WotC Hasbro's CEO Reports OGL-Related D&D Beyond Cancellations Had Minimal Impact

Hasbro held a quarterly earnings call recently in which CEO Chris Cocks (who formerly ran WotC before being promoted) indicated that the OGL controversy had a "comparatively minor" impact on D&D's revenue due to D&D Beyond subscription cancellations. He also noted that D&D grew by 20% in 2022 (Magic: the Gathering revenues grew by an astonishing 40% in Quarter 4!)

WotC as a whole was up 22% in Q4 2022.

Lastly, on D&D, we misfired on updating our Open Gaming License, a key vehicle for creators to share or commercialize their D&D inspired content. Our best practice is to work collaboratively with our community, gather feedback, and build experiences that inspire players and creators alike - it's how we make our games among the best in the industry. We have since course corrected and are delivering a strong outcome for the community and game.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

My snark levels are too damn high.

Effin right. makes one of those Hollywood sniper adjustments to his scope

 

[CleverNickName]

The cancelled subscriptions were a measure of public outrage, not a herald of financial ruin. I get the feeling it embarrassed them more than anything buy ruining their public image and reputation. Unfortunately, a blow to a company's public image and reputation doesn't always mean there was a proportionate blow to their bottom line.

I'm sure there was some effect to their pocketbooks, but I don't believe it was the main driver to WotC's change of heart regarding the OGL and SRD5.1. (If only it were that easy.)

 

[Parmandur]

Losing 50,000 or so subscribers in January is a drop in the bucket of the 2,000,000 subscribers they added since acquiring DDB, and it may not even be that much out of the normal range of user attrition. They reversed course before it could become a bigger issue, and explained that to the investors. If they thought there was a significant risk of continuing to lose subscribers in 2023 due to the OGL mistake, they would have noted it and addressed it. I'm just glad that they did reverse course and we didn't end up hearing a statement today that 'While it's true that our OGL changes have resulted in short term revenue losses, we are staying the course in order to protect the brand into 2024 and beyond.'

Bingo.

 

[Parmandur]

The cancelled subscriptions were a measure of public outrage, not a herald of financial ruin. It embarrassed them more than anything buy ruining their public image and reputation. Unfortunately, a blow to a company's public image and reputation doesn't always mean there was a proportionate blow to their bottom line.

I'm sure there was some effect to their pocketbooks, but I don't believe it was the main driver to WotC's change of heart regarding the OGL and SRD5.1. (If only it were that easy.)

Much of the financial blowmay have been undone by their subsequent moves. Cooks said many people who canceled their subscription were coming back, and that tracks with the chatter out and about.

 

[Retreater]

This doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, if you don’t want to support WotC any more, by all means, more power to you. But the fact that they course-corrected despite the cancellations not having a huge financial impact on them seems like an odd reason to me. I would think losing trust in them would be the main reason.

With the combined efforts of my entire side of the hobby, numerous YouTubers and social media influencers garnering hundreds of thousands (millions?) of shares and views, tens of thousands of cancelled subscriptions - if everything we have isn't the slightest blip on their financial radar, then I would like to side with products, publishers, and creative teams who value our engagement and business.
This was a corporate level brush-off of the whole of the fanbase who were impacted by this debacle.
They don't deserve my fandom.
And their products have been substandard for years.

 

[tetrasodium]

So you believe Hasbro is now directly lying to its investors during the quarterly earnings calls? With respect, that's quite the astonishing claim, and has deep-reaching legal ramifactions if it's true.

That's the thing, they didn't lie. lies damn lies and statistics has been around so long as a common phrase because it remains true ever since it was coined. The statement was something along the lines of "the OGL controversy had a "comparatively minor" impact on D&D's revenue due to D&D Beyond subscription cancellations. He also noted that D&D grew by 20% in 2022 "a five or ten percent dropis comparatively minor. If you factor in revenue from sources other than ddb the drop could be even larger with ddb & still have 20% growth for d&d.

Editlus there are the people whp canceled then went back to resub

 

[CubicsRube]

And most state and local agencies in the US go July 1 to June 30. Accountants be crazy.

It's largely to spread out the workload over the year for the countries tax office.

In Australia most publicly traded companies run july 1 to june 30. But any company can apply for a different fiscal period and the Tax Office is welcoming of it. Unfortunately I have worked exclusively for american public companies for years which means that I've never been able to take a break over christmas - new years

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Like I said it was a bee sting, not a sword thrust, but I knew that would enough because of WotC's history of folding with mininium pressure, remember Gale Force 9 and the DL writers? They have no Grumba!

 

[Oofta]

With the combined efforts of my entire side of the hobby, numerous YouTubers and social media influencers garnering hundreds of thousands (millions?) of shares and views, tens of thousands of cancelled subscriptions - if everything we have isn't the slightest blip on their financial radar, then I would like to side with products, publishers, and creative teams who value our engagement and business.
This was a corporate level brush-off of the whole of the fanbase who were impacted by this debacle.
They don't deserve my fandom.
And their products have been substandard for years.

They never actually implemented the proposed changes. They reversed course and then some with the open commons move.

If you don't like D&D don't buy their products. People stop playing D&D all the time, for a variety of reasons. As long as growth is still strong, it's not relevant. That and many, if not most, people accept that WOTC changed direction and backed off of canceling.

Is there any proof at all that there will be an ongoing negative impact on sales and profit? It was a minor blip that was resolved (from a corporate POV) in a short period. People's memories are short, especially when the policy changes that were finally implemented were a positive thing for those that want to publish D&D related products.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think it will take a while before we have clarity on what impact the OGL fiasco had