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.

 

[AlViking]

I am not their target anymore.

Very big collection of minis and terrain…all of D&D 2014 and shadowdark.

If it’s fun for others, I get it. But I am out.

Realistically, this is where it will head and ultimately most of the player base in a decade or 15 years will all be with it.

Not how I like it but it is coming. And all the digital assets with AI…you know it’s coming.

People quit playing for all sorts of reasons, I wish you luck in finding a game or activity that better suits you. On the other hand people have been predicting this imminent demise of 5e for over a decade now. There will always be a next generation, either WOTC caters to what they want or the game will slowly be less popular. Even if the number of players was cut in half tomorrow, the game would still be more popular than any other time other than perhaps the 80s boom years.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Where are you trying to go with this? Are you suggesting that in 500 years people will still be referring to their DDB copies of Ravenloft, or have you just lost the plot here? Of course I'm only thinking of my lifetime. Although I have books that were printed before my grandfather was born and I'm not young. But have you completely missed the point of why people are saying they want physical media? Nobody's trying to recreate the library of Alexandria from DnD books.

I think in 500 years copies of something like the white box OD&D set will be historically significant, and from there something made "only" 50 years hence could provide historians and archaeologists with fascinating amounts of information.

What IF the only surviving examples of, say, HTML code are found in some RPG nerd's repository?

 

[Argyle King]

D&D is still one of the most affordable hobbies there is. I enjoy the extra bells and whistles we have now but they still aren't and they will never be required to play the game. Growing up I didn't have a lot of extra money or easy access for things like modules but that never stopped us from playing. I don't see things being much different now.

I can relate to that. I didn't have much money either. I mowed lawns and such to try to buy a few things (before being told by a clerk that I still couldn't due to the Satanic Panic.)

On the flipside, I posit that a corporation who has repeatedly expressed wanting to better monetize a brand might be more successful with a strategy that includes people with money in their target audience.

Obviously, there is a balancing act. Not long ago, I was similarly critical of WotC seeming to cater to collectors and people wealthy enough to regularly afford high-pricepoint items. I think there's a better middle ground between what WotC was doing then and what has been hypothesized in this thread.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Something I feel the need to point out for some people unaware. A Beyond subscription is not needed to look at books and products you have bought.

Secondly the books still exist. If you are not interested in Beyond but are in upcoming books, they are still available and useable.

 

[Selas]

Exactly. They haven't said "we're not doing printed books anymore", just that they're doing this on top of that. They're not stupid...they know that the second they drop physical books is the moment they will lose against Pathfinder, Daggerheart, Draw Steel and TotV.

 

[mamba]

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

we will see, I do not expect the next drops to bring anywhere near as many maps. 5 spells and 5 feats a week you can probably keep up for a while though, will be interesting to see how it evolves

 

[mamba]

yes, its more like that, but I was speaking of the kind of content provided

if that was the point of the comparison ok, I was more focused on your

I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of those that are complaining about something like Drops, but were fine with a monthly magazine service because it was on paper

 

[mamba]

You can just literally print the entire content library to PDF.

yes, poor substitute for properly formatted and indexed PDFs, but doable

EDIT: out of curiosity, how is this organized in DDB. Are the 5 new feats and spells then 10 PDFs, or are they their own ‘book’

 

[SothFan]

Something I feel the need to point out for some people unaware. A Beyond subscription is not needed to look at books and products you have bought.

Secondly the books still exist. If you are not interested in Beyond but are in upcoming books, they are still available and useable.

I think some people are not understanding others. I saw nobody say the digital content makes books disappear. This is not any arguement I have seen being made.

 

[Selas]

if that was the point of the comparison ok, I was more focused on your
Selas said:
I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of those that are complaining about something like Drops, but were fine with a monthly magazine service because it was on paper

Still applies. Some online (here, but mostly reddit) are complaining about a digital feature bringing in extra content, when Dragon mag did the same on paperback back in the day. My point is...this is not new.