Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="The Scythian" data-source="post: 8891730" data-attributes="member: 6875986">Absolutely. And that's the destination for 6e.&nbsp; WotC spent $150 million on D&amp;D Beyond.&nbsp; They're spending who knows how much to develop a proprietary state-of-the-art VTT.&nbsp; The end result will probably be some combination of a D&amp;D bookshelf (although what we think of as D&amp;D books will change), character builder, DM toolkit, VTT, social network, and maybe other things besides.&nbsp; Each of those subcomponents will offer pretty much limitless opportunities for recurrent spending.&nbsp; People are currently thinking in terms of $0.99 feats or virtual miniatures, and they're certainly going to sell those things, but there are also going to be things like limited edition stickers for your public-facing profile, special virtual character sheet themes (which may already be offered on D&amp;D Beyond for all I know), skins for your virtual dice, and things like that.When all is said and done, they're going to be spending Marvel movie budget money on this project.&nbsp; Maybe even more.&nbsp; They're not making that investment so that people can continue to buy a couple of books and play around the dining room table.&nbsp; (They will still offer books, but if the project is successful, they will eventually be more in the vein of limited-edition collectibles.)&nbsp; They're not going to recoup that investment through a percentage of the profits from a mid-budget action movie, licensing fees from Funko Pop figures, t-shirt sales, or even traditional D&amp;D book sales.&nbsp; The only way that they make money is if they dramatically and permanently transform the way D&amp;D is played.I suspect we agree more than we disagree.When I entered this thread, it was to say that I am disappointed by the recurrent spending model WotC will be adopting for D&amp;D, but that I am incensed that part of this transformation involves taking a wrecking ball to a big chunk of the rest of the industry.&nbsp; I explained that people like me are not cheering for the downfall of D&amp;D, but for the downfall of that project and the people behind it.I agree with you that WotC wants to make sure that their new platform is not only great (or at least decent) but is also the only game in town.&nbsp; However, I also believe that they would have made a ludicrous amount of money even if they hadn't gone after the OGL.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Scythian, post: 8891730, member: 6875986"] Absolutely. And that's the destination for 6e. WotC spent $150 million on D&D Beyond. They're spending who knows how much to develop a proprietary state-of-the-art VTT. The end result will probably be some combination of a D&D bookshelf (although what we think of as D&D books will change), character builder, DM toolkit, VTT, social network, and maybe other things besides. Each of those subcomponents will offer pretty much limitless opportunities for recurrent spending. People are currently thinking in terms of $0.99 feats or virtual miniatures, and they're certainly going to sell those things, but there are also going to be things like limited edition stickers for your public-facing profile, special virtual character sheet themes (which may already be offered on D&D Beyond for all I know), skins for your virtual dice, and things like that. When all is said and done, they're going to be spending Marvel movie budget money on this project. Maybe even more. They're not making that investment so that people can continue to buy a couple of books and play around the dining room table. (They will still offer books, but if the project is successful, they will eventually be more in the vein of limited-edition collectibles.) They're not going to recoup that investment through a percentage of the profits from a mid-budget action movie, licensing fees from Funko Pop figures, t-shirt sales, or even traditional D&D book sales. The only way that they make money is if they dramatically and permanently transform the way D&D is played. I suspect we agree more than we disagree. When I entered this thread, it was to say that I am disappointed by the recurrent spending model WotC will be adopting for D&D, but that I am incensed that part of this transformation involves taking a wrecking ball to a big chunk of the rest of the industry. I explained that people like me are not cheering for the downfall of D&D, but for the downfall of that project and the people behind it. I agree with you that WotC wants to make sure that their new platform is not only great (or at least decent) but is also the only game in town. However, I also believe that they would have made a ludicrous amount of money even if they [I]hadn't[/I] gone after the OGL. [/QUOTE]

Verification