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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think anyone knew that BG3 would be as big of a hit as it was.

It was a massive hit when it went to early access, which lasted more than a year. WotC had ample time to do something more than they did.

At a minimum, they could have grabbed a bunch of the concept art (later used in the DADHAT concept art book) and slapped it on the Golden Vault and tweaked names and places to have more synergy with the movie.

And creating a new starter set is relatively simple, since most of the components have historically been more or less the same, other than the adventure. (They're obviously breaking this trend for Heroes of the Borderlands.) Getting one of their good writers to do a short starter adventure running through some of the places seen in the movie wouldn't have been difficult to do ahead of the film.

Worst case scenario, big shiny gold stickers and shrink-wrap that said something like "You loved Honor Among Thieves in theaters, now bring the adventure home!" to slap on existing core books would have been pretty trivial to do. (DC Comics put branding pushing every one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies on the front covers of most of their comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s, which they clearly felt was useful.)

If the brand manager didn't know how well Baldur's Gate 3 was doing among early access players -- and it was, and got quite a bit of publicity for it in the gaming press -- that's absolutely a failure in-house and not something inevitable.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

it was a surprise to everyone.

This simply isn't true.

 

[AlViking]

This simply isn't true.

"Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke didn't anticipate Baldur's Gate 3 to be even a fraction as successful as it has proven to be." Baldur's Gate 3 director says the game's massive success "was not in the books at all"

 

[haakon1]

How much does a franchise cost? Can I put it next to a McDonalds?

Is DM now District Manager?

How large is the exclusive area for each franchise?

Can I buy the franchise for Renton, WA and make WotC employees pay-me-to-play?

What percentage of DM fees do I have to profit share with WotC?

Do I need to use WotC’s supply chain, or can I source my own dice and adventures?

Will there be an FAQ to answer aspiring franchisee questions?

 

[mamba]

BG3 has sold about an order of magnitude number of copies more than BG2.

it was a surprise to everyone.

the magnitude, sure, but how many D&D computer games are there in any given month? It’s not like they were so busy doing stuff for all the others… it was clear for a long time that BG3 would be the biggest D&D computer game of the year, even if that would have meant 5M copies sold rather than 50 (I made these numbers up…)

 

[Piperken]

One recent example, released in January, 2025. While pinball enthusiasts have expressed legitimate criticisms, it seems like it's been well received and mentioned in the top 100 for the time being.

The Tyrant's Eye

 

[mamba]

And creating a new starter set is relatively simple, since most of the components have historically been more or less the same, other than the adventure.

they wrote one in a week when Target asked for a new starter set… they had plenty of opportunity

 

[balrog88]

This means D&D will have a huge video game feel like 4E. Get ready for dark days of adventure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke didn't anticipate Baldur's Gate 3 to be even a fraction as successful as it has proven to be." Baldur's Gate 3 director says the game's massive success "was not in the books at all"

Did you read the article? He was saying that maybe the game would never break 800,000 users, which is what it got its first weekend in early access. Getting a "mere" 800,000 people to engage or re-engage with pen and paper D&D would have been a huge coup. That's multiple times the number of 2024 Players Handbooks sold.

 

[AlViking]

Did you read the article? He was saying that maybe the game would never break 800,000 users, which is what it got its first weekend in early access. Getting a "mere" 800,000 people to engage or re-engage with pen and paper D&D would have been a huge coup. That's multiple times the number of 2024 Players Handbooks sold.

I was commenting on how well they thought the video game would sell and it was far more successful than expected. Even moderately successful video games dwarf sales of TTRPGs.