D&D General Dan Rawson Named New Head Of D&D

Hasbro has announced a former Microsoft digital commerce is the new senior vice president in charge of Dungeons & Dragons. Dan Rawson was the COO of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Hasbro also hired Cynthia Williams earlier this year; she too, came from Microsoft. Of Rawson, she said "We couldn’t be bringing on Dan at a better time. With the acquisition of D&D Beyond earlier this year, the digital capabilities and opportunities for Dungeons & Dragons are accelerating faster than ever. I am excited to partner with Dan to explore the global potential of the brand while maintaining Hasbro’s core value as a player-first company.”

Rawson himself says that "Leading D&D is the realization of a childhood dream. I’m excited to work with Cynthia once again, and I’m thrilled to work with a talented team to expand the global reach of D&D, a game I grew up with and now play with my own kids.”

Interestingly, Ray Wininger -- who has been running D&D for the last couple of years -- has removed mention of WotC and Hasbro from his Twitter bio.

 

[Audiomancer]

Hasbro is a profit-seeking entity.

It currently generates profits by printing physical rulebooks.

Hasbro will continue to print physical books as long as it is profitable to do so.

Now, it is certainly possible that, as some future date, Hasbro’s market research will indicate that… let’s say… 80% of its customers don’t want physical books and prefer to own their gaming products digitally. But that day is probably some distance off.

All the major book publishers continue to publish physical books, despite the existence of e-readers and tablets. Movies and music continue to be available on physical media, in addition to digital.

5.5E will be sold in book form. 6E will be sold in book form. Take deep breaths, stop worrying, and enjoy your game.

 

[DarkCrisis]

this is very class dependent. there are plenty of poor people who don't have smart phones... especially kids (aka the next generation you want to attract) Getting a PHB for birthday or Christmas seems a lot more likely then a smart phone. At the gaming store that closed we had 2 players 1 had an emergency government issue phone and the other had no phone. In my regular group right now we all have them but 2 players only got them in last few years.

My niece and nephew have had smart phones since 5th grade... my fiancés has 2 nieces and a nephew and none of them have them and only 1 isn't in HS.

Right but what does that mean to WotC.

Remember when Blizzard came out with their mobile only Diablo “Don’t you have a phone?”

Yeah they made a PC version but only after that outcry.

They just did it again with Overwatch 2. You had to have a phone to even log in for true first time. Again, until the outcry and they reversed it “for now.”

Point being. Dollars to Donuts, when WorC feels that they will make more money when they leave behind print and those without phones or tables, they absolutely will.

Which won’t be soon. But I bet Beyond gets some digital only items pretty quick. Want that digital exclusive Ravenloft adventure? Gotta use Beyond. “You have a phone right?”

 

[JiffyPopTart]

What unpainted PC minis have you been buying that costs $20 each?

Clearly you haven't delved into the world of Games Workshop.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Right but what does that mean to WotC.

Remember when Blizzard came out with their mobile only Diablo “Don’t you have a phone?”

Yeah they made a PC version but only after that outcry.

They just did it again with Overwatch 2.

You just said what it means to WotC, two times Blizzard got bad press and bad word of mouth over this thought, so maybe they should learn from others mistakes...

 

[Burnside]

This is raw speculation. Based on little that isn't taken out of proportion.

Is digital a big market for them? Yes. They'd be nuts to ignore it. But that's not "ignoring" the table top desktop.

Well, I didn't say they would "ignore" the tabletop version. I said they'd prioritize the digital one. That doesn't mean they throw the tabletop game in the garbage. It just means they focus MORE on the digital elements.

As for raw speculation blown out of proportion, ymmv:

• TTRPG guy replaced as head of D&D by guy with entirely digital, zero professional TTRPG experience
• WotC purchases DNDBeyond, early digital-only release for Dragonlance adventure
• WotC announced upcoming official D&D VTT
• One D&D playtests available only to DNDBeyond members

Added up, this feels significant to me.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Clearly you haven't delved into the world of Games Workshop.

LOL yeah. Had 3 armies. Got rid of all them about 5 years ago. I kind of miss it, but way to expensive a hobby.

 

[Staffan]

5.5E will be sold in book form. 6E will be sold in book form. Take deep breaths, stop worrying, and enjoy your game.

Yeah, digital only will likely be related to niche items, and we have some of those today already. Things like The Tortle Package or Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. I can see the dial being nudged a bit, but Wizards are too dependent on game stores to want to upset them – while digital Magic is definitely a thing, in-store gaming is still a major pillar of Magic playing.

The situation might be different in ten years, but not anytime soon.

 

[darjr]

Well, I didn't say they would "ignore" the tabletop version. I said they'd prioritize the digital one. That doesn't mean they throw the tabletop game in the garbage. It just means they focus MORE on the digital elements.

As for raw speculation blown out of proportion, ymmv:

• TTRPG guy replaced as head of D&D by guy with entirely digital, zero professional TTRPG experience
• WotC purchases DNDBeyond, early digital-only release for Dragonlance adventure
• WotC announced upcoming official D&D VTT
• One D&D playtests available only to DNDBeyond members

Added up, this feels significant to me.

Ray Winninger was also a Microsoft guy in digital games.

WotC made the right decision buying DNDBeyond regardless of any of this. Also Dragonlance is being sold by DNDBeyond in physical form. All of them to be released Dec 6, just like Amazon.


Digital from DNDBeyond.


The bundle printed book from DNDBeyond. Physical book on the same day.



Physical book from Amazon.


And the alternate cover only in game stores, Dec 6th. Same day. Right above a store locator.


I know I could have missed something. Is there an intro adventure?

And a digital VTT also makes sense. Note that it's geared to be like a tabletop, the mini's are static figures. Why would they do that? Maybe to play more like the actual tabletop? However I'll grant that things could change rapidly here.

D&D Beyond playtest downloads. I don't think this means what you think it means. It's backed by an analytics engine and the playtest is in part a huge analytics effort. That alone justifies it in my book. Also there isn't any support for any of it in DNDBeyond itself, which I'm willing to grant they'd probably do that if they could.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We have dndbeyomd woth microtransactions for 7 or 8 years now? We still have books.

Not only that, but the “micro transactions” on DDB aren’t even the kind that people are afraid of. It’s “pay 2 bucks for the races in this setting book, and if you the whole book later you get $2 off the price”.

I really can't understand why anyone thinks books are going away. WotC won't kill the golden goose. They are not dumb.
They were very considerate the last 8 years and were really effective.
If the D&D movie is a success, which is absolutely possible, then achieving the financial goals are possible. Same with baldur's gate 3 when it is finally done. I could see that they are actually not rushing it on purpose, because they could finally release it with 1D&D rules.

So the tabletop game does not have to grow too much, it just has to make many people happy. And if books are essential for many people, there will be books.

Yep. They’re gonna sell physical books as long as people want them. And as long as D&D is a hobby that doesn’t actually require wotc’s further involvement in order to play, people are gonna want books.

 

[Vincent55]

Why does anyone think this goes away? They are literally top sellers on Amazon. Why the fear?

right well how many times i have heard this line, oh CD's are a fad, records are better or case tapes, i will go as far to say that small USB chips will at some point replace this as well down the road, heck you can fit many gigs on a small chip plug and play now. Once this becomes the norm you will never see many going through ther process of making a book. How many pay phones can you find in your town compared to 10 years ago. The digital age is great but, people love to use things to gain an advantage or make money, remember when you can buy a game own it and play it when ever you want. Now it's all about an online connection to a server so you don't really own the game or any thing in it, you just bought the right to access it.