D&D 5E Greg Leeds talks about D&D

[DEFCON 1]

That sucks. I guess that means we shouldn't be expecting them to update old campaign settings or branch out with new mechanics or experimental concepts in the near future. :/

Anything worth doing is worth doing yourself.

 

[SkidAce]

Now I know whose responsible for the slow D&D release schedule and who I hope gets fired so D&D can be properly supported.

I hope he doesn't get fired, so I guess we cancel each other out.

 

[Mistwell]

Now I know whose responsible for the slow D&D release schedule and who I hope gets fired so D&D can be properly supported.

Some would argue this IS proper support. Increased profit for WOTC says perhaps it is for the long term as well.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Interesting interview, though notably it is hard to extract any really concrete comments from it. I fully expect this guy to do well in politics in a decade's time

 

[Jessica]

Anything worth doing is worth doing yourself.

I either play AL or more short term Roll20 campaigns where they usually aren't terribly trusting of some stranger wanting to play some new class/race they themselves created. For my situation, if it isn't official(or from a well known/high production value 3PP) then it doesn't see the table. :/

 

[MwaO]

I think with Greg Leeds, it is helpful to look at his previous interviews... from September 2011, a time we now know they were working on developing D&D Next.

"What are the results of that multi-year strategy?
Over-all our business is up significantly. I think anyone you talk to about what’s going on with Magic and D&D will tell you that we are having very, very strong sales. We are having very strong sales in digital, and we’re having strong sales in mass market, but our strongest sales are in the hobby shops. So that’s working. The best evidence of this is if you just talk to retailers about the last couple of years, the number of players that have been playing Magic and D&D, with a program like D&D Encounters, which is just completing its second season, the numbers are not falling off at all in terms of participation. When you come to a place like Gen Con you can see that there are so many people interested in getting together and finding like-minded D&D players. They love getting together. Now it’s happening in stores every Wednesday night on a regular basis. We are continuing to invest in great D&D content--the kind of content that gets someone not only to play D&D but also to go on Wednesday night to their local store and play with their friends."

"This year there have been some new developments in Dungeons & Dragons, and people are trying to read between the lines. There have been some reductions in staff (a couple of long time people have left the D&D team), and also there has been a cutback in releases at the beginning of the year for D&D. Are you reducing your emphasis on the role-playing game exploitation of the D&D property?
No, we are not reducing the emphasis on the roleplaying game property for D&D. I need to correct you. We have had some long time staff leave, a couple of people, but we haven’t reduced the overall number of people working on D&D. We are constantly adjusting and tweaking our organization. I think that any healthy organization has some amount of movement. With Dungeons & Dragons, because of that direct personal relationship that our staff has with the gaming community, our ultimate customers, when someone changes it’s far more noticeable than it is in many other businesses. But, I can tell you that in my 20 years of management experience I don’t think that I have seen an organization more stable over a period of 15 years than we have had in Wizards of the Coast or D&D. You take the average tenure of our employees working on D&D and it’s extremely high. We will have and have had occasional turnover, but D&D is a healthy, thriving business on the role-playing side and will continue to be."

 

[Pauper]

Bad news (or at least an unfortunate implication) for those looking for support for other D&D settings from WotC:

"Do you have research that shows that is a path of customer acquisition for the physical product?"
"Yes, absolutely. The Forgotten Realms has been a key part of historical and current digital expressions of the brand, and as we execute paper products in The Forgotten Realms we find that fans can easily gravitate toward those products because of their engagement in other forms of entertainment. As long as the story’s the same, they work synergistically."

So be ready to hang out in the Realms for a long, long time.

--
Pauper

 

[delericho]

Now I know whose responsible for the slow D&D release schedule and who I hope gets fired so D&D can be properly supported.

Do you? For all you know, it could be Mearls who had the idea and persuaded Greg Leeds that this was the right strategy. In which case, GL getting fired wouldn't change things - especially since the strategy is working (from a financial point of view).

 

[fjw70]

I think with Greg Leeds, it is helpful to look at his previous interviews... from September 2011, a time we now know they were working on developing D&D Next.

Over-all our business is up significantly. I think anyone you talk to about what’s going on with Magic and D&D will tell you that we are having very, very strong sales.

We will have and have had occasional turnover, but D&D is a healthy, thriving business on the role-playing side and will continue to be."

The best time to work on a replacement product is when your current product is still doing well.

 

[delericho]

Some would argue this IS proper support. Increased profit for WOTC says perhaps it is for the long term as well.

Absolutely. I would prefer more books, but it's their call. And their strategy is working.