WotC Hasbro Bets Big on D&D

During today's 'Hasbro Fireside Chat', Hasbro's Chris Cocks, chief executive officer, and Cynthia Williams, president of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming mentioned D&D, and about betting big on its name. This was in addition to the Magic: The Gathering discussion they held on the same call.

The following are rough notes on what they said.

D&D Beyond

• Leaning heavily on D&D Beyond
• 13 million registered users
• Give them more ways to express their fandom
• Hired 350 people last year
• Low attrition

What’s next for D&D

• Never been more popular
• Brand under-monetized
• Excited about D&D Beyond possibilities
• Empower accessibility and development of the user base.
• Data driven insight
• Window into how players are playing
• Companion app on their phone
• Start future monetization starting with D&D Beyond
• DMs are 20% of the audience but lions share of purchases
• Digital game recurrent spending for post sale revenue.
• Speed of digital can expand, yearly book model to include current digital style models.
• Reach highly engaged multigenerational fans.
• Dungeons and Dragons has recognition, 10 out of 10
• Cultural phenomenon right now.
• DND strategy is a broad four quadrant strategy
• Like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Marvel
• New books and accessories, licensed game stuff, and D&D Beyond
• Huge hopes for D&D

What is success for the D&D Movie

• First big light up oppourtunity for 4th quadrant
• Significant marketing
• They think it’ll have significant box office
• It has second most viewed trailer at Paramount, only eclipsed by Transformers
• Will be licensed video games, some on movies
• Then follow up other media, TV, other movies, etc.
• Bullish on D&D.

 

[grimslade]

Ahhh the sky is falling DOOM! Doom, I say!
D&D will be a bigger presence in toy stores, apparel, and breakfast cereals. There is gold in them thar hills or at least electrum.
D&D will likely start to have diversification of product offerings in DDB/Digital. DMs are the bulk of purchasers so we get nothing more. Filthy addicts that we are. I see a lot more breaking apart of D&D books in digital granting access to just player options at a slightly lower price point to entice the 'untapped' player market. I think this will flop, but it costs little other than editing/formatting so... meh.
Microtransactions. Microtransactions may come to the virtual tabletop or it may be a subscription service. We don't know anything about the pricing or payment options. I am going to think of the virtual tabletop as vaporware until we see an open beta. It has immense potential profitability for Hasbro, so there is plenty of incentive, but there are already several competitors in the space. The VTT will need to be a significant improvement to be an instant success.

 

[occam]

For me, part of the explicit appeal, the reason I go to this hobby over others, is that a one time purchase can create almost indefinite value. It's not a quirk, it's a feature. So a change in that is a change in the draw.

That said, we obviously can't know now, but if what they add is visual flair to their online arena, fine, whatever. But I certainly can't say it excites me in any way. It adds nothing to my games.

And that's fine. I'm sure there are many D&D players who feel the same.

But this video, and the messaging in it, was for Hasbro investors (and potential investors); it wasn't targeted to you, or gamers in general.

 

[marroon69]

I love that the game update really tells us nothing about the game and what is coming next. No actual game content...none at all. But I guess they are not making enough money off of it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I love that the game update really tells us nothing about the game and what is coming next. No actual game content...none at all.

I don't think the investors care about the details of Bigby's Big Book of Giants.

 

[Malmuria]

I think every person here will have a different and probably ambivalent and contradictory reaction to living in a consumerist society. Personally, I think about how everyday consumerism, while being unobjectionable on the surface, creates a society that is not only highly unequal but relentlessly colonized by mega corporations. Including in our silly little elfgame hobby.

For example, here are some "unobjectionable" monetization ideas

• Advertisements: classic for a reason. What if the new vtt had ads in a little corner of the screen. Targeted adds, based your user info and spending habits, but just in a corner, hardly noticeable. Most websites, including this one, have ads, so this isn't so radical an idea, and anyway the VTT is optional; if you don't like it, don't use it

• Fun apps: Maybe an app where you can take a picture of your face and it turns it into a dnd character or even a 3d mini. That would be so cool! All stored on a cloud. And they would store that dataset as well. Perhaps sell it to AI 'artists'? Or anyone else that wants faces.

• Giveaways: every time there is a new 5e release, various influencers on twitter offer contest giveaways. Cool, simple way to drum up some excitement, get a conversation going online, and someone gets a free book (or a lot of free books!)!. Maybe instead of a giveaway you pay $10 for some skins, some custom digital dice, and maybe the chance to win a free copy of several books, similar to how loot boxes work

• Currency: Will all these transactions going through dnd beyond, there will certainly be times when you have unspent money credits or maybe someone gives you a gift card. Sure that's money that belongs to you, but maybe it's just easier to keep it with wotc, because you'll spend it in the store eventually. Call them WOTC-bucks. And maybe Hasbro can use them as collateral on a loan? (I honestly don't know the details of how it works, but I'm wondering just know if these monies count as revenue for tax purposes? Are they even stored in the country of their origin?)'

Etc. There's no reason to say the sky falling, as all of the above are already happening with other companies, at a much larger scale and with much more dramatic effects on the societies in which we live. So what does it matter if Hasbro gets with the times and starts monetizing its brand, right?

 

[Kronius]

You think about all of the people who do not even use it but have created an account just because they wanted to look at some of the free stuff. There are many more DMs than their 20% data. They can never truly get an accurate count of players and DMs. Those subscribers wanted to see One D&D or other similar content. If they leverage Unearthed Arcana on D&D Beyond they will always get flawed data.

 

[Retreater]

"Why do you hate the idea of spending extra money on your hobby? You play video games, right? D&D is a tremendous value."
What the people who say this don't get is that I and my players at the table are the ones who bring the value. After the book is printed, it's our imaginations, our plans and dedication that make the game what it is.
WotC basically does nothing to facilitate what happens at my weekly games. After the core books and any modules (which I've purchased fairly) WotC does nothing.
It's not like going to a movie where you literally have to do nothing.

 

[teitan]

They are talking about movies, tv, and toys. As well as the game and game licensing.

Toys especially. They did that Driz’zt figure as a test for the market and then nothing until NECA and they still haven’t released their figures. You’d think Hasbro would have emphasized getting the toyline off the ground a year before the movie to help the hype and not… a few months after.

 

[humble minion]

They've stated elsewhere that they have no intent of going online only with content.

They've already gone online-only with content, for the 'bonus' monster documents for spelljammer and dragonlance. It's been free - so far - but there's a very small step to it not being so.

edit: ninja'd by the entire world.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Toys especially. They did that Driz’zt figure as a test for the market and then nothing until NECA and they still haven’t released their figures. You’d think Hasbro would have emphasized getting the toyline off the ground a year before the movie to help the hype and not… a few months after.

I think Elminster, the rest of the Companions of the Hall, the Honor Among Thieves characters, and Minsc & Boo are just matter of time before they do those too.