D&D 5E (2014) Escapist article on SCAG is Brutal.

[darjr]

Without both the game and fiction there isn't a brand.

 

[aramis erak]

I would consider keeping an Iconic Brand alive, and spawning (for better or worse) a host of Third Party Publishers (many that still exist to this day)to be Noteworthy, yes, even if they had produced half as many books and it made only 1% compared to MtG.

Your take on it seems kind of flippant, like D&D was just a side-project that no one took seriously since churning out MtG cards was where the paycheck was.

Also, since I'm not in the 1%, I consider making about 6 million a year pretty good off of some insignificant books.

Let's not forget that WotC, in the 90's, was notorious for buying the competition. Their RPG's were (largely) poor sellers. Several were acquired as part of purchases of other companies. Most of the purchases appeared only to be pursuant to shutting down the competition.

Sufficiently so common that buying TSR was almost blocked on anti-trust grounds. Keeping TSR going was part of the settlement with US DOJ. Since HasBro bought WotC, they seem to be honoring that deal.

Long run, it's probably cheaper to keep printing D&D (especially for the spinoff IPs) and keep the design team happy than to kill it as non-productive.

In and of itself, D&D as a brand is minor for WotC, trivial for HasBro. The spin-offs (movies, novels, videogames) raise to notable for WotC and barely noticed for HasBro.

about 15 people at WotC work on producing books, counting one in Accounts Payable, and one in Accounts Receivable, and one in payroll. And the ones in accounting and payroll probably aren't devoted full time.

Less than 1% of the income, less than 10% of the staff, but generating millions in secondary licensure. (probably a good bit more than the 10% of staff would generate if working on cards or boardgames.)

Those D&D staff are in the business of making a brand worthwhile financially - not in the business of making books for the sake of making books, nor of making games for the sake of games. The books are, at best, a means to an end. They're really part of the advertizing for the novels and computer games. The computer games are the apparently largest share... but they feed off of the RPG team doing story. Likewise the novels crossfeed and cross-fertilize.

The books are, essentially, just advertizing that pays for itself.

 

[Shasarak]

Would you consider something you did for 5% of every day a major part of your day? Noteworthy?

Yeah, of course. That is more then an hour a day which is, once you take out wasted time like sleeping and eating, a huge amount of time.

And if Hasbro reported earning 5% less then expected then yes that would be a big deal. And having said that, Christmas is just around the corner so let us see how many staff remain with DnD for the New Year.

 

[hawkeyefan]

If the movie hits big, then WotC's and Hasbro's view on the brand might change a bit...

 

[Morrus]

Without both the game and fiction there isn't a brand.

Sure there is! If there's one lesson to be learned from modern culture, it's that you don't need to have any content whatsoever to have a valuable brand! Just look at what's famous these days.

 

[Jester David]

Yeah, of course. That is more then an hour a day which is, once you take out wasted time like sleeping and eating, a huge amount of time.

Why would you take out that time? It's total day, not just free time.

And if Hasbro reported earning 5% less then expected then yes that would be a big deal. And having said that, Christmas is just around the corner so let us see how many staff remain with DnD for the New Year.

In early 2014, Hasbo profits shrank form $336 million to $286 million.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ds-of-the-Coast-Financials-Up-Over-20-in-2013
(Found when looking for numbers earlier today; I'm using it since it was easy to find, being in my browser history)
When you're making $54 million less, do you *really* care about a brand that makes $3 million?

 

[Shasarak]

Why would you take out that time? It's total day, not just free time.

Because time is relative and 8 hours sleeping < 1 hour free time.

In early 2014, Hasbo profits shrank form $336 million to $286 million.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ds-of-the-Coast-Financials-Up-Over-20-in-2013
(Found when looking for numbers earlier today; I'm using it since it was easy to find, being in my browser history)
When you're making $54 million less, do you *really* care about a brand that makes $3 million?

I probably would not mention that in the job interview - it might not go the way you expect.

 

[darjr]

Sure there is! If there's one lesson to be learned from modern culture, it's that you don't need to have any content whatsoever to have a valuable brand! Just look at what's famous these days.

That does work, but my point is, I don't think it works for D&D. Without the game being around not much else is there to support it and there is LOTS to supplant it.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

"When you're making $54 million less, do you *really* care about a brand that makes $3 million?

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...rticle-on-SCAG-is-Brutal/page21#ixzz3r3RD5FQh

I think you probably should, otherwise you soon might be making $57 million less, though I admit I am not the kind of guy that considers 3 million dollars a pittance.
Also, I buy the books for the game. I dont buy any Drizzt novels or any of that. I have seen enough of the D&D movies on cable TV to know that they arent worth picking up on DVD even at the Dollar Store.
I did buy the D&D game on xbox live a few years back (Daggerdale?), and it was barely worth the $10/800 points I paid for it, but I doubt they made a huge profit on that.

If Hasbro is worried about money, maybe they should worry about ing up D&D, as last time the did that, it seems like a good chunk of their regular business migrated to Paizo. That's what, around $11 million a year?

 

[Mark CMG]

Sure there is! If there's one lesson to be learned from modern culture, it's that you don't need to have any content whatsoever to have a valuable brand! Just look at what's famous these days.

I just tooted the same thing on instaface plus!