D&D 5E My Crazy Theory about 2015 5e

[Gecko85]

WotC: "Looking back, we believe a heavy release schedule to be bad for the game, so with 5e we're going to have a lighter release schedule."

Releases since July, 2014:
(Not counting miniatures, spell cards, and other 3rd party adventures and books - see a complete list here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1847-D-D-5th-Edition-Release-Schedules#.VNpddmR4r5M )

* Starter Set (July 15)
* Basic Game (July 15 - free PDFs)
* Player's Handbook (Aug 19)
* Hoard of the Dragon Queen [Adventure] (Aug 19)
* Monster Manual (Sept 30)
* The Rise of Tiamat [Adventure] (Oct 21)
* DM Guide (Dec 9)
* Deluxe DM Screen (Jan 20, 2015)
* Unearthed Arcana - Eberron [early thoughts on Eberron for 5e article] (Feb 2, 2015)
* Behind the Screens [tips for new DM's article] (Feb 9, 2015)
----------------------------------
Upcoming:
* Princes of the Apocalypse [Adventure] (April 7th, 2015)

The Internet, Feb. 2015: "OMG, THEY'RE NOT RELEASING THINGS FAST ENOUGH! WHY ISN'T THERE A HEAVY RELEASE SCHEDULE???? THIS MEANS THEY'RE ABANDONING THE GAME!!! D&D IS DOOOOOMED! THEY LITERALLY HAVEN'T RELEASED A SINGLE THING!!!!"

(Paraphrased...)

 

[Parmandur]

Honestly, the main sticking point for other media, especially movies and TV, is unfortunately that, to the vast majority of people in real life equate "D&D" with "massive masturbatory nerd". Sad, but true. The brand still has a lot of negative connotations that a big studio might just baulk at. Elephant in the room and all, but it's true.

Given that Warner Bros. bought Sweatpeas rights for FIVE MILLION dollars, and took Hasbro to court so that D&D could replace the Hobbit franchise, I think it is safe to say that is not the case. The issue is that TSR bungled movie rights, and bungled hard. Hasbro is still trying to fix that, and that is the reason we have not had a good D&D movie already.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

So, re Drizzt. Who owns the rights to the character? Wotc, R A Salvatore or the movie studio? Same for any canon characters (eg Dragonlance). This would be why a new storyline would be needed, but who then would have authorial editorial control to ensure brand consistency etc?

 

[Shasarak]

Releases since July, 2014:

* Starter Set (July 15)
* Player's Handbook (Aug 19)
* Hoard of the Dragon Queen [Adventure] (Aug 19)
* Monster Manual (Sept 30)
* The Rise of Tiamat [Adventure] (Oct 21)
* DM Guide (Dec 9)
----------------------------------
Upcoming:
* Princes of the Apocalypse [Adventure] (April 7th, 2015)
(Paraphrased...)

Which is exactly why they do not need those Editors,

 

[Kramodlog]

No idea if its a widespread thing, none of use play video games other than one D&D online player. I'm not in the loop for that. The only thing I'm really interested in seeing is a live action movie or TV show using the D&D IP.

I'm excited about the 5e books I've bought and the fun we are having with them. I'm not thinking of what books I may be buying in a year since we have barely scratched the surface of the books we have. If the next rules book isn't out until 2017 that's cool since at the moment I have no need for more books now and don't need a new rules all the time, there are enough rules.

The only thing I'd like to see is Dungeon magazine restarted in some form. Outside that I'm good for a long time.

Heh. It might be fine for you, not sure it is fine for the bottomline.

 

[Nebulous]

So, re Drizzt. Who owns the rights to the character? Wotc, R A Salvatore or the movie studio? Same for any canon characters (eg Dragonlance). This would be why a new storyline would be needed, but who then would have authorial editorial control to ensure brand consistency etc?

YEah, what if they don't mention "Dungeons & Dragons" at all?

 

[Nebulous]

Given that Warner Bros. bought Sweatpeas rights for FIVE MILLION dollars, and took Hasbro to court so that D&D could replace the Hobbit franchise, I think it is safe to say that is not the case. The issue is that TSR bungled movie rights, and bungled hard. Hasbro is still trying to fix that, and that is the reason we have not had a good D&D movie already.

Stupid legal crap. Grrrrrr. Sweetpea should never have been given those rights, but i guess hindsight is 20/20

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Heh. It might be fine for you, not sure it is fine for the bottomline.

Hasbro can worry about that. I'm just having fun gaming on Wed nights with 5e.

 

[Nebulous]

Hasbro can worry about that. I'm just having fun gaming on Wed nights with 5e.

I'm having fun tuesday nights with 5e. All this other stuff really doesn't matter to us. D&D is not going away anywhere.

 

[Kramodlog]

It's kind of hard to read much into the downsizing of two editors. WotC followed a pattern of doing things like that even when times were pretty good. The message being told by those tea leaves is ambiguous at best.

I agree, but
you need to put it in cntext with the rest of the news we've been getting. Individually, all that news could mean a lot of things, but put it all together and you get a different picture.

Take the Dungeonscape interview where one of the guys over there said WotC/Hasbro was technophobic. It sounded a bit like someone had a score to settle. Flash foward a few weeks and we have an interview from the Obsidian guy saying it is hard to deal with WotC/Hasbro. Online initiatives from fans get cease and desist letters. There are still no ebooks/PDFs on the way for 5e and no official announcement on the matter. The D&D website (not just the forums) is craptacular. All these put together point towards a compagny that doesn't know what to do with computers and D&D. Or doesn't trust technology. Or doesn't take it seriously when it comes to its RPG. Or all of the above. Or something else.

Take the layoffs. Add the cancelled book. The really small staff. The lack of announced products after PoA. No official OGL announcement. Licensing is super important to the vitality of the brand, yet two tech compagnies report having problems when it comes to licensing products. There is a vague unofficial desire to release PDFs, but not much more. Put together, these point toward a compagny that is improvising with it brand. It doesn't know how to handle it, moneytize it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but post-core release, the news for D&D hasn't been very positive. Maybe March will be better. April will probably be a mix bag. PoA will come out. Hopefully it won't be bad like HotDQ. Put iCv2 will release its info on the first quarter of 2015. With no new release since december 9th, I suspect D&D will have gone down a bit.

Then what will happen? Announcing a product for GenCon? More likely that a product will be announced at GenCon. Probably for november 2015. Maybe for 2016. Maybe this is a good strategy for D&D. I do not think so.