and anything beyond that is them getting gouged by the company.

Don't forget that the entry price to actually play those games is 1000dollars+ for a gaming PC that you frankly don't need if you only want it to work on...