Desdichado
Hero
There's more going on that just WotC and the OGL. 3PP and the industry overall may like to have someone to point at and shriek, but the reality is pretty evident when looking at Hasbro's financials, which are driven by WotC and have been for years. The stock price has been steadily declining for over a year. They just got downgraded to sell by Bank of America, which will impact their ability to raise capital. Their debacle with Magic is making mainstream news, completely unrelated to the hobby news, because of the financial implications it has for investors in HAS stock. D&D has likely peaked, and likely it was long enough ago that WotC can see it. With rough economic headwinds in almost everyone's predictions, the contraction will probably get way worse before it gets better. It's easy to blame WotC, but none of those (well, most of those—one could make a case that WotC could have put out better products in the last couple of years or so and done better with the brand, but that's an argument for another discussion) but WotC has little ability to affect any of those factors. They're REACTING to the fact that they can see these factors, and many 3pps and fans can't or won't see them.
Ultimately WotC may well have made a terrible decision that will have long-term negative repercussions for the brand, as Winninger says in his statement. But that doesn't mean that 3pps weren't about to be in trouble anyway. Maybe in the long run it's best for them, if not for D&D as a brand, for them to forge their own path and become stronger and more self-reliant in the process.
Of course, that's making the assumption that WotC actually has the legal right (as opposed to legal might) to cancel the OGl, when it was specifically written with the assumption that they'd never be able to do so and D&D would be saved from exactly this kind of decision. But again; that's a different argument, that I'm sure has already been beaten to death in other threads.
Ultimately WotC may well have made a terrible decision that will have long-term negative repercussions for the brand, as Winninger says in his statement. But that doesn't mean that 3pps weren't about to be in trouble anyway. Maybe in the long run it's best for them, if not for D&D as a brand, for them to forge their own path and become stronger and more self-reliant in the process.
Of course, that's making the assumption that WotC actually has the legal right (as opposed to legal might) to cancel the OGl, when it was specifically written with the assumption that they'd never be able to do so and D&D would be saved from exactly this kind of decision. But again; that's a different argument, that I'm sure has already been beaten to death in other threads.