Is Tabletop Gaming D&D's "Sideshow"?

Recent struggles with Marvel's comics brand have made it clear that Marvel's properties are more valuable to as a multimedia franchise than the comics that spawned them. Could that happen with Hasbro and the Dungeons & Dragons brand?

Marvel's Template​

Marvel's comic woes have come recently into the spotlight thanks to controversy over diverse superhero comics struggling to make sales. Asher Elbein at The Atlantic sums up the problem:

Marvel may publish good books, but without full commitment from the company, many of those books are being set up for failure—and allowing Marvel’s audience dwindle.

Elbein questions Marvel's commitment to keep these books alive in their fragile early stages:

For all of the cultural preeminence of Spider-Man or The Avengers, the superhero-comics industry remains a sideshow. The media conglomerates that own DC and Marvel use both publishers largely as intellectual-property farms, capitalizing on and adapting creators’ work for movies, television shows, licensing, and merchandise. That’s where the money is. Disney has very little incentive to invest in the future of the comic-book industry, or to attempt to help Marvel Comics reach new audiences, when they’re making millions on the latest Marvel film.

Rob Salkowitz at ICv2 sees a parallel problem with the Star Wars franchise, in which Marvel failed to capitalize on Rogue One:

Turns out that not only were there no new or existing titles in Marvel’s very limited Star Wars comics line that tied in to the franchise, we won’t even be seeing an adaptation from Marvel in stores until later this month. This is after plans for a prequel comic announced last year at C2E2 ended up falling through with scant explanation. And now, with The Last Jedi publishing strategy taking shape, Marvel once again appears to be getting crumbs from the table, not a full serving. That is unfortunate, considering what Marvel could bring to the table.

Marvel's inability to bolster comic sales tied to mega-franchises raises the question of what might happen if the upcoming D&D movie is successful.

Oh Yeah, the D&D Movie​

Hasbro's closest analog to the Star Wars franchise is its success with Transformers, drawn from the toys, comics, and cartoons. The movie series has grossed more than $3.7 billion worldwide and encouraged Hasbro to follow Marvel's model of becoming directly involved in moviemaking:

As Paramount prepares to release “Transformers: The Last Knight” in June, Hasbro is already looking beyond Planet Cybertron for new cinematic universes to build. Thanks to a vast store of intellectual property, the company can afford to think big — Marvel-size big. And it is starting to take a more active role in producing and financing some of its projects.

Dungeons & Dragons' cross-media franchise potential has been a topic of discussion at Wizards of the Coast and parent Hasbro for some time. We previously covered how Hasbro, envious of Marvel's success in turning its superhero properties into a lucrative transmedia juggernaut, gave each of its brands the goal of $100 million annual sales. The problem was that each of Wizards of the Coast's brands were viewed in isolation, which left Dungeons & Dragons, "a $25-30 million business" according to then D&D Brand Manager Ryan Dancey, in dire straits. The Dungeons & Dragons team hit on the idea of using the online Dungeons & Dragons Insider (DDI) to grow the brand to $50 million and potentially $100 million. It didn't happen.

And yet there are still companies who believe the D&D brand is worth millions. The Dungeons & Dragons movie was a subject of a series of legal actions that went back and forth between two media titans lurking behind the scenes, Universal and Warner Bros, waged by their proxies through Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro. Warner paid $4 million for Sweetpea Entertainment's D&D rights and was willing to pay an additional $1 million in legal fees. The D&D movie is now moving forward.

A Counterargument​

Is D&D "just a sideshow" for Hasbro? Perhaps it's more accurate to position D&D's tabletop success as less important to Hasbro than its overall selling potential. D&D, after all, is expressed in a wide variety of brands across video game, boards games, and tabletop -- 6 million people in total (not an hour), according to WOTC.

In short, D&D has long since outgrown its roots as exclusively a tabletop role-playing game, which means the success and failure of the game is ancillary to its value to Hasbro as a brand. That might change if the new D&D movie is successful and the tabletop game becomes a quaint reminder of years past that, at best, doesn't embarrass the larger brand. According to Salkowitz, that's already happened with Marvel's comics:

The only real explanation here, aside from office politics, is that, to Disney (and perhaps to Marvel itself), Marvel equals superheroes sold to superhero fans through comic shops, full stop. They are the legacy story platform for MCU properties and an occasional source of PR headaches, getting just a small enough slice of the Star Wars pie to avoid embarrassing questions. In this view of the world, whatever sales advantages Marvel or its retail partners could gain by more fully exploiting the Star Wars universe in comics form is not worth the potential branding muddle that it might cause as Disney grooms its carefully segmented audience on the path from cradle to grandparent.

By most accounts, Fifth Edition revived the Dungeons & Dragons brand as a tabletop game. Although WOTC has sharply scaled back its development team for D&D, it has a new CEO who is openly supportive of the tabletop game. D&D even got a shout-out during a recent investor call, a rare occurrence.

It might not even matter. The D&D tabletop game will live in perpetuity thanks to Pathfinder, the Old School Renaissance, and the fact that gamers have enough material on the Internet that they can play entire campaigns for free without purchasing a single book.

 

[Andrew C]

Perhaps. They might do the DC success route rather than Marvel aka original D&D movie.

 

[M.T. Black]

I think we are a long way from the RPG becoming D&D's "sideshow". I don't have any figures, of course, but I don't think anyone would argue that the other franchise properties (board games, video games & novels) would bring in as much money as the RPG itself.

In any event, all the evidence suggests that 5e is doing very well. Mike Mearls has mentioned that it has now sold better than 4e and 3e, and I imagine it is closing in on 2e. Anecdotal evidence suggests the hobby is adding new people all the time (I'm seeing that myself in my own small circles - a number of friends now have kids who play D&D, for example). Hasbro continued to invest in D&D even during the difficult days of 4e. It's hard to believe they would stop now that they have a hit on their hands.

Returning to your original question, the only properties that could conceivably outperform the RPG would be a movie and/or tv show. Personally, I'd love to see a highly profitable movie or tv series released. I suspect this would encourage Hasbro to invest more in the RPG rather than less since it would be, as you suggest, the intellectual-property farm. But it also provides a ready made fan base, with a strong social media presence. Such things are worth gold in the modern media world.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I think we are a long way from the RPG becoming D&D's "sideshow". I don't have any figures, of course, but I don't think anyone would argue that the other franchise properties (board games, video games & novels) would bring in as much money as the RPG itself.

In any event, all the evidence suggests that 5e is doing very well. Mike Mearls has mentioned that it has now sold better than 4e and 3e, and I imagine it is closing in on 2e. Anecdotal evidence suggests the hobby is adding new people all the time (I'm seeing that myself in my own small circles - a number of friends now have kids who play D&D, for example). Hasbro continued to invest in D&D even during the difficult days of 4e. It's hard to believe they would stop now that they have a hit on their hands.

Returning to your original question, the only properties that could conceivably outperform the RPG would be a movie and/or tv show. Personally, I'd love to see a highly profitable movie or tv series released. I suspect this would encourage Hasbro to invest more in the RPG rather than less since it would be, as you suggest, the intellectual-property farm. But it also provides a ready made fan base, with a strong social media presence. Such things are worth gold in the modern media world.

Are you serious? The RPG itself is absolutely small fry in terms of the value of the D&D brand. The game remains profitable largely because they've managed to keep their overheads down, but few RPGs are big enough to sustain an 'industry' these days. Models, novels, IP licenses all have greater profit margins by some distance.

 

[M.T. Black]

Trippy, which *current properties* do you think are making more money than the RPG? The only options at the moment are the board games, the video games or the novels.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Trippy, which *current properties* do you think are making more money than the RPG? The only options at the moment are the board games, the video games or the novels.

Videogames, movies and TV shows take longer to market and produce - largely because there is more revenue at stake. I'd still wager that accessories like miniatures and cards and dice have a higher profit margin than the books themselves though. Same with the boxset boardgames - which sell more to casual gamers (you'll note a boardgames release with pretty much every campaign these days). Publishing books isn't cheap, and the risk of online piracy is high too. The basic output of official D&D books has been kept deliberately low as they have carefully rebuilt the brand since the difficulties they had under 4E.

 

[M.T. Black]

If we are talking total profit vs profit margin, I'd be very surprised if the minis were bringing in more money than the RPG itself. We don't know the figures, though we do know the PHB was an Amazon #1 for a while.

 

[AriochQ]

Personally, I would love if D&D had the problem that the movies made from the IP were outperforming the RPG! So far, we have had the exact opposite problem. The movies have been abysmal and drawn very little from the existing and incredibly rich IP.

I also don't think we need to worry about multimedia success hurting the RPG. D&D is a different animal from comic books. Comics are a solitary activity, so in some ways going to see a movie allows you to share your passion with others of your ilk. D&D is a group social activity. IMHO a successful franchise would have the effect of drawing even more people to the RPG by exposing it to more people, who then want to share their enthusiasm with others by playing the RPG.

 

[TrippyHippy]

If we are talking total profit vs profit margin, I'd be very surprised if the minis were bringing in more money than the RPG itself. We don't know the figures, though we do know the PHB was an Amazon #1 for a while.

Plastic minis are a lot more profitable than full colour books in terms of the costs to produce them. Games Workshop based much of their business on this very point.

 

[TerraDave]

D&D as books is bigger then it has been in many years.

The next most successful part is the board games. Not surprised to see a new one coming out.

They have pushed into other media for decades. Its an old story. Gygax had an office in LA and the cartoon he helped launch remains, by far, the most successful of these efforts. D&D's best video games where made many years ago, with their slight upgrades being the best on offer today.

Given how well hobby games are doing, and how poor so many of the novels, games, movies, e-efforts have been, especially in the last 10-15 years or so, they should probably keep their focus on what they are actually good at.