Roll for Combat reveals the terms of the "sweetheart deal" offered to 3pp

[Haplo781]

Contracts were 2 years, and granted the following:

• Pay 15% instead of 25% on revenue over 750k
• 6 articles about your product on D&D Beyond
• 6 emails about your product to D&D Beyond users
• 8 social media posts on D&D Beyond or D&D branded channels
• 2 YouTube videos on D&D Beyond or D&D branded channels
• 6 days of D&D Beyond home page placement

This was the carrot to the OGL 1.1 stick. Notably Wizards disclosed that they have 15 million registered users on D&D Beyond.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This was the carrot to the OGL 1.1 stick. Notably Wizards disclosed that they have 15 million registered users on D&D Beyond.

Interesting.

We knew the 15% bit.

Over two years each 3PP who signed up would get the following:

This is only for products which are 1D&D-compatible, he says, though I suspect what is actually meant is products with the new seal/badge on them.

• 6 articles on D&D Beyond about their products.

• 6 emails to D&D Beyond users who were opted in to advertising comms (I'm not, for example - I didn't even know you could be)

• 8 social media posts on D&D Beyond OR other D&D brand social media channels.

• 2 YouTube videos on D&D Beyond OR other D&D brand social media channels.

• 6 days of D&D Beyond homepage placement (over two years, remember).

Note what isn't mentioned or even implied is the definite ability to sell their products on D&D Beyond, which would be rather more major.

The trouble with this as a carrot is, even with the potential sales increase this might cause (which would be LOWER for each extra 3PP that signed up, I note - if only a fewer signed up the benefits would be effectively larger for each one), the 15% revenue take could easily still be enough to eclipse the benefits, and after the two years almost certainly would.

So it was not a great bargain.

 

[Clint_L]

If they'd made it possible for 3PP to actually sell through DDB, we'd be having a whole other conversation right now.

 

[Justice and Rule]

If they'd made it possible for 3PP to actually sell through DDB, we'd be having a whole other conversation right now.

Eh, maybe? Royalties would make sense then, but they can still basically control/kill your entire brand. Huge risk even for the reward.

 

[Haplo781]

If they'd made it possible for 3PP to actually sell through DDB, we'd be having a whole other conversation right now.

Buying out DM's Guild and integrating it with DDB and Sandcastle would make a lot of sense.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Buying out DM's Guild and integrating it with DDB and Sandcastle would make a lot of sense.

If it's going to be very exclusive, then maybe. You might want to put an integration fee in there if your classes/subclasses/etc have to work in the game. That'd be the biggest factor there.

 

[Haplo781]

If it's going to be very exclusive, then maybe. You might want to put an integration fee in there if your classes/subclasses/etc have to work in the game. That'd be the biggest factor there.

Or just include API access in the contract.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Buying out DM's Guild and integrating it with DDB and Sandcastle would make a lot of sense.

I don't think it would, personally.

I think WotC would sooner have just created their own, more curated/narrower Beyond Store (with some ludicrous name, like "The Craftsman's Lathe" or something equally eyeroll-inducing), and only allowed products meeting a narrower spec in it. Then charged like 50% on those sales, all of it going to WotC lol.

You might want to put an integration fee in there if your classes/subclasses/etc have to work in the game.

I don't think so. You'd just make them do all the hard work themselves. If you charged for integrating stuff yourself you couldn't charge enough, because it's a lot of work, as the DDB people have repeatedly said themselves. You and Haplo are both kind of talking like you've never created/edited homebrew content on DDB, which is fundamentally the same process (according to the DDB people) as making the actual content, barring new classes (which you can't do via the DDB tools, they have to actually code them).

 

[TheSword]

Contracts were 2 years, and granted the following:

• Pay 15% instead of 25% on revenue over 750k
• 6 articles about your product on D&D Beyond
• 6 emails about your product to D&D Beyond users
• 8 social media posts on D&D Beyond or D&D branded channels
• 2 YouTube videos on D&D Beyond or D&D branded channels
• 6 days of D&D Beyond home page placement

This was the carrot to the OGL 1.1 stick. Notably Wizards disclosed that they have 15 million registered users on D&D Beyond.

So substantial amounts of advertising and getting your product in front of millions of people… for free… below $750,000 and only paying one sixth on revenues over that…

… and you think WotC are trying to control people. Wow. Don’t know you were born.

 

[Scribe]

So substantial amounts of advertising and getting your product in front of millions of people… for free… below $750,000 and only paying one sixth on revenues over that…

… and you think WotC are trying to control people. Wow. Don’t know you were born.

And yet they all saw it for the trap it was.