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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

People also want to use 3PP materials that are frequently broken right now. Doesn't mean they are automatically accepted at the table.

These won't be 3PP, they will be 1PP. And people will expect to be able to use what they buy from WotC in a service owned and operated by WotC, and their $$ will trump the DM if there's a conflict. As a (blech) publically-traded company, Hasbro/WotX has to bow to the greed of their shareholders.

 

[darjr]

These won't be 3PP, they will be 1PP. And people will expect to be able to use what they buy from WotC in a service owned and operated by WotC, and their $$ will trump the DM if there's a conflict. As a (blech) publically-traded company, Hasbro/WotX has to bow to the greed of their shareholders.

If you let players roll you over and force cheating that’s on you.

I wouldn’t. I have whole tables to think about. One person cheating is going to get talked to or bumped.

You do what you like.

Again? How is WotC going to enforce it?

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you let players roll you over and force cheating that’s on you.

I wouldn’t. I have whole tables to think about. One person cheating is going to get talked to or bumped.

You do what you like.

Again? How is WotC going to enforce it?

They could warn the DM, and then kick them off the service if they persist. A simple change to the TOS would allow that. Who reads those things anyway?

 

[GDGD]

As a (blech) publically-traded company, Hasbro/WotX has to bow to the greed of their shareholders.

Do we need to use pejoratives like labeling shareholders as "greedy"? I wish we could move away from the notion that being a profitable company somehow makes you evil. D&D used to be owned by an unprofitable company. That was not a better scenario.

I'd need to double check the composition of my mutuals, but I'm pretty sure I'm a shareholder of Hasbro. And yes, I expect them to be profitable or I'll take my investment dollars elsewhere. I don't think that makes me greedy.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think this was a result of the settlement of the lawsuit that W&H brought against WotC (under their previous controversial and now no-longer-employed head fiction guy). There's an enormous thread about it back in the archives somewhere, but I've forgotten most of the details.

I THINK basically W&H can write novels in the setting and continue to use their characters and continuity (presumably with a WotC veto on content in case they decide to go wildly offbase and start including graphic sex etc) but have to use the 'Dragonlance Classic' logo to distonguish it from Actual Canon Dragonlance which WotC reserves the right to define in their game products.

That makes sense.

And I do have some issues with some of the matters they still refer to in Dragons of Deceit which are not helpful from a 5e game perspective (No Gurlz Aloud in the KoS, say).

So yes, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do we need to use pejoratives like labeling shareholders as "greedy"? I wish we could move away from the notion that being a profitable company somehow makes you evil. D&D used to be owned by an unprofitable company. That was not a better scenario.

I'd need to double check the composition of my mutuals, but I'm pretty sure I'm a shareholder of Hasbro. And yes, I expect them to be profitable or I'll take my investment dollars elsewhere. I don't think that makes me greedy.

How about, "desire for ever-increasing profits"? Publically-traded companies shift the priorities away from what's good for the consumer to what's good for the shareholders.

 

[darjr]

They could warn the DM, and then kick them off the service if they persist. A simple change to the TOS would allow that. Who reads those things anyway?

Ha! How? How would they even know?

And kick off the 20% that buys most of the stuff? Not likely.

 

[GDGD]

How about, "desire for ever-increasing profits"? Publically-traded companies shift the priorities away from what's good for the consumer to what's good for the shareholders.

Let's agree to disagree. Companies that ignore the wants and needs of their customers are simply inviting their competitors to steal their business. The existence of Pathfinder is a pretty good testament to that fact. A basic concept in corporate strategy is that the only path to profitability is through anticipating and meeting the needs of customers.

Or to put it another way, how many profitable companies out there lose sight of what's good for the consumer? None that I know of.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Does the foundry stuff pull data from dndbeyond now? That's against the current TOS. Has there even been a C&D?

It does, and it is the only way for spells, items, abilities, etc. not in the SRD to be imported into Foundry VTT, automatically. But it isn't Foundry which does this, it is the work of a particular patreon, run by "Mr. Primate" that permits it. Foundry on its own does not and cannot.

Anybody can of course go to the trouble and create the data and formula for that spell, item, ability, etc. on their own if they want to. Who wants to do that when DDB and Mr. Primate's module will do it for us?

The module only works for books you have bought; if you don't own it (or at least, had the book shared with you on DDB) then you can't import it into Foundry.

In terms of the underlying commercial requirements, i.e., MONEY paid to Wizards of the Coast, WotC is well served by this. I know this, for the good reason that DDB has several hundred dollars of my money that they would never have received had Mr. Primate's DDB importer not existed.

C&D? They should send him a cheque and a thank-you note.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ha! How? How would they even know?

And kick off the 20% that buys most of the stuff? Not likely.

Reports from the players in question.