D&D 5E Prediction: Hasbro Will Acquire Foundry Virtual Tabletop for $24M

[Morrus]

Roll20 has 8 million users... So they'd be getting a large userbase with it.

20M users!

 

[JThursby]

Isn't there space in between those two possibilities?: they don't especially want to, but they also don't especially mind it (because they judge it relatively harmless and they decide they do want an existing, thriving VTT instead of building their own), so they reconcile themselves to it. No?

D&D is the gateway to this hobby. It's brand recognition is unparalleled in it's niche. Why would Wizards want to allow anything they make and control to contribute to the brand recognition of competing products? I even suspect this is policy within Wizards. Try to find any mention of other big games by name by the design staff. I couldn't find one on any of their twitter timelines, or any public statements like press releases or interviews.

 

[LordEntrails]

Agreed, Foundry isn't going to be the choice. Most likely they will expand/publish what Beyond as been working on.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I strikes me that WoTC might be better off making it easy to licence DnD Beyond content in a VTT than to go in to the VTT business directly. Since many users would want a VTT to support other games than D&D.

 

[Steampunkette]

20M users!

Google has lied to me...

cocks gun

 

[billd91]

D&D is the gateway to this hobby. It's brand recognition is unparalleled in it's niche. Why would Wizards want to allow anything they make and control to contribute to the brand recognition of competing products? I even suspect this is policy within Wizards. Try to find any mention of other big games by name by the design staff. I couldn't find one on any of their twitter timelines, or any public statements like press releases or interviews.

For those of us who remember the glory days of Dragon Magazine when it introduced us to games from other publishers as well as supported D&D, this is kind of sad. Understandable. But sad.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Why would they not want to allow support for other games? I doubt those games eat into their profits in any serious way, do they?

Because once you've paid for the platform itself, the incremental cost of supporting other games might be less than the incremental revenue you'd gain. Especially if "supporting" means nothing other than letting 3rd parties build content.

Now, I would believe that there would be advantages in tuning the platform specifically for D&D that would result in other games being less well supported, so I'm not saying that the economics would work out this way, but they could.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Google has lied to me...

cocks gun

Which direction is it aiming?

 

[Stormonu]

I am sad Fantasy Grounds isn't even in the running.

I think the smart choice would be to just pick an existing VTT and support it. Otherwise, it's like going out and making your own version of X-Box, Nintendo system or PS instead of just making games that work with it.

 

[payn]

Why would they not want to allow support for other games? I doubt those games eat into their profits in any serious way, do they?

Could avoid another PF situation where more folks are playing something else on their own platform. Unlikely, but if it did happen...