Project Sigil 90% Of D&D’s Project Sigil Team Laid Off

Reports are coming in of a swathe of layoffs at Wizards of the Coast, constituting 90% of the team of the new Project Sigil virtual tabletop platform. In all, over 30 people have been laid off, leaving a team of around 3 people.

Sigil is still in beta, only recently made public three weeks ago. Recent reports indicated that the scope of the project was seemingly being cut back.

WotC’s Andy Collins—who has worked on multiple editions of D&D and other WotC TTRPGs going back to 1996—reported via LinkedIn that he was one of those laid off. He indicated that the small team left behind would continue to work on the project.

More news as it comes in.

 

[Maxperson]

So? Nobody should correct misconceptions presented in jokes?

It's not a misconception the way it was used. If it was a misconception, it wouldn't have been a joke. It would have been serious.

 

[npick03]

There can only be one.

Maybe the real Project Sigil was the gold dragon minis we pre-ordered along the way?

 

[tetrasodium]

With all the debate over optimism and pessimism I think it's worth noting that if you go back to look at the old discussions there were quite a few people§ who were excited about the possibility of a new vtt but spoke negatively about it while citing specific concerns present in what got revealed. Realistic and constructive criticism of obvious problems like overly beefy system requirements and poor gm support is not "pessimism" but quite a bit of what is now being whitewashed as "optimism" consisted of people saying those problems don't matter because wotc knows best & is too big not to have a solid plan in place.

§ like myself

 

[SteveC]

I have nothing bad to say about MAPS as a nice free product. I will say, if it's intended to be the actual company VTT going forward, I would love to be in the meeting where someone has to show it off to upper management or investors. I think you would have to have the sales ability of Robert Preston in The Music Man (or Lyle Lanley, the Simpsons monorail salesman) to not get an extremely negative reaction.

 

[TheSword]

With all the debate over optimism and pessimism I think it's worth noting that if you go back to look at the old discussions there were quite a few people§ who were excited about the possibility of a new vtt but spoke negatively about it while citing specific concerns present in what got revealed. Realistic and constructive criticism of obvious problems like overly beefy system requirements and poor gm support is not "pessimism" but quite a bit of what is now being whitewashed as "optimism" consisted of people saying those problems don't matter because wotc knows best & is too big not to have a solid plan in place.

§ like myself

Nothing wrong with critiquing something. The issue is when people say it won’t work and never will because [insert opinion here]. Were there many people who thought Sigil was a finished article? There were lots who wanted to see what it could get to? Something worth hoping for.

 

[ECMO3]

I have nothing bad to say about MAPS as a nice free product. I will say, if it's intended to be the actual company VTT going forward, I would love to be in the meeting where someone has to show it off to upper management or investors. I think you would have to have the sales ability of Robert Preston in The Music Man (or Lyle Lanley, the Simpsons monorail salesman) to not get an extremely negative reaction.

MAPS is my favorite VTT to use as DM.

I play on other VTTs, mostly Foundary and Roll 20 and I did try Sigil during the Alpha testing. But when I am going to DM, it is MAPS all the way. I believe MAPS is the best table top experience I have played.

Also when it comes to purchases; the only reason I am a DNDB master tier subscriber is so I can host games on MAPS. Further about half of the overall content, and all of the digital content I purchased from WOTC in the past two years was specifically for use on MAPS.

So yeah, they are getting far more money from me than they would be without maps and I don't think I am the only one.

 

[Alzrius]

I have nothing bad to say about MAPS as a nice free product. I will say, if it's intended to be the actual company VTT going forward, I would love to be in the meeting where someone has to show it off to upper management or investors. I think you would have to have the sales ability of Robert Preston in The Music Man (or Lyle Lanley, the Simpsons monorail salesman) to not get an extremely negative reaction.

"I've sold VTTs to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum it put them on the map!"

 

[CleverNickName]

I have nothing bad to say about MAPS as a nice free product. I will say, if it's intended to be the actual company VTT going forward, I would love to be in the meeting where someone has to show it off to upper management or investors. I think you would have to have the sales ability of Robert Preston in The Music Man (or Lyle Lanley, the Simpsons monorail salesman) to not get an extremely negative reaction.

In my (admittedly limited) sales experience, this isn't terribly difficult. You don't have to convince investors that the product will be a success or that people will love it. You only need to convince them they will get a positive return on their investment. And yes, that takes effort, but not as much as you might think... certainly not cartoonish amounts of salesmanship. A single PowerPoint slide can be enough.

A: "Okay so this product will need to be abandoned by the fourth quarter of next year. But as you can see, you'll still get a 10% increase on your investments by the end of the third quarter."

B: "Excellent, let's do it."

 

[SteveC]

MAPS is my favorite VTT to use as DM.

I just want to make sure to say an important thing: I'm not saying anything's wrong with that. I really go out of my way not to yuck anyone's yum. Enjoy it 100%!

 

[MNblockhead]

I just want to make sure to say an important thing: I'm not saying anything's wrong with that. I really go out of my way not to yuck anyone's yum. Enjoy it 100%!

Yeah, my two favorite VTTs and the ones I use to run games are Foundry and Maps. If I want to dive in a configure and customize and have all the bells and whistles, Foundry is there to sink many a weekend into. If I just need a simple, solid battlemap that makes it easy to drop token and linked to DDB content, with very user friendly and responsive controls, including a great implementation of manual fog of war, maps is wonderful. I mean, I could use Foundry like I use maps but until you've experienced the refreshing simplicity of maps it is difficult to explain why I would rather run some D&D games in maps and with the DDB encounter builder rather than Foundry.

But I'm still tilting at windmills questing for the holy grail of VTTs. (It that a mixed metaphor or just mixed literature?)