D&D 5E Sword Coast Legends: After the fall.

[BookBarbarian]

I spent a lot of hours in Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2. Those games got me into D&D. I also would love to see more games like it. And given the quality of games Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, and the Witcher I think there is a great market for Fantasy RPGs. Having a good game with the D&D brand would be great. And turn based games like XCOM are making a return, which would be a great way to play a D&D video game.

 

[Mirtek]

And as soon as someone else with a really awesome game asks to put the D&D branding on it,

A really big check would likely be enough

 

[Prakriti]

Dungeons and dragons online is still going strong and a great game.

DDO is an acquired taste. Most people will probably dislike it. After 10 years, it's looking quite long in the tooth (heck, it was looking long-in-the-tooth when I first played it 7 years ago...). But I have a lot of respect for its game design. It's one of my favorite MMO's.

 

[DEFCON 1]

A really big check would likely be enough

Heh heh. Although if you're a video game developer with the funds to actually write a "very big check"... you'd probably be making your own IP rather than borrowing WotC's.

 

[Derren]

The catch is, licenced games are *always* terrible.

Baldurs Gate was a licensed game and it was far from bad. Same applies to Neverwinter Nights.
And if you want more modern examples, look at Warhammer. In the huge pile of bad GW license games there are a few gems like the latest Total War or Battlefleet Gothic.

You just have to license to companies that know what they are doing.
Trouble is, ever since Dragon Age and Mass Effect, maybe even before, companies increasingly develop their own IPs they have complete control off instead of paying someone for their license and then have them interfere with their work. For studios to still put up with this they either have to be so small that they are not able to create their own IP (rather uncommon for fantasy considering how fast you can put together a generic LotR copy) or the IP must bring a lot of benefits, mostly in the form of an audience and media attention. And currently the D&D brand does not.
The 3rd options to have devoted fans make a game. See what the guys made with Shadowrun on Kickstarter. But unless your fan is really rich or is well known to gather enough Kickstarter money those games tend to have a low production value which also means the IP has basically to be free or very cheap and I do not see Hasbro agreeing to any of this.

Sometimes studios pick up IPs for games they want to do anyway as a shortcut. But for that the IP also has to be cheap without many strings attached. CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2020 is an example of this.

 

[Prakriti]

The catch is, licenced games are *always* terrible.

I dunno, there was a long string of great D&D games in the late 90's/early 00's:

Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

If we had another run like that, we would call it a golden age.

 

[TerraDave]

Wasn't this "just" a license deal? If I remember correctly WotC got approached by the developer/publisher, to use the D&D license for their game. So: If another publisher apporached Wizards, I would presume that they would be willing to make that kind of deal again. Why not? This one is not on Wizards, the game was crap to begin with. Overpromised and badly done. *shrug*

We have every indication that the small staff that D&D has actually spends a lot of time on these things. They certainly made a big deal about SCL before it crashed and burned.

Various WoTC suits have repeated how important video games are for the D&D brand. This includes the current president of WotC.

 

[Jester David]

I dunno, there was a long string of great D&D games in the late 90's/early 00's:

Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

If we had another run like that, we would call it a golden age.

It was a golden age. It was also an anomaly. A fluke. Icewind Dale and NWN were okay, but it was Baldur's Gate that early stood out. But that was lightning in a bottle. BG set the bar high making D&D desirable, allowing other companies to come in.
BioWare are certainly not the norm. The chances of getting a company like that a second time is super unlikely.

If D&D becomes a hit movie series that might help. Raise the minimum licensing fee from "newbie" to "slightly tested".
Maybe. It's not like there's a wealth of awesome Marvel super hero games despite that cinematic universe owning the box office.

Trouble is, ever since Dragon Age and Mass Effect, maybe even before, companies increasingly develop their own IPs they have complete control off instead of paying someone for their license and then have them interfere with their work. For studios to still put up with this they either have to be so small that they are not able to create their own IP (rather uncommon for fantasy considering how fast you can put together a generic LotR copy) or the IP must bring a lot of benefits, mostly in the form of an audience and media attention. And currently the D&D brand does not.

This is the catch. Anyone licensing IP is almost certainly untested. Because everyone wants their own brand.
It's an issue that existed well before DragonAge.

 

[happyhermit]

I dunno, there was a long string of great D&D games in the late 90's/early 00's:

Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

If we had another run like that, we would call it a golden age.

Yeah but those were all essentially a result of taking a risk on a tiny company in the Canadian prairies (run by 3 still practicing doctors and on their own dime) that had made one generally considered "OK" game. They happened to be TTRPG fans and they happened to be able to pull off a successful company and some great games. Then the company worked with a slightly more valuable IP (Star Wars) and made their own (Dragon Age and Mass Effect), and got sold along the way.

So basically the strategy that worked was to find a tiny company just starting out, and take a gamble.

 

[Shasarak]

I dunno, there was a long string of great D&D games in the late 90's/early 00's:

Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

If we had another run like that, we would call it a golden age.

What about the other Golden Age of:

Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades
Pools of Darkness
Temple of Elemental Evil

So many great games.