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]

Yes and no. Content is one time up front fixed cost. Distribution part is problematic and costly part. While economy of scale works for you when you print, with higher print runs reducing cost per unit, in distribution and logistics, it operates on linear scale which means more product you have, more it cost you to ship out, more expensive storage space it takes. Books are heavy for their volume. When you are using ocean transport, you pay both per container and for weight, and with books being dense, you reach container max allowed weight faster then you fill out it's volume, so you need more containers. Which means more handling fees, more trucks, more everything in chain, which raises costs. That's all before you enter all the geopolitical shenanigans that impact global supply chains. Profit margins of physical ttrpg books are razor thin. Real profit is digital distribution. Once you make product, replication costs are 0 and distribution costs are dirt cheap (CC processor fees, platform fees, server and bandwidth cost).

Special editions for collectors are exception cause you charge high premiums, but even those don't touch profit margins digital direct to consumer books have.

Are you in the publishing industry that you can verify any of these numbers or are you just speculating and adding in things you think could add to the cost? Because while I normally get books on my kindle, there are still plenty of hardcover and paperback books at the local bookstore. WOTC still sells plenty of physical gameboards which would have the same issue - it's part of their core business.

Unfortunately we can't bet on the outcome so it doesn't really matter. I just think you are not correct.

Edit - just funny. They release a statement "We're always going to sell physical books" is interpreted as "OMG! They're not going to sell physical books any more!"

 

[Incenjucar]

D&D is not really comparable to the books industry as a whole - which does in fact have a lot of books that only exist in digital form. Nor are board games equivalent, nor are video games. TTRPGs are their own medium in which the game board and pieces, if used at all, are sold seperately from the game rules, and for which only a fraction of the rulebook content is ever relevant, decreasing with the number of supplements you have, AND each player is expected to have their own rulebooks.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Are you in the publishing industry that you can verify any of these numbers or are you just speculating and adding in things you think could add to the cost? Because while I normally get books on my kindle, there are still plenty of hardcover and paperback books at the local bookstore. WOTC still sells plenty of physical gameboards which would have the same issue - it's part of their core business.

Unfortunately we can't bet on the outcome so it doesn't really matter. I just think you are not correct.

Edit - just funny. They release a statement "We're always going to sell physical books" is interpreted as "OMG! They're not going to sell physical books any more!"

This really isn't about the latest statement.

 

[AlViking]

This really isn't about the latest statement.

Yeah I know. It's about stirring in everything they've said or done or thought about doing that can be interpreted as a negative spin for the past decade or so whether it makes sense to do so or not.

But unless someone can come up with a way to place bets on this theory I'm outta here.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

We'll wake up to this someday, just like we woke up to it some two decades ago when we realized that video games are not the same experience as tabletop roleplaying games.

Digitizing Dungeons and Dragons is fun and it is responsible for what video games are today, either directly or indirectly, from Doom, to World of Warcraft, to Baldur's Gate. Video games in many ways are a better roleplaying experience, but in many ways they are not.

For instance, digitized Dungeons and Dragons has a much higher entry level cost for players when you consider the computer you will need to buy to play it. Also, the price of a video game is comparable to the price of the rulebooks; however, the video game gives you one campaign, maybe 40 hours of gaming, whereas the rulebooks give you endless hours of gaming.

That was all in the 1st Great Digitization of the Game. We are currently digitizing the game a 2nd time and we will wake up someday and think, "I wonder if people still play Dungeons and Dragons?"

 

[AlViking]

We'll wake up to this someday, just like we woke up to it some two decades ago when we realized that video games are not the same experience as tabletop roleplaying games.

Digitizing Dungeons and Dragons is fun and it is responsible for what video games are today, either directly or indirectly, from Doom, to World of Warcraft, to Baldur's Gate. Video games in many ways are a better roleplaying experience, but in many ways they are not.

For instance, digitized Dungeons and Dragons has a much higher entry level cost for players when you consider the computer you will need to buy to play it. Also, the price of a video game is comparable to the price of the rulebooks; however, the video game gives you one campaign, maybe 40 hours of gaming, whereas the rulebooks give you endless hours of gaming.

That was all in the 1st Great Digitization of the Game. We are currently digitizing the game a 2nd time and we will wake up someday and think, "I wonder if people still play Dungeons and Dragons?"

First, having a tool to make a character sheet - even one used online - is not digitizing the game. It's still about getting with some other gamers and playing a cooperative game. Personally for me it's always in person but I'm glad there's an option for people to play online if in person is not an option. Even using VTT isn't really digitizing anything.

Second, I use DDB on devices I already own, no extra cost. Any smartphone or any other device that accesses the internet will work. There is no extra hardware cost.

Last, I play video games as well and enjoy them. Meanwhile D&D (and other TTRPGs) are still doing well, better than they were 10-15 years ago. I think in part that's because people crave that interpersonal connection you get. I don't see that changing, even if D&D isn't the top dog.

 

[GrimCo]

Are you in the publishing industry that you can verify any of these numbers or are you just speculating and adding in things you think could add to the cost? Because while I normally get books on my kindle, there are still plenty of hardcover and paperback books at the local bookstore. WOTC still sells plenty of physical gameboards which would have the same issue - it's part of their core business.

Not in publishing, but i have some insight in how "profitable" traditional publishing is. I'm in residential/distributor sales for big HVAC manufacturer and unfortunately, dealing with supply chain and logistics is my daily chore. Traditional publishing and manufacturing have quite a few similarities. Like wotc, we don't sell direct to consumer, we sell to distributors and partners, business model is same, just different product. And i'm dealing with same problems. We have products that are heavy but don't take much space and products that take space but aren't heavy. There is manufacturing cost, then there is total landed cost. TLC is manufacturing plus transport to distributor's warehouse. TLC is usually 3x manufacturing cost. Then it's TLC from distributor to retailer aka your FLGS. Then your FLGS has it's TLC. And everyone in the chain adds their gross profit margin on top of it. Final nail for end customer is local sales tax/VAT. There is something called 5x rule, which is, your manufacturing cost needs to be 5x lower than retail price. So 50e ttrpg book in stores needs to be under 10e in manufacturing cost.

WOTC's biggest moneymaker is MTG. It's completely different business model, since it relies on lots of continuous repeat purchases. Also, cards are low weight and low volume, so you can pack way more boosters and decks in single shipping container than books. PHB is 45e, Commander deck is 45e. 2 Decks take same volume and half weight of 1 book. You can ship 2x more decks in single container.

Edit - just funny. They release a statement "We're always going to sell physical books" is interpreted as "OMG! They're not going to sell physical books any more!"

Personally, i think they will sell books. Maybe they switch to limited editions, maybe to lighter smaller books, or even just starter sets. Or they just eat cost, use books as loss leader anchor product and monetize it trough DDB where they have almost 0e TLC and gross profit margins are very high.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

If you drink California wine then my wife likely sourced the bottle it's packaged in. I regularly find myself dumbfounded by all the logistical stuff that goes into sourcing, ordering, manufacturing, shipping, storing, shipping again, packaging, shipping yet again, etc. And, at every point in that chain people get paid and the cost of that bottle of wine goes up.

 

[payn]

We'll wake up to this someday, just like we woke up to it some two decades ago when we realized that video games are not the same experience as tabletop roleplaying games.

Digitizing Dungeons and Dragons is fun and it is responsible for what video games are today, either directly or indirectly, from Doom, to World of Warcraft, to Baldur's Gate. Video games in many ways are a better roleplaying experience, but in many ways they are not.

For instance, digitized Dungeons and Dragons has a much higher entry level cost for players when you consider the computer you will need to buy to play it. Also, the price of a video game is comparable to the price of the rulebooks; however, the video game gives you one campaign, maybe 40 hours of gaming, whereas the rulebooks give you endless hours of gaming.

That was all in the 1st Great Digitization of the Game. We are currently digitizing the game a 2nd time and we will wake up someday and think, "I wonder if people still play Dungeons and Dragons?"

Are you seriously making the argument that people have to buy computers now?

 

[Belen]

Are you seriously making the argument that people have to buy computers now?

With the prices lately, folks will just rent a virtual machine.