Dungeons & Dragons Shifts to Franchise Model, Dan Ayoub Named as Head

Wizards of the Coast has shifted Dungeons & Dragons to a "franchise model," with former Senior VP of Digital Games Dan Ayoub named as the new VP of Franchise for the game. Ayoub made the announcement on LinkedIn late yesterday, announcing the shift in franchise. In Ayoub's words, the new model means that everything related to Dungeons & Dragons - books, video games, film, and TV - will now live under one roof. Ayoub stated that this model will allow for a "strong, coordinated, and well-funded approach for the franchise.

Ayoub comes from the video game industry, having worked at Microsoft for 11 years prior to jumping over to Wizards of the Coast. He notably worked on the Halo video game franchise for years, working as a Studio Head and Executive Producer of 343 Industries. He also worked as an executive producer for Ubisoft and a Game Director for The Walt Disney Company.

When first announcing his move to Wizards of the Coast back in 2022, Ayoub stated that he was a fan of both D&D and Magic: The Gathering, having played both as a child.

 

[darjr]

If it means the business folks pay less attention to the tabletop it could be a good thing.

 

[Stormonu]

Makes Acquisitions Incorporated sound prophetic in some way...

 

[DarkCrisis]

If it means the business folks pay less attention to the tabletop it could be a good thing.

Less half-ass made adventures sure would be nice.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd expect a lot more D&D t-shirts at Old Navy, D&D-branded snacks and articles about TV shows, movies and videogames in development.

Once those get sufficient traction, the roleplaying game itself can likely be allowed to fend for itself, outside of synergizing with upcoming movies and TV shows better than DADHAT did. (Think of how Marvel and DC make sure their comic book status quos line up with the movies before they come out.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Less half-ass made adventures sure would be nice.

I don't think the issues with the adventures have been because Hasbro was paying too much attention to the RPG side of things.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I don't see anything in the write-up to assume they'll be farming out actual D&D books. It sounds like the attention is on movies, TV shows, and games.

 

[el-remmen]

If I were the optimistic type I'd say that this might mean that Wizards will do a better job of coordinating different aspects of the brand in order to capitalize on potential synergies (16 years since I worked in the corporate world and I still got the lingo down ), so for example, a starter set based on a D&D movie might come out around the time as a D&D movie, etc. . .

But 1. I am not the optimistic type, and 2. I really don't give a toot how D&D does as a business.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

If I were the optimistic type I'd say that this might mean that Wizards will do a better job of coordinating different aspects of the brand in order to capitalize on potential synergies (16 years since I worked in the corporate world and I still got the lingo down ), so for example, a starter set based on a D&D movie might come out around the time as a D&D movie, etc. . .

But 1. I am not the optimistic type, and 2. I really don't give a toot how D&D does as a business.

As someone currently working in corporate media and IP what they're doing now seems like a no brainer. I'm actually kinda shocked they weren't already operating in a franchise oriented model.

 

[mearls]

I think this means that in the future, stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 and the D&D movie would have actual tie-in products. IME the franchise model means that D&D looks more like Warhammer.

Everything in Warhammer is connected. If I play Space Marine 2, the events in that game are part of the 40k universe. If a faction or character from one game is popular, the franchise org tries to find ways to use them elsewhere. It's a big universe - just like D&D has multiple, sprawling worlds - so there is a ton of room to go around.

For the TTRPG, presumably it will now speak more to other products in D&D overall rather than being its own offshoot. It might even let them take more risks. I don't think it preordains any direction in terms of licensing the TTRPG.

Hell, Warhammer in the past few years has brought back the Old World setting that they destroyed and now have a full game for supporting the Horus Heresy era for 40k. In D&D terms, that would be like putting AD&D and 3e back into print. In a well-run franchise model, you don't focus on one type of fan or non-fans. You find ways to make every fan happy. They're your fans, after all.

 

[Stalker0]

I don't see anything in the write-up to assume they'll be farming out actual D&D books. It sounds like the attention is on movies, TV shows, and games.

While true I didn't see anything either, at the end of the day the goal is to maximize utilization of the "brand".

As Spaceballs once put, "Dnd the video game, dnd the toilet paper."


And to note I have no issue with that, its smart business to recognize that your brand is a far more powerful vessel than a meer TTRPG and to try to structure your business to capitalize on that. As others have noted in the past, it seemed criminal when BG3 was literally dominating the video RPG space there wasn't a lot of secondary products from Hasbro to capitalize on that success. That may be part of the reason for this change (though it could easily have been planned before hand, these things do take time to plan).