WotC Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, "I would say that the underlying thesis of our D&D business is all about digital,”

[TerraDave]

Digital has been the strategy for years now, except a brief interlude, were 5e became a huge success.

Many past forays, many of no or limited success. In the end, its books that make the most money for them.

But finally having a huge AAA video game could finally change that.

 

[Ondath]

Company wants to make money? Egads, get out my smelling salts. (Do you think shareholders pay the salaries of WotC and print books because they're big gamers?)

Oh for the love of... You know there are ways to give dividends to shareholders without salting the earth for short-term profit? Every time a company does something that will be detrimental not just to everyone else, their industry etc., but also to them in the long turn, everyone goes "oh a company wants to make money, how surprising!". They can elect to make money through a more stable, long-term strategy instead of squeezing everything dry to make the next Quarter look good. This isn't a controversial idea.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh for the love of... You know there are ways to give dividends to shareholders without salting the earth for short-term profit? Every time a company does something that will be detrimental not just to everyone else, their industry etc., but also to them in the long turn, everyone goes "oh a company wants to make money, how surprising!". They can elect to make money through a more stable, long-term strategy instead of squeezing everything dry to make the next Quarter look good. This isn't a controversial idea.

Thus. Pretty much every D&D was made to make money with possible exception of one (OD&D).

Only 3 of them were a cash grab imho.

 

[Hussar]

I think DMs are going to have to up their game to meet expectations of those who come in via BG3. It is the "Mercer effect" all over again.

Well, it does become somewhat circular. You make decent adventure paths that people can run with a minimum of effort and have a good time which feeds into the people who would like to play D&D but don't want it to be a part time job. The expectation is professional quality games - art, sound, etc and that's what WotC is providing with the AP's.

It's not a bad way to do it really.

They can make enough to sustain their business and grow incrementally while keeping faith with their fans, yes. They cannot, however, satisfy the shareholder's desire for infinite growth and infinite profits while keeping faith with their fans. Whatever makes them the most money is what they'll sell. Fans clambered for Spelljammer...so they slapped together a bunch of art, half-heartedly wrote a few pages of text, and divided that nothing burger into three tiny hardcovers in a overpriced slipcase...and fans still ate it up. They're about to do it again with Planescape...where the adventure is a reformat of Planescape: Torment, the video game from the late 90s.

And, we're back to "I don't like this, so, it's crap and anyone who likes it is an idiot". Maybe, just maybe, and I know this is a totally off the wall thought, maybe what you want isn't what people want?

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Can they make money while still operating with something resembling good faith regarding their fan base? Because at this point a lot of fans just assume they are being duplicitous along the lines you indicate. Will that be good for long term business?

He's openly telling you what the strategic plan is. How is that not open? You may not like it, (Personally I hate the digital realm and digital ownership is a scam) but they are being pretty transparent.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Oh for the love of... You know there are ways to give dividends to shareholders without salting the earth for short-term profit? Every time a company does something that will be detrimental not just to everyone else, their industry etc., but also to them in the long turn, everyone goes "oh a company wants to make money, how surprising!". They can elect to make money through a more stable, long-term strategy instead of squeezing everything dry to make the next Quarter look good. This isn't a controversial idea.

They don't believe it is short term profit, obviously. That's your take. There's no conspiracy here, just a company deciding digital is the right strategic direction to grow their brand. I love books, I hate the digital realm. But if I was a CEO I would be making the same decision. Because that is my job!

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Thus. Pretty much every D&D was made to make money with possible exception of one (OD&D).

Only 3 of them were a cash grab imho.

"Cash-grab" is a rather meaningless and subjective turn. I can easily argue that nearly all editions were "cash grabs". (Why did Gygax make AD&D a separate game to D&D? To not have to pay money to Arneson...)

 

[Sulicius]

There is a public part..... I think this was in the public part.

There is no public part anymore. He closed the discord to just patrons a while back after the discord became too big.
He didn’t throw anyone out who wasn’t a patron though.

 

[Zardnaar]

"Cash-grab" is a rather meaningless and subjective turn. I can easily argue that nearly all editions were "cash grabs". (Why did Gygax make AD&D a separate game to D&D? To not have to pay money to Arneson...)

Yup 1E was one of those 3.

Pretty much every edition was a genuine attempt to improve the game. 3 were due to cash grab.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Yup 1E was one of those 3.

Pretty much every edition was a genuine attempt to improve the game. 3 were due to cash grab.

I disagree, 1e was a cash grab trying to lock Arneson out of the revenue. Irrespective of the merits of the game it was also a bad business decision in my opinion as it fragmented the market and created brand confusion.