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.

 

[Malmuria]

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[Malmuria]

One thing I like about purchasing indie games is that you can have a much more personal interaction with the creators and the game's fans. You can message them on social media and be a part of various discord servers, where you can also offer them direct feedback. A number of times I'll post a question about a specific mechanic, and the creator comes on to explain their thinking, and it turns into a little mini conversation about the game. A couple times I purchased a game from a place where it didn't come with a pdf, and I reached out the creators to see if I could get a discount on the pdf, and they just sent me the pdf for free. That's undermonitization! But I guess they didn't care because they just want people to play their games. That direct relationship makes the whole interaction feel less transactional, meaning there is something more that both sides get than simply a book in exchange for money.

WOTC would also like to present dnd as a "community." But...it's not really? Which not a big deal. If I buy a vacuum cleaner on amazon, I don't expect to be a part of the vacuume cleaner community. Same thing with buying the phb. Your table of players is community enough. But for enthusiasts of "the hobby," one can surely see the appeal of direct interactions over merely transactional ones, and the desire for the hobby to not become solely dominated by the latter.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I'll admit that I have little to no knowledge of MtG other than playing one game when it first came out long ago. But it seems like there's a big difference between a competitive card game and D&D. They can't hand out +5 vorpal swords because you purchased a bonus pack, the game doesn't work like that.

I don't see what the fuss is. If they start making gold plated dice or a D20 with a gem in it (because that worked so well), nobody's going to force you to buy them. That D20 isn't going to roll better, or if it does it will soon be banned. If they start publishing a book a month like they did for a while with 4E or start cranking out stuff materials at the rate we saw in the TSR days maybe there's cause for concern.

But making more money from movies and licensing? Maybe making a AAA video game? How does that hurt me?

Literally nobody on this thread is "complaining" about WotC wanting to make money on movies or by licensing video games, or even random merch sales.

People are bringing up very valid points being concerned that the bullet point for "recurring profit" in regards to DDB MIGHT mean an appearance of predatory microtransactions. Having seen damage such things have done to other hobbies they enjoy and knowing it's a very realistic path to see a major corporation choose to take....it's valid.

Have you never had some property you have enjoyed ruined by microtransactional greed?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I have been playing some games with loot boxes and currently play a game that in 2 days gets rid of them.

1. I'd rather have loot boxes and battle passes, and pay a few bucks for a game instead of watching ads, as long as there are fair offers.

2. I hate the mentality of thinking, that everything needs to be free. I think you should spend a few bucks on games you like to appreciate the efford of the creators to present a good game. If the free to play mentality was not that present, loot boxes and microtransactions would be unnecessary.

3. I am still baffled, that there are offers in the game which are clearly so heavily overpriced, that elementary school math would be enough to avoid them. Easily. Without efford.

4. I think pay to progress is not that bad. Some people have more money than time and some have more time than money. And some people just come a bit late to the party and can speed progression up a bit. The question is, if we need progression at all? Obviously most of us love a game where progression is everything, so it seems to sell better than a game without progression.
Again: as long as you don't need too much money (5 to 25 dollars) to have fun in a game, I call it fair game.

How about the option of I pay $60 for the game and I get to play it how O want with all the content available to me? I find it odd the buy a game=get all the stuff option wasn't one you mentioned.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

How about the option of I pay $60 for the game and I get to play it how O want with all the content available to me? I find it odd the buy a game=get all the stuff option wasn't one you mentioned.

I don't object that. There are enough games that work that way. I was specifically talking about games that are not full price titles. Because for mobile games, people seem to expect "free titles".

 

[UngeheuerLich]

https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-strong-revenue-operating-profit-and-earnings-0

OK, then tell me they need more?

View attachment 269275

I think, at that point, I should really become a shareholder...

I think, while 1billion sounds a lot, when you hire 350 programmers, you suddenly need 5000000 per year or so more, just to pay them. Add the cost to hire or build space for them and so on.
For a big company, which hasbro and wotc is obviously, numbers need to be big too.
And if they generate more than they need, they can take greater risks and be more innovative.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The economy is not just raw materials, products and services. It is also the prestige for a job well done and the trust of partners and clients, and these are something that cannot be bought or sold but earned on its own merits.

D&D-One could enjoy an adventage comparing to other VTTs, the licences. They could sell based in famous franchises, for example Conan, Willow, the Witcher.. or mash-up version of characters from comics based in modern and sci-fi franchises. Why not a pack "Aliens vs Predator" in D&D?

My suggestion is packs for D&D-One could be used for other no-VTT titles. For example if you buy the pack "gladiators of Dark Sun" then you can use the "virtual miniatures" for the VTT, but also as skins in Fortnite, or special armour and clothing in D&D-sims medieval. I am going to explain it again: My opinion about the future of microtransitions in videogames is these can be used in off-line games, and the "multicompatible DLCs". packs could used in different titles.

Other future vision is the "reforged version" of games within a game-plataform, for example Sonic the hedgehog within Roblox, or let's imagine a future "Sunset Overdrive" or Battleborn as "licenced modes" in Fortnite. The players would pay for cosmectis and DLCs knowing they can use them even when the server of the original game were closed years after.

WotC can't "rest on one's laurels". They have to sell good products or the players will want to buy 3PPs. Paizo can be a serious rival.

* There is a hidden market segment, the no-player fandom, people who buy products as collectors, or they don't play really, but they enjoy to use the sandbox lore to write their own fanfiction.

 

[Staffan]

The TSR/WotC D&D novel business, at its height, was BIG. It didn't get that way because most of the novels were crap. Cheese and crackers . . . .

And yet, unsold novels were what killed TSR. Well, that's a mite unfair. Perhaps better to say that unsold novels dealt TSR its death blow, but it was already pretty low on hp.

"Corporate greed" is a bit of an difficult term to understand. Are you alleging that trying to maximize profits is in itself unethical?

Yes. Corporations are inherently evil, and need strict regulation to force them to act in a manner somewhat approximating ethical. That's why there are laws about how they can treat their workers, about worker safety, about what they can do to the environment, and so on. Those laws are nowhere near adequate, but they're a start.

 

[mamba]

And yet, unsold novels were what killed TSR. Well, that's a mite unfair. Perhaps better to say that unsold novels dealt TSR its death blow, but it was already pretty low on hp.

Not sure it was just novels, didn’t they also sell modules at bookstores? Also, that deal is what kept them afloat for years, until the debt they had accumulated that way (and financed TSR) was getting collected

Yes. Corporations are inherently evil, and need strict regulation to force them to act in a manner somewhat approximating ethical. That's why there are laws about how they can treat their workers, about worker safety, about what they can do to the environment, and so on. Those laws are nowhere near adequate, but they're a start.

That’s like saying all humans are inherently evil and that is why we have laws to not kill, steal, etc.

Both are imo wrong. Not everyone is inherently evil, but some do commit evil deeds regardless, and that is why we have laws. Same for companies.

 

[talien]

Very late to this but thought I'd share the four quadrants WOTC/Hasbro is referencing: The Child Becomes the Parent

Specifically the four quadrants are: Toys & Games (D&D), Digital Gaming (D&D Beyond), TV & Film Media (D&D movie), Licensed Consumer Products (everything else branded D&D).