D&D General WotC Continues D&D's Advance To Digital First Brand

It's been apparent for some time that Dungeons & Dragons is moving towards a digital-first brand, centered around D&D Beyond, accompanied by a larger a shift into IP and lifestyle property.

D&D has had cartoons, toys, comics, and so on for decades, so this is not new, but the focus on these IP-based licenses appears to be gowing.

In Hasbro's latest earnings call, CEO Chris Cocks notes that the company -- by which he is referring to Hasbro, WotC, and their digital studio teams -- "delighted more than 1 billion kids, families and fans, secured partnerships that further underwrite future growth, advanced our evolution to a digital-first play and IP company and delivered record profits for our shareholders."

As we enter 2026, we view playing to Win and more importantly, the execution behind it by our Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast and digital studio teams as a clear success. Despite market volatility and a shift in consumer environment, we returned this company to growth in a meaningful way. We delighted more than 1 billion kids, families and fans, secured partnerships that further underwrite future growth, advanced our evolution to a digital-first play and IP company and delivered record profits for our shareholders.

As previously mentioned, this isn't really new information, but it is informative to see it clearly laid out by Hasbro's CEO. In the last couple of years, the company has had massive success with Baldur's Gate 3, and critical (if not commercial) success with the movie Honor Amongst Thieves. At least two D&D TV shows are currently in development--one from HBO as a sequel to Baldur's Gate 3, and another from Netflix, also set in the Forgotten Realms. In the eanrings call, Cocks notes that they have "top-tier creative partners across more than 60 active entertainment projects."

Digital sales currently make up 60% of D&D's revenue. With digital-exclusive expansions being sold on D&D Beyond, a robust virtual tabletop integration, and the bringing in of the larger third-party D&D content creators as partnered content, D&D's move towards digital-first is well underway. While there is no indication that the physical books will go away, they are slowly becoming secondary or collector's items rather than the primary product.

 

[Johnsy]

Here's a good analogy.

Before the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, balls used for Old World ballgames, as the medium of the game, were made primarily of leather and inflated animal bladders. After the Columbian exchange introduced the concept of rubber balls, rubber totally eclipsed bladders and in many cases replaced leather as well. If you're a historical reenactor who's interested in playing Calcio Storico with a ball made from an inflated pig bladder no one's stopping you, but you also can't reasonably expect to pop into a sporting goods store and buy one like that, right?

The anology is a good one, but not for the reasons you use it. Balls that used inflated bladders versus ones that use a synthetic material actually behave differently. As such, this leads to qualitative differences in how the game is played when it shifts from bladder to rubber. Modern football (or soccer, if you prefer) is a very different game now, for various reasons, but partly also because the medium through which it is realised has also changed (including the equipment).

By the same analogy, digital tools are not just quality of life enhancements, instead they subtlety begin to change the nature of the play experience itself. This is not inherently good or bad, and depends on what type of experience you are seeking. But… and I think this is the point people are repeatedly making, right now we all have a choice of play from purely analogue to purely digital and everything in between. This is a good thing.

If the game moves to being purely digitally mediated it will inevitably exclude those who don’t want to play that way and, more significantly, change the type of game that they want to play. Not because they are just Luddites, but because the properties of the medium through which it is played has changed, which alters the game itself.

 

[mamba]

what mamba seems to be suggesting is that there is a strong fan dislike of product that somehow still generates positive P&L

I was not suggesting anything, I only pointed out that you can have profit growth at the same time as a stagnant or slightly shrinking customer base. I said nothing about WotC, quite the opposite

Not that they definitely are in that range...

 

[bedir than]

I was not suggesting anything, I only pointed out that you can have profit growth at the same time as a stagnant or slightly shrinking customer base. I said nothing about WotC, quite the opposite

i misunderstood.
thank you.

I expect @Alphastream will share a best estimate for D&D The Brand soon

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

The anology is a good one, but not for the reasons you use it. Balls that used inflated bladders versus ones that use a synthetic material actually behave differently. As such, this leads to qualitative differences in how the game is played when it shifts from bladder to rubber. Modern football (or soccer, if you prefer) is a very different game now, for various reasons, but partly also because the medium through which it is realised has also changed (including the equipment).

By the same analogy, digital tools are not just quality of life enhancements, instead they subtlety begin to change the nature of the play experience itself. This is not inherently good or bad, and depends on what type of experience you are seeking. But… and I think this is the point people are repeatedly making, right now we all have a choice of play from purely analogue to purely digital and everything in between. This is a good thing.

If the game moves to being purely digitally mediated it will inevitably exclude those who don’t want to play that way and, more significantly, change the type of game that they want to play. Not because they are just Luddites, but because the properties of the medium through which it is played has changed, which alters the game itself.

To me that's a feature, not a bug. The dialectic of concept and material is one of the driving forces of human culture. And as long as the original form of the game is recorded well enough and nothing required to play it is permanently lost (say, if it required an aurochs bladder to play, and auroches are now extinct) I see no reason why we can't simply "fork" the game like an open source program.

There are people playing white box D&D in the exact same way they did in the 70s; they're arguably historical reenactors even if they'd rather be called grognards. There are also people playing white box D&D using digital tools right now, and that's just as valid, to say nothing of the people who play 5e like it's still 1975 or those who play 5e exclusively on the computer.

 

[Gambit42]

There are definitely cool ways to play D&D that are not entirely analogue, Foundry is a really good experience. But playing at a table using only a phone as your character sheet and books reference is annoying af, I've had to do it before, it sucks, give me books and a character sheet over that anytime.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is “digital first” just marketing speak? I’d be concerned if they de-incentivise in person, non-digital play.

It's not marketing speak in my experience. But it means -- at least in my company -- that products are planned for digital distribution first and that a second, trailing, team decides what to assemble and how into print products.

In the best case scenario, this means more digital products, much of it more experimental, since there's not the commitment to stick everything onto paper until the online audience says "yeah, this was cool; do more with this stuff."

In the worst case scenario, this could mean fewer books over time. But there's no actual evidence that's happening, despite people predicting it for about 10 years now.

 

[TheSword]

Fair, I just personally think that there might be a point where a digital-first product will make the physical product so hard to use that it is basically not an option anymore. Then I will have an issue with it.

This topic always goes so weird. How can a digital product make using a book any harder? Let alone so hard it can’t be an option?

Nothing to suggest that any of the physical methods of playing are going anywhere. There are more physical tools and paraphernalia than ever before. Yet people look at the digital way of playing and think they are going to be somehow excluded.

The digital stuff has been out for ages and has no negative impact on how people play physically.

I find it perplexing.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If WotC eventually makes a 6E that they do not print on paper and only releases it on DDB... some enterprising company will just take the SRD made for 6E (which will be necessary by WotC to make in order to get all the 3PPs to make material they can sell on the platform) and print the document up themselves and sell it.

 

[saviirkad]

A smartphone that opens up big enough to use as a battlemap for in-person play? Plus display your personal character sheet and allows you to look up things in the books at the same time? Wow, you must have large (and deep) pockets.

I think you're confusing compute power as the only thing needed to bring usable technology to the gaming table.

I'm not sure why you'd need a large phone? Mine's average, or rather it's not noted for its larger size.

It's a phone in your hands, held probably at half arm's length, that can zoom and rotate without having to lean over the table or get up and move around the table. You can switch between apps, the map and the character sheet, just like you can shift your attention from the map on the table to the sheets of paper in front of you.

Like I'm not gonna argue which is better, it'll be mostly just familiarity that determines it. For those comfortable with digital tools, it's a big speed boost that makes pretty much any needed information more readily accessible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If WotC eventually makes a 6E that they do not print on paper and only releases it on DDB... some enterprising company will just take the SRD made for 6E (which will be necessary by WotC to make in order to get all the 3PPs to make material they can sell on the platform) and print the document up themselves and sell it.

Given how nice the physical books companies other than WotC, Kobold and Goodman produce nowadays are, I'd be OK with this.

I would love a 6E PHB with bound-in ribbon bookmarks, a DMG and a Monster Manual with thumb indexes, and essential charts printed on the inside covers of all three. And if they're going to print a deluxe cover, let it be a fake dragon skin one with texture that's meant to last for decades, with the bindings Smythe sewn.