WotC Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, "I would say that the underlying thesis of our D&D business is all about digital,”

[UngainlyTitan]

Also good luck convincing Larian to make any more D&D games in the foreseeable future. BG3 is beyond amazing and we'll probably see a "Definitive Edition" with a lot of QoL improvements and some revised/improved content/gameplay eventually, based on Larian's track record and the fact that a 97 Metacritic CRPG (it stayed at that when it went from 14 to 26 critic reviews, I note!) is likely to be fairly evergreen, but an expansion or the like? Seems a little unlikely based on Larian's statements (admittedly mostly made before 97% Metacritic, 800k simultaneous players on Steam and so on). Another full D&D game in the same engine? Seems extremely unlikely and would probably be pretty far out, time-wise.

I do not believe it will be impossible to convince Larian to make expansions at least. I do not expect Larian to agree on anything until they are good and ready. Probably including a full review of the lessons learned from BG3. I would not expect to hear anything for a while. I seem to recall that they were working on BG 3 sometime before they announced anything.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

No, the future is the hybrid model, they aren't directly incentivize digital only, it's the physical/digital bundles they are pushing with stuff like special digital Modron dice and character sheets, early access to products like Planescape before even digital only.

Why because the bundles allow them to sell you the same product twice, just in different formats and your buying directly from WotC for max profits compared to an LGS or Amazon.

That is a good tactic but it would work better if they licenced some arrangement with other VTT developers to integrate D&DBeyond content with their platform.
I do not see them doing it but I think it would be the better approach.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh no. Of course not. It was Pokémon and Magic. DnD was an afterthought.

My point is though, the idea of “cash grab” seems to directly overlap with whatever edition warring someone wants to peddle.

Would be nice if you stop strawmanning me. I like 1E and 3.5 but still think they're cash grabs. Both are better than 3.0 and OD&D theyre not even on the bottom.

4E is competing with the Star Wars Holiday Special though as my least favorite version of D&D I do admit.

 

[mamba]

WotC purchases TSR for $25 million
Hasbro purchases WotC for $325 million. Not a bad turnaround on a what, two year investment.

WotC was a lot more than TSR though.... MtG was much bigger, still is

 

[M_Natas]

From the discord, good points and maybe a clarification of the Chris Cox quote.
————-////
This is the full quote in context (source: Hasbro (HAS) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript | The Motley Fool)

They are talking about customer acquisition strategies - Cocks is saying that they are hoping that Baldur's gate 3 will be an on-ramp for the many more people who play computer rpgs but don't play TTRPGs, and that is a route to growth of D&D as a brand

But ... where is the Tabletop Tie In Adventuremodule/Starter Set/Campaign Setting to sell to people? Why is there no deluxe set that gives you Baldurs Gate 3 and and a beginner adventure for the D&D?

 

[Parmandur]

But ... where is the Tabletop Tie In Adventuremodule/Starter Set/Campaign Setting to sell to people? Why is there no deluxe set that gives you Baldurs Gate 3 and and a beginner adventure for the D&D?

They are pushing the new print+digital bundle of Descent into Avernus on their social media

 

[M_Natas]

They are pushing the new print+digital bundle of Descent into Avernus on their social media

Which is not a good adventure for beginners who got interested trough BG3. First of all you need at least the PHB and the MM to play Avernus, second the big adventure books are a pain to run. For new players you need something as accessible as Stormwreck Isle. That is like the only product that can be reasonably be run by a Newbie DM without any prior experience in TTRPGs.

It is the same stupidity with the D&D Movie with no Tie-In Starter Adventure.

Like - that the Movie or the game will come out is not a secret. It is known yrars before. To have no Tie-In Adventure us just idiotic. That's how you onboard new players. You need to make that as easy as possible. "HERE IS THE BEGINNER FRIENDLY BALDURS GATE 3 ADVENTURE INCLUDING ALL RULES YOU NEED TO PLAY THE GAME! BUY NOW. GET 2O% OF IF YOU PURCHASED BG3".

That's like Marketing 101.

 

[darjr]

A tie in property for BG3 would be awesome. Murder in Baldur’s Gate is right there too. A reprint of it might suffice.

It’s seems like the same situation with the movie. The keys book was the closest we got. And so I think the decent book is too.

 

[Malmuria]

They haven't shown much in the way of that level of coordination, project management, and marketing sensibility. I get the sense that 'cash grab' is not the real issue, but rather it refers to the fact that their overall design and business strategy seems so incoherent, poorly organized, and disconnected from the fan experience. Like they know that legacy products do well, but they have no coherent idea of how to update them. Or they know that diversity and cultural sensitivity are issues, but they don't themselves totally understand those issues. I'm pretty distanced from 5e now but there's nothing about it or the upcoming revision that makes me excited to jump back in.

 

[Ondath]

If I were Chris Cocks I'd drive a dump truck of money into Belgium and buy Larian entirely and make it an internal studio.

Larian is a private company though, and Swen Vincke has made it clear multiple times that he wants to maintain ownership of the company - because he wants it to make the kind of games that he likes to play, not be a money-printing machine. And honestly, I hope the company stays that way. Too many amazing game studios fell from grace after being acquired by a larger studios or going public, and the last thing I'd want from Larian would be having quarterly profits become their primary concern. Since, as many people kindly and repetitively pointed out in this thread, that's the only thing publicly-traded companies care about. And I want Larian to continue caring about making good games.

What would be nice would be if The Divinity Engine 4.0 (the engine they used to make BG3) became this generation's Infinity Engine: If they opened it up for modding (I know Swen said GM tools are not happening in the foreseeable future, but if they opened up their engine like they did with the earlier D:OS games, modders would learn how to make good stuff on it regardless of how difficult it is) or lended it to other studios to make their own D&D-licensed CRPGs (like how Interplay used the Infinity Engine to make Icewind Dale, or how Obsidian was always handed the scraps from other titles to make more-RPG focused sequels like Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout New Vegas), that'd be fantastic. Larian probably doesn't want to spend another 6 years making another D&D-licensed product, and they even said they wanted to return to Rivellon for their next project. But I think the gaming world would benefit hugely from having access to BG3's engine. Hell, I as someone with no gaming experience have been dreaming about remaking Baldur's Gate 1 in Divinity Engine 4.0 because it would be amazing to have that game with a properly updated-to-5E and turn-based experience.