Rumours: WotC Announcement Today; Insider Email Reveals Plans

There's a couple of rumours going round today. I cannot verify either, but I'm reporting them as most of the recent OGL rumours have proven true.

First -- it is rumoured that today at 3pm ET Wizards of the Coast will make some kind of video statement about the current Open Game License situation. This rumour came from the folks at Roll For Combat who were the first to break the draft OGL scoop.

[[UPDATE -- This didn't happen!]]

Second -- an email has been circulating from an anonymous WotC insider. Again, I must reiterate I cannot myself verify this, so read this with that in mind, but the email says:

Hi,

I'm an employee at WotC currently working on D&Dbeyond (DDB) and with D&D business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.

I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

-They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.
-Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line.
-Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.
-They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through.

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn't take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.

I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.

Hope your day goes well,

P.S. I will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders.

If both rumours are true, I guess at 3pm ET today we'll find that out.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

So. I cancelled the subscription for now to make a statement.
I hope all will be good again in a few month so I can resubscribe.

 

[Nadan]

If this letter is true then those executives are really megalomaniac and stupid, they don't even try the anchoring effect. Should have hired someone from Xbox department, at least those people know how to properly milk gamer dry.

Or the whole 1.1 OLG storm is some kind of 5D chess that ultimate goal is let Microsoft acquire WotC. /j

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I mean, it's literally capitalism. That's what it do. The greed of corporations doesn't shock or surprise me. That other people are shocked and surprised is what shocks and surprises me.

This is my thought as well as a person who has worked in various versions of retail, customer service, corporate America and various combinations of.

I also consider that shareholders, being shareholders, will percieve any mass cancellations of D&D Beyond and the various posts about never supporting Wizards again, as being a risk, and, being risk-adverse, will decide to end D&D. If we see mass cancellations, and shareholders only read numbers, they may decide that it's not worth the hassle, take what they can and run. It's like the Great Depression is my fear - nothing causes a bank run like hearing rumors the bank run has already started.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Speaking of which, I am beginning to wonder if One D&D will support print media at all at this point.

Check the Amazon sales charts. They will.

 

[CleverNickName]

I doubt they would say they’re still planning on releasing it. More likely they’d just announce that they’re not going to release it yet, and try to wait for the outrage to blow over before releasing it quietly.

Agree. As much as I want to believe they are stupid, WotC is smart enough to know better than to commit to anything at this point. Whatever announcement we get today (if any) is going to be vague and evasive--it'll be carefully crafted to diffuse backlash and scatter the opposition. They can afford to wait it out, so I think they'll play for time.

 

[SAVeira]

Speaking of which, I am beginning to wonder if One D&D will support print media at all at this point.

With print media, the game will be dead on arrival. There still is a massive need for physical books. I have items both physical and digitally. If I could not get a printed book, I would not be picking it up digitally only.

 

[Charlaquin]

The amazing part about this whole thing is the failure of Hasbro/WotC to understand their own business. But then again, that's basically the story of modern American corporate management: Short term gains over long-term gains, make as much money now as possible. The advantage of a corporation over a sole proprietorship or family business is allegedly that the corporation is more capable of long-term planning, but in reality, the executives get/keep their job by promising investors short-term returns rather than long-term growth. Everything is run like a gold mine: Extract all the easy money, then sell the leftovers for scrap.

The OGL was created by a group of forward-thinking people who knew that a healthier community and industry benefitted D&D and WotC in the long-term, and they understood that people who bought rules supplements from Mongoose, settings from Fantasy Flight, or adventures from Paizo were also buying the main rulebooks from WotC. That was the bargain, and it paid off big-time. Now, for the second time in 15 years, WotC leadership has let their delusion that they're "leaving money on the table" lead them off a cliff because they only see other people making money. They're idiots, and like every company run by dipshits from US Business schools, they'll keep doing stupid naughty word because they think it's how they are supposed to do iy.

Hey, what’s with this rising tide? It’s lifting all those other boats! I don’t like that at all, my boat should be the only one that gets lifted!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But I think they'll stick with print editions, considering them essentially as loss leaders.

"Loss leaders" doesn't mean "consistently and persistently best-sellers on Amazon."

WotC getting rid of physical media at this point or even the foreseeable future is just catastrophizing, and not anything based on logic.

 

[rgard]

Getting paid to DM? I would be happy if my players brought some drinks considering I feed them.

Well, if they are your 10 & 12 year old kids, you should be feeding them.

 

[Dausuul]

So I paid for a year Dndbeyond sub a couple months back before all this happened. I have some encounters built (your limited to 5 I think with the free account, I needed more). If I cancel my sub will I lose all those encounters I've built for my game? I guess I'm going to wait and see what this video is about then decide. This sucks.

Nope. You keep all your benefits until the end of your subscription period.