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.

 

[Von Ether]

LOL! I've now had a couple of boardgame buddies who rarely role-play suddenly call me on the phone out of the blue to say that they've read how WotC is completely abandoning printing books and I should read the One D&D "articles" for proof.

These guys have been focused on a doom/gloom message of "WotC is completely abandoning game stores," for years, so when I told them they have their sources mixed up, it fell on deaf ears.

Such a thing could happen but we've also sadly seen, that when someone finds a rumor that supports their fears (and also proves them right), they latch onto it hard. So hard they have to call someone out of the blue to talk about a hobby they rarely play in.

 

[Maxperson]

Some technical writer, knowing that nobody reads these things, was bored one day as well. Now it almost makes me want to read some of my insurance statements. Almost.

Not just him. He had to write it, but at LEAST one somebody above him had to approve it.

 

[Oofta]

Not just him. He had to write it, but at LEAST one somebody above him had to approve it.

That assumes even the editor bothers reading the text.

 

[Oofta]

4th grade language incoming.

You own a game company. You make games that people like and give you money for.

You also make doo-dads to go along with your game that people also give you money for.

The doo-dads take 1 hour to make and sell for $10. The games take 24 hours to make and sell for $50

Your boss tells you to make more money with your 8 hour day.

Do you...
A Make 8 more doo-dads for a game you already have.
B Make 1/3 of a new game.

SEE: Rockstar and how it has ridden the coattails of GTA Online for 10 years in lieu of actually making expansions for GTA 5, releasing a new game using it's engine (Vice City/San Andreas), or even having a GTA 6.

So ... it's bad for MMOs so it's bad for a VTT? The VTT is not D&D. I see no reason why the VTT side of things would harm the publishing side or affect it in any significant way.

They could f*** up the VTT side I suppose, but it's not like Crawford is suddenly going to be assigned to the art department. The IT and publishing side of things are not going to merge. It would be too bad if DDB doesn't get some of the updates it probably needs. But if the folks behind the VTT focus on artwork, so what? Once the have a stable platform in place, that's kind of what their job will be. The VTT does not have to enforce rules, will not be running the game. There will still be a DM. The VTT? It's all about visual assets and looking good, so I don't see how spending resources on making it look cooler is a bad thing.

People have been predicting the imminent demise of D&D for decades. Anything could happen. HASBRO could go bankrupt. Maxperson could be forced to argue with his phone's insurance company about whether the fire that destroyed his phone was caused directly by the nuclear blast or the ensuing fire. Elon Musk could take over WOTC.

But WOTC trying to put a positive spin on their plans for the VTT? Hardly cause for panic.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I wish I could be as optimistic as some people here.

But monetisation above all else is something I've watched destroy many great video game franchises over the years. It's hard to imagine a different result here when the language used to justify it is completely identical.

The worst part is once they've bled a brand dry and destroyed it, they discard the husk and move onto the next franchise.

 

[darjr]

I wish I could be as optimistic as some people here.

But monetisation above all else is something I've watched destroy many great video game franchises over the years. It's hard to imagine a different result here when the language used to justify it is completely identical.

The worst part is once they've bled a brand dry and destroyed it, they discard the husk and move onto the next franchise.

Well. Yea I get that.

However this isn’t like the video game side of things where there are a million “properties” that can be mined, WotC and Hasbro only has a few. And much of the value is because it’s a storied and deep history “property” and they know that.

It’s why, I think, they made a big deal about focusing on just a few “pillars”

I think.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

It is not difficult to guess that Hasbro wants D&D to be the next Star Wars or superhero cinematographic universe, but Hasbro itself can't produce blockbuster and needs a partnership with Paramount or other big-fish of Hollywood. And even the biggest companies have failed more once. And the partnership could end before the next phase.

Movie theaters have to offer spectacle and fun. Teleseries in streaming services can show development of the characters throughout the different seasons.

In the case that Hasbro planned future acquisitions no word would be said to avoid speculations. But I dare to say they could do this or that because I would do it if I was a Hasbro CEO.

* Birthright is the perfect setting if Paramount wants to produce something like "House of Dragons". It was a secondary line, but this also allow more creative flexibility about the lore.

I don't imagine a Ravenloft movie focused into the "main metaplot" about Strand von Zarovich but something style closer to "indie horror". Here Hasbro could dare to try it with their own studios.

Something is happening in Hollywood because any movies don't work very well in the box-office, how if they had forgotten what is the right way to produce blockbusters, and they added some new element and this is not wellcome by the audience.

* How would be a "Living Greyhawk" in the age of VTTs?

* If my suspects about 2023 to be a year with lots of troubles within Hollywood, then Hasbro will have to rething the strategy about licence and partnerships.

* What if One-D&D had got a future spin-off as VTT for licenced TTRPGs by other companies? For example titles by Chaosium and White Wolf/Onyx Path.

* Could Mystara be licenced to Capcom again to create a new videogame?

* Will we see the pack "Golden Axe" in One-D&D?

* Could Disney produce an animate movie based in Jackandor? And with singer heroines.

 

[SkidAce]

..., but the basic business reason is that people won't pay for things if they can upload those same things for free. It undercuts the entire idea of a recurrent spending environment, which is their stated goal.

And yet I buy items on D&D Beyond such as swords from adventures, so I dont have to upload/build them for FREE in the creator.

So I did pay for something I could upload for free.


I mean to be honest, I understand your point...they would certainly desire a closed system, but its not required to make money.

 

[Velderan]

I wonder why no one seems to complain that your D&D Beyond stuff is entirely unusable on Fantasy Grounds or Roll 20? In either of those VTT's you must buy the books IN those VTT's in order to use them. I'm pretty sure that that patreon mentioned earlier that supplies access to DDB in another program is very likely illegal and will be coming to a very abrupt halt in the fairly near future.

I mean, if it was as simple as just linking the VTT to DDB, why don't ANY VTT's do this?

Beyond20 Chrome extension.

When I play using Roll20, I have one tab open to the Roll20 and a 2nd tab open with my DDB character sheet. This allows me to click to roll dice directly on my DDB character sheet and have the results show up in Roll20. I'm currently playing a sorcerer, so when I use polymorph to take on the form of a huge giant crab, I can still click directly on the DDB entry for that monster and have the results show up in Roll20 same as my spells or other actions. You can also click spell descriptions in the DDB character sheet and have the description show up in Roll20's chat. It really works great imo!

 

[SkidAce]

Beyond20 Chrome extension.

When I play using Roll20, I have one tab open to the Roll20 and a 2nd tab open with my DDB character sheet. This allows me to click to roll dice directly on my DDB character sheet and have the results show up in Roll20. I'm currently playing a sorcerer, so when I use polymorph to take on the form of a huge giant crab, I can still click directly on the DDB entry for that monster and have the results show up in Roll20 same as my spells or other actions. You can also click spell descriptions in the DDB character sheet and have the description show up in Roll20's chat. It really works great imo!

Our group of six does the same thing.