Chris Cocks says it makes sense to move D&D to a "live service" model, but Hasbro will always make physical books

Chris Cocks isn't shy about plans to move Dungeons & Dragons to a more live service model of gaming. In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Cocks explicitly said that "it makes sense" for players to shift their mindset towards a live service due to the high amount of players using digital services, but assured the interviewer that books will still be produced by Hasbro. When asked if Wizards was moving away from books in favor of a more piecemeal release schedule, following the announcement of D&D Beyond's new Drops service. "Books will always be an important part of D&D," Cocks said. "It will always be kind of like a special totem that you can collect. I have a big bookshelf of D&D books myself."

"But we see what's happening – almost everyone who plays D&D uses D&D Beyond, like a super high percentage uses it," Cocks continued. "A very high percentage use Foundry VTT or Roll20, and so it just makes sense that you should start to migrate your thinking about the way you play to more of a live service where you don't have to wait 18 months for us to build a book. We can start to release components or aspects of that book over time, and you don't have to buy everything all at once. You can buy chapters or segments of it over time. That makes a ton of sense to me. That said we will still have big moments. We will still have like, 'hey, ta da, here's a huge campaign.' You can expect there'll be more around that, both from us and from all the creators in the world that can leverage a platform like D&D Beyond to share their content as well."

Broadly speaking, Dungeons & Dragons has always been a "live service" game, as the game's core business model involves continuously releasing new content in the form of new rulebooks or campaigns. However, it seems that Cocks is principally interested in shifting this model around more frequent releases. We'll note that the business model suggested by Cocks was already rolled out in a manner of speaking. The Dhampir species rules were released as a "digital DLC" for D&D Beyond subscribers who digitally ordered a Forgotten Realms book bundle, but a physical version of the rules are being released via the upcoming Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book. However, a la carte purchases were removed from D&D Beyond several years ago in order to force users to purchase entire books instead.

 

[Starmaster]

almost everyone who plays D&D uses D&D Beyond, like a super high percentage uses it

One has to be careful about accepting statements like this as fact without data. Perhaps the data has been released somewhere and someone can point it out, but I haven't personally seen it. Often when people make statements like "everybody does it", what the speaker really means is that he wants everybody to do it and the listener should get on the bandwagon or they'll be left behind.

 

[SothFan]

no different than the old Dragon magazine that ran from 1976 - 2007

Did they just disappear in 2008? DNDBeyond could have a catastrophic server error tomorrow and be unrecoverable.

 

[Parmandur]

One has to be careful about accepting statements like this as fact without data. Perhaps the data has been released somewhere and someone can point it out, but I haven't personally seen it. Often when people make statements like "everybody does it", what the speaker really means is that he wants everybody to do it and the listener should get on the bandwagon or they'll be left behind.

The hard numbers as we have it most recently suggest that upwards of two-thirds of D&D revenue is now Beyond:

Not necessarily, if sales are juat that high: all reports from brick and mortar are that 2024 is selling well that I have heard.

Here ia what the relevant Hasbro SVP has put out there on LinkedIn to boast about his accomplishments, at least, pretty sure he must feel confident about the receipts on the numbers provided whether he personaly did cause the resultss or no:
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Check out Dan Rawson’s profile on LinkedIn Dan Rawson - Hasbro | LinkedIn

 

[AlViking]

One has to be careful about accepting statements like this as fact without data. Perhaps the data has been released somewhere and someone can point it out, but I haven't personally seen it. Often when people make statements like "everybody does it", what the speaker really means is that he wants everybody to do it and the listener should get on the bandwagon or they'll be left behind.

There's a lot of internal information they have access to that they don't release. In any case, they still plan on publishing books.

 

[Selas]

Did they just disappear in 2008? DNDBeyond could have a catastrophic server error tomorrow and be unrecoverable.

You know, I'll bite. Dragon went digital only in 2008, and the publication stopped in 2013. What replaced it was an app called Dragon+, which mostly did announcements, interviews and advertisements. The app was almost universally disliked, and it was sunsetted around 2022 (I still have the app on an old phone)

If you meant the printed magazines up to 2007? It depends if people got rid of them, so 50/50

 

[AlViking]

Did they just disappear in 2008? DNDBeyond could have a catastrophic server error tomorrow and be unrecoverable.

And a paper eating microbe could spread across the ... wait ... I just can't. Yes, it's possible the system could crash. It's why modern websites have backups in multiple locations across the country.

 

[Argyle King]

I think it's perfectly fine that some people have a place such as here on EN World to shake their fist at the clouds. We've been doing it for decades now. Every single playtest packet, every single adventure release... every single one has a handful of people livid at what they've bought, been given, or seen.

The only problem is... in probably 99 out of every 100 situations nothing actually results in the fist shaking. Nothing changes. So it's purely a tension release for the person doing it. And that's okay! It's sometimes good to be able to do that! I just hope for everyone's mental health that they realize that's all it is, and not that they think their fist-shaking here will actually result in something different. Because we have seen that in the like only 1 time out of 100 where WotC did change something... it was either when the entire industry had something to say about it (like the rollbacks of the OGL revocation)... or enough players from across the entire spectrum of gameplaying just happened to have the same feelings on the matter and all made mention of the same opinion (from like the occasional playtest survey result.)

But for anything else? Where isolated posters around these boards make statements of opinionated so-called "fact" that in truth is merely their own wish of what was true but for whom very few if any other people actually give a rat's ass about? WotC just let's those people get angry and make their own independent decision on what to do, because their decision will have have ZERO impact on the game as a whole. Some people think Drops will lead to D&D's "ensh**ification"? Okay. That's their right to believe that. But so what? Enough other people across the gaming spectrum don't agree or just don't care, so there's no reason for WotC (or any company for that matter) to try and placate that one individual. And if they leave D&D? Okay. That's fine. Because when they do, there will be a half-dozen 15 year olds who will get online and join random online groups using DDB to pick up the slack.

I somewhat agree.

Though, I think it's worth mentioning that the average 15-year-old in 2026 and beyond may have less disposable income.

Aside from that, I agree that just posting about it won't do much. A company will continue to go down a path that makes money.

Enough people claiming to be upset online still pay for the things that they claim to not support that there current direction likely won't change.

In some cases, I think being 'outraged' online is an expected part of culture, so there are folks who shake their fist on Twitter; then shake their fist on message boards; but ultimately end up shaking their fist in their lap while looking at the next product.

 

[mamba]

The core rules are free and now the subscription can be mea with a growing library of built-in content. The comparison seems apt. And I'm sure a lot of Paizo subscribers also bought the core rules.

no, the comparison is not apt, unless the new drops provide a lot more material than I expect them to.

The comparison would at best be apt if the DDB subscription included all books published by WotC, and even then you do not also get printed books, which certainly affects the price of the subscription

 

[mamba]

Again, no different than the old Dragon magazine that ran from 1976 - 2007 in print, and to 2013 digital when it was replaced by Dragon+.

I disagree, if you cancel your magazine subscription you keep all the magazines that they sent you during your subscription, with DDB you lose access.

A better comparison would be a subscription to a streaming service

 

[Parmandur]

no, the comparison is not apt, unless the new drops provide a lot more material than I expect them to.

The comparison would at best be apt if the DDB subscription included all books published by WotC, and even then you do not also get printed books, which certainly affects the price of the subscription

They are going to be weekly drops, based on the first batch it could become pretty substantial over time.