Wizards of the Coast Is Sunsetting Sigil's Active Development

EN World has received confirmation that Wizards of the Coast is planning to transition Sigil, its just-released VTT, to a D&D Beyond feature with no large future development planned. Earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast laid off approximately 30 staff members tied to the development of Sigil, a new D&D-focused VTT system. Ahead of the layoff, Dan Rawson, senior vice president of Dungeons & Dragons, sent out an internal email confirming that the project was essentially being shuttered. Rascal was the first to report the news and EN World was able to independently confirm the accuracy of their report.

The email can be read below:

Dear Team, I want to share an important update regarding Sigil. After several months of alpha testing, we’ve concluded that our aspirations for Sigil as a larger, standalone game with a distinct monetization path will not be realized. As such, we cannot maintain a large development effort and most of the Sigil team will be separated from the company this week. We are, however, proud of what the Sigil team has developed and want to make sure that fans and players on DDB can use it. To that end, we will transition Sigil to a DDB feature. We will maintain a small team to sustain Sigil and release products already developed at no additional cost to users. To those moving on as a result of this decision, we will provide robust support, including severance packages, 2024 bonus, career placement services, and internal opportunities where possible.

I want to take a moment to praise the entire Sigil team for their incredible work to deliver this product to our community. One of the things I’m most proud of here at D&D is our strong sense of purpose. We aim to honor our current players while ensuring D&D continues to build connections and bring joy to future generations. And that’s what the Sigil team was doing. Although we haven’t fully realized our vision for Sigil to scale, the team should be proud of their achievements.”

A full breakdown of Sigil's tumultous development can be found here. Rascal has several additional details about recent events that led to Sigil's early demise.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For those saying no one would've pre-ordered because of the gold dragon mini, I'd like to point you to video game preorder bonuses and FOMO.

As someone who's bought way too many World of Warcraft Collector's Editions/digital equivalents, the gold dragon mini is pretty weak in terms of FOMO.

I can run around on my cool collectors edition mount in WoW -- and have -- and get immediate use out of it. I would need to put a gold dragon into a custom-built adventure to use the mini, which doesn't seem like something a lot of people would be doing, even if the Sigil building tools were a lot easier to use than they are.

(How many gold dragons even appear in everyone's games? Maybe they're out there in the game world, but in actual adventures, I suspect they're pretty rare, as they're the high level wizard NPC problem times 1,000: "Why doesn't this adult gold dragon just defeat the invading army instead of a ragtag band of six idiots?")

If they wanted to fire up the FOMO, giving some exclusive building tiles that people would want to use all the time -- maybe the 1E AD&D PHB statue, for instance, or various doors or dungeon floor tiles -- would have been the way to do it.

Everyone worried about WotC wanting to do lots of microtransactions should rest easier knowing that they don't seem to be very good at it.

 

[Distracted DM]

As someone who's bought way too many World of Warcraft Collector's Editions/digital equivalents, the gold dragon mini is pretty weak in terms of FOMO.

I can run around on my cool collectors edition mount in WoW -- and have -- and get immediate use out of it. I would need to put a gold dragon into a custom-built adventure to use the mini, which doesn't seem like something a lot of people would be doing, even if the Sigil building tools were a lot easier to use than they are.

(How many gold dragons even appear in everyone's games? Maybe they're out there in the game world, but in actual adventures, I suspect they're pretty rare, as they're the high level wizard NPC problem times 1,000: "Why doesn't this adult gold dragon just defeat the invading army instead of a ragtag band of six idiots?")

If they wanted to fire up the FOMO, giving some exclusive building tiles that people would want to use all the time -- maybe the 1E AD&D PHB statue, for instance, or various doors or dungeon floor tiles -- would have been the way to do it.

Everyone worried about WotC wanting to do lots of microtransactions should rest easier knowing that they don't seem to be very good at it.

Oh yeah, like I said it was a pretty small incentive. I gave an example of a strong one. But to folks saying that it would've persuaded NO ONE to buy- I don't think they understand the mindset. Sometimes a little nudge is all you need.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh yeah, like I said it was a pretty small incentive. I gave an example of a strong one. But to folks saying that it would've persuaded NO ONE to buy- I don't think they understand the mindset. Sometimes a little nudge is all you need.

Yeah, my wife is someone who doesn't always go for the WoW FOMO stuff. It needs to be stuff that she can see using, not just "ooh, pretty and exclusive."

If they wanted their Sigil bonus to be tied to the 50th anniversary theme, a gold dragon tavern sign, a gold dragon shield, a gold dragon tabard, a gold dragon staff, etc., would have all been a lot more compelling than a good-aligned CR 17 monster.

 

[grimslade]

I am glad that there is a future for Sigil, as limited as it may be. Hopefully, Hasbro can learn from this iteration of VTT development. Now, using Sigil assets as a digital terrain set that could be imported into a leaner easier to run VTT might bear fruit. I don't know if that is even a thought at this point, but I am sure Unreal 5 assets can be used for other projects. Possibly open Sigil up to DMs Guild for crowd development of dungeons, scenarios?

 

[Stormonu]

It really seems to me like they should have contracted Larian to make it. They could have used BG3's engine and assets. They already have a GM mode for their Divinity games. Could have a freemium model so it's free for players and have paid perks be part of D&D Beyond subscription.

I had to go just look at the Sigil site, as I haven't even used it (Wow, you could it for free - for some reason I had the impression you had to have Master Tier to use - was that only for Maps?). I didn't realize it was something you downloaded and installed to the PC - I thought it was like Beyond and you just accessed it through a web browser, like Roll20. Wonder if they had gone with it as a web app instead of a client app if it might have had more uptake/use.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The Foundry VTT team has a spring in their step today!

 

[Chaltab]

Just glad they didn't go with Silverlight (again!).

Oh man don't even get me started. The offline character builder for 4E worked great but they insisted on moving to the web-based Silverlight version.

 

[SteveC]

The Foundry VTT team has a spring in their step today!

That is pretty much what I was thinking. I'm a Foundry guy (even though I play using Roll20 each week), and I was holding off on picking up the whole line until my group figured out which VTT we were using. There was a strong incentive to use Beyond/Sigil because it's an in-house product. I don't know that any of us were excited about it, but the DM for the campaign I'm playing in liked the look and feel of the 3D elements. And I think that meant our other DM would probably just go with it so as not to reinvent the wheel. Well, that's done.

I think both campaigns will be wrapping up by the end of this year, and that may coincide with the release of the Ember campaign for Foundry. I'd recommend everyone take a look at that to see what's possible with VTTs (Glass Cannon podcast did several sessions where they played the start of the campaign).

It's a huge win for other VTTs and loss for WotC.

 

[Zaukrie]

That is pretty much what I was thinking. I'm a Foundry guy (even though I play using Roll20 each week), and I was holding off on picking up the whole line until my group figured out which VTT we were using. There was a strong incentive to use Beyond/Sigil because it's an in-house product. I don't know that any of us were excited about it, but the DM for the campaign I'm playing in liked the look and feel of the 3D elements. And I think that meant our other DM would probably just go with it so as not to reinvent the wheel. Well, that's done.

I think both campaigns will be wrapping up by the end of this year, and that may coincide with the release of the Ember campaign for Foundry. I'd recommend everyone take a look at that to see what's possible with VTTs (Glass Cannon podcast did several sessions where they played the start of the campaign).

It's a huge win for other VTTs and loss for WotC.

I had been considering leaving Foundry for this also......because we only play DnD and use Beyond for all your PCs....but now we likely stay on Foundry. I like the fancy stuff, but my players don't feel the same need.

What I really want is 2.5d, with minis and flat maps (maybe a door here and there) with fog of war. Everything else is more than I need.

As for Ember, when I asked about size, they didn't have a good answer. Because it is bigger (or was) than the Forge would let us store (and they didn't have an answer either). That may have all changed......

 

[Grimjackal]

It might not be a "stand alone game", but it would be cool if they just made a VTT that was part of just using their online software (beyond?). It would have been an incredible value add. I understand they probably want to make money off of it, but still - just making it free to use would have been incredible.