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.

 

[Zardnaar]

Really? How many?

100-200+ hours first playthrough. 40 hours would be a quick run/small one.

 

[jayoungr]

Other than dice, paper, pens, pencils, etc.

You can get around the need for dice with chits or homemade spinners, as gamers in prison do.

 

[SothFan]

You can get around the need for dice

Yes, as I said before, just open a book.

Look page 103, I was rolling a 12 sided dice, I got a 7.

 

[Clint_L]

IMHO, when an executive says "under monetized", they see it as producing less than 110% income.

Hasbro actually told us why they think D&D is under-monetized: it has 10/10 brand recognition yet relatively paltry revenue, about a fifth that of Magic the Gathering.

 

[GrimCo]

Hasbro actually told us why they think D&D is under-monetized: it has 10/10 brand recognition yet relatively paltry revenue, about a fifth that of Magic the Gathering.

Which is unfortunate and just wrong on few levels. I usually go by Hanlon's razor, but in this case, i just can't believe that execs at that level don't know difference in business model those two brands operate. It's like saying that Skyrim is under monetized by comparing it with World of Warcraft. D&D, on it's own, in ttrpg space, by ttrpg metrics, is highly sucessfull and has great revenue and probaly solid profit (again, for ttrpg).

TCG/CCG are literal money printers.

 

[bsss]

Which is unfortunate and just wrong on few levels. I usually go by Hanlon's razor, but in this case, i just can't believe that execs at that level don't know difference in business model those two brands operate. It's like saying that Skyrim is under monetized by comparing it with World of Warcraft. D&D, on it's own, in ttrpg space, by ttrpg metrics, is highly sucessfull and has great revenue and probaly solid profit (again, for ttrpg).

TCG/CCG are literal money printers.

Concessions like those probably do not exist in the minds of people using words like "under-monetized", their goal to squeeze more money out of the thing regardless is telegraphed --- it's right there in the language, staring at us.

 

[VashVet]

Concessions like those probably do not exist in the minds of people using words like "under-monetized", their goal to squeeze more money out of the thing regardless is telegraphed --- it's right there in the language, staring at us.

This is why when a new executive comes in, it feels to me like their background with games is highlighted because at some level they understand they have to sell the idea to fans that the game is in good hands. Can’t say that’s always successful and some people just don’t pass the smell test on that aspect but on the flip side, if you’re an executive particularly for a public company, it’s ultimately your job to increase the revenues and profits. Making that fit in the same space alongside actual love for the product has to be difficult at times.

 

[abazaba]

TCG/CCG are literal money printers.

I'm fairly sure the execs would like all of the products/brands to be money printers.

And I'm definitely no exec, but I can imagine that if the company has one brand that does extremely well with a certain approach (I believe that MTG did/does extremely with the 'Universes Beyond' approach, and with 'Final Fantasy' in particular) that they respond with something like "can we replicate that approach and success with our other brands ?".

 

[AlViking]

Once again the under monetized comment was about sources of income external to the game itself. Merchandise and other entertainment venues. There's only so much money in TTRPGs sales related directly to playing the game even if they wanted it.

 

[abazaba]

Once again the under monetized comment was about sources of income external to the game itself. Merchandise and other entertainment venues. There's only so much money in TTRPGs sales related directly to playing the game even if they wanted it.

Perhaps they are making an honest attempt at it by - instead of just making single sales like books - trying to get far more monthly subscribers to DnDBeyond instead (and thus continuous sales) ? Also: in other news, it was announced that we can expect more crossovers for D&D. One could argue that this approach is akin to the 'Universes Beyond' approach for MTG.