This is inspired by a thread of tweets by Matt Colville
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Basically he believes DnD 5e is basically being mothballed, or sidelined as just a legacy thing they do.
They dont really invest money into the TTRPG much, its mainly just a side thing to promote the brand similar to the current state of marvel comics, the comics dont really get funding or money, its about the wider brands and IPs then the comics themselves, the comics are just fun sidegig promotional things tied to the legacy thats it.
It would explain a lot of things about Wizards atm, for example if it was all about making money, why arent their new classes or way more player splatbooks, why arent their more PHB's not just revisions but more PHBs with more classes and subclasses, these sell better then everything else, all they seem to be selling is just Settings to promote for the brand, and their staff seems relatively super small despite being the biggest DnD edition. They dont really make much, everyone else in the industry prints more books and does more then them, and they actively kinda dont. Even though it would legit make them more money.
5e player want more rules more options, and just more in general, but they...just dont do anything with that, its not just about making money if it was all money the release schedule would have way more player options, even lazily thrown together ones. But here we are just getting...well less, it makes no sense, and the budget and scale for the Biggest TTRPG in the world seems well...meager really...they dont seriously invest in the game it feels like, it legit the game is under-monetized literally, they can do way more to make way more money with 5e but they actively..dont
Its weird, and i think matt has a point, maybe mothball isnt the right term, but the TTRPG is just a legacy brand thing they keep around but dont seriously invest in, its a sideshow, the money hasbro gives isnt to dnd the TTRPG, its the Movies, its the Video games, its the license, it also explains why WoTC is pushing for DnD to go digital with the TTRPG, because its probably the only way for hasbro to every seriously invest in the game again which is making a subscription/microtransaction digital platform they can push numbers with, without that...well i think they would invest even less in TTRPG and just license out the brand further.
Whats your thoughts on this possibility? I think its interesting, and it makes how WoTC just...treats dnd make sense, its just marvel comics, a sideshow gig to promote the real money maker....the brand.(A DnD cookbook sells more then most splatbooks in DnD and most competitor RPGs. It also actually explains the OGL issue abit, WoTC wasnt lying when they said they were worried about disney and such, because if the goal for DnD is to be a wide Marvel Style brand hoping to hit it big with the movie...having so much of your IP like Owlbears Magic Missiles and such just avaliable for any studio to use in their movies or games without going through you? Thats a big issue, its like if the spiderman costume was open source and everyone can use it to make Spiderman adventures, thats a huge problem in brand identity, that competitors and 3rd parties can take, thats what probably bugs them about CR, they see their big marvel brand thing being used to make TV shows and Comics and they get nothing from it.
But yea, what do you think?
