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Wizards of the Coast Is Sunsetting Sigil's Active Development
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<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9616618" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>I'm not sure I follow. Making the product offer better value for money is a good way to continue to grow it. Maps has been a game-changer for a lot of folks on DDB, and we just had a thread from someone moving his entire campaign to DDB in order to use Maps.</p><p></p><p>Here's the thing: 50+ years into D&D, it is still basically about selling books. Yes, it has incredible brand recognition, but WotC, like TSR before them, has continued to struggle make money off anything other than books, and the occasional license (BG 3 was obviously a jackpot for them, but not the kind of thing you can plan around).</p><p></p><p>So if you're going to be a bookstore, then it's all about maximizing the profit margin. And DDB is fantastic for that, given that it's all digital so WotC can basically keep everything from each of their own books it sells, and a chunk of any 3PP books. I suspect that the revenue stream from subscriptions is of secondary importance to keeping folks tied to the DDB ecosystem, and that's why WotC offers pretty insane value for a Master Tier subscription.</p><p></p><p>I think Sigil was ultimately intended to offer a second digital revenue stream to DDB, other than books: the sale of digital miniatures and terrain assets. In fact, that's how it was basically introduced back in the "OneD&D announcement" - as a coequal pillar along with the new books and DDB, which was to tie the three together. But clearly their projections have shown that there just isn't the demand to justify the development and maintenance costs. So instead of becoming a new revenue stream, the VTT, as Maps, is folded back into being another feature attached to the Master Tier subscription, with Sigil lingering on for awhile as a kind of vestigial limb.</p><p></p><p>This is also what the constant arguments about whether or not the 2024 rules are a true new edition miss: WotC is now reliant on DDB, and <em>can't</em> do a new edition like they and TSR used to. They are <em>not</em> going to break DDB by suddenly invalidating most of their bookstore. That's where their money is. So it'll continue to be incremental change because that's what DDB requires.</p><p></p><p>This is a huge strategic shift from a few years ago. Go back and watch the OneD&D announcement: the vision was clearly explained as the game having three main pillars: Books, the VTT (Sigil), and DDB. Now it's down to just the two pillars. Once again, trying to diversify past mainly being a bookstore has failed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 9616618, member: 7035894"] I'm not sure I follow. Making the product offer better value for money is a good way to continue to grow it. Maps has been a game-changer for a lot of folks on DDB, and we just had a thread from someone moving his entire campaign to DDB in order to use Maps. Here's the thing: 50+ years into D&D, it is still basically about selling books. Yes, it has incredible brand recognition, but WotC, like TSR before them, has continued to struggle make money off anything other than books, and the occasional license (BG 3 was obviously a jackpot for them, but not the kind of thing you can plan around). So if you're going to be a bookstore, then it's all about maximizing the profit margin. And DDB is fantastic for that, given that it's all digital so WotC can basically keep everything from each of their own books it sells, and a chunk of any 3PP books. I suspect that the revenue stream from subscriptions is of secondary importance to keeping folks tied to the DDB ecosystem, and that's why WotC offers pretty insane value for a Master Tier subscription. I think Sigil was ultimately intended to offer a second digital revenue stream to DDB, other than books: the sale of digital miniatures and terrain assets. In fact, that's how it was basically introduced back in the "OneD&D announcement" - as a coequal pillar along with the new books and DDB, which was to tie the three together. But clearly their projections have shown that there just isn't the demand to justify the development and maintenance costs. So instead of becoming a new revenue stream, the VTT, as Maps, is folded back into being another feature attached to the Master Tier subscription, with Sigil lingering on for awhile as a kind of vestigial limb. This is also what the constant arguments about whether or not the 2024 rules are a true new edition miss: WotC is now reliant on DDB, and [I]can't[/I] do a new edition like they and TSR used to. They are [I]not[/I] going to break DDB by suddenly invalidating most of their bookstore. That's where their money is. So it'll continue to be incremental change because that's what DDB requires. This is a huge strategic shift from a few years ago. Go back and watch the OneD&D announcement: the vision was clearly explained as the game having three main pillars: Books, the VTT (Sigil), and DDB. Now it's down to just the two pillars. Once again, trying to diversify past mainly being a bookstore has failed. [/QUOTE]
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