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D&D (2024) PC Gamer: It's clear Hasbro, the custodians of D&D, have no idea what to do with Baldur's Gate 3's success
- Thread starter Henadic Theologian
- Start date
Mod Note:
So, you made your account today.
Are you sure that you want to start insulting people with a broad brush on your first day?
Because, really, I can't recommend that as a way to join a community.
Maybe tone it down some? Please and thanks.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
If we were comparing WotC launching a brand-new edition or alternate product (e.g. GW8e) to BG3, then sure, this reminder would be appropos.
We are instead comparing WotC's third consecutive failure to create a functional VTT to Larian's wildly, unbelievably successful full 3D CRPG, based on (very very close to) the rules of the current edition, which does in fact have modding tools and, while not fully supported, those tools (as of mid-Jan this year) have been reverse-engineered by modders who believe that custom campaigns will be possible.
So....yeah, I think there's some room to argue that WotC has shown a recurring pattern of flawed, troubled attempts at VTTs, all of which were approached unwisely, with inadequate support and overly ambitious goals, only to kill the project around the time it would've been released.
Once is a misfortune. Twice is a fluke. Three times is a pattern.
Hussar
Legend
I would point out that WotC has Maps - a perfectly functional VTT. They failed to bring a 3d VTT to the market. Fair enough. But, claiming three consecutive failures to creat a functional VTT isn't really true. 4e had a perfectly functional 2d VTT and now 5e does as well.
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
The article says: apps like Monopoly Go! Hauling in $200 million every month
I can't believe it. Sincenrely I am surprised after reading this. Can you understand what does this mean? Even if D&D is the number one of the TTRPG industry it is only a little fish comparing to videogames. Therefore the business strategy will be different according the main income sources.
Let's remember really Hasbro wants to sell more D&D products but not D&D sourcebooks.
Of course videogame industry moves more money but currently even the main companies are in a wrong path and lots of gamers would rather cheaper titles from previous years.
Hasbro wants D&D to be a family-friendly brand, but for most or ordinary people D&D is only one of that nerd stuff (althought after the stories in the tabletop games are more style the Witcher or Game of Thrones)
I can't believe it. Sincenrely I am surprised after reading this. Can you understand what does this mean? Even if D&D is the number one of the TTRPG industry it is only a little fish comparing to videogames. Therefore the business strategy will be different according the main income sources.
Let's remember really Hasbro wants to sell more D&D products but not D&D sourcebooks.
Of course videogame industry moves more money but currently even the main companies are in a wrong path and lots of gamers would rather cheaper titles from previous years.
Hasbro wants D&D to be a family-friendly brand, but for most or ordinary people D&D is only one of that nerd stuff (althought after the stories in the tabletop games are more style the Witcher or Game of Thrones)
I didn't get the impression that the author of the article was doing any such thing. The point is that the massive success of BG3 is a huge opportunity -- one that Wizards has largely squandered. Ditto for Critical Role. It's not as if D&D isn't successful at the moment, but considering the amazing good fortune that's fallen right into their lap twice, you have to wonder how much more successful it might have been if Hasbro didn't keep dropping the ball. And whether or not they can survive leaner years, which are inevitably coming.
Hussar
Legend
I'm sorry but what?
When you have double digit growth, year on year, for nearly a decade, that's not squandering anything. How much growth do you honestly think they could have had? There really is an upper limit to how fast they can grow. They can only write so fast.
This is the thing that absolutely baffles me. D&D has been unbelievably successful. Far, far more successful in the past ten years than in the previous forty. To the point where it's entirely possible that they've sold more 5e books than all other editions combined. That is a very real possibility.
It's hilarious. WotC tries to capitalize on things, and they get accused of shilling for the business. About only caring about making money. While at the very same time, they get accused of not pushing the business hard enough. The level of armchair quarterbacking is incredible.
There's literally no telling how much growth Sigil might have been able to add. But we'll never know.
No telling what might have happened if they'd tapped into the insane popularity of BG3, either. It's like Larian won the lottery on WotC's behalf, and then Wizards cashed that in by...doing what, exactly? Putting Astarion in the background of some paintings in the 2024 books? And that's pretty much it? I actually think Magic the Gathering did a better job of harvesting that groundswell than D&D did, which is just puzzling. So yeah, I'd call that squandering.
BioWare's "failures" and Larian's success are the result of gaming being an utter cancer pit.
Veilguard, unlike BG3, was a finished and polished game that fully respected its own premise and setting and all of its characters regardless of how white and male they were or weren't. The difference between them and Larian is that BioWare didn't write a storyline about how all queer men are rapists, predators, and groomers.
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