D&D General WotC Continues D&D's Advance To Digital First Brand

It's been apparent for some time that Dungeons & Dragons is moving towards a digital-first brand, centered around D&D Beyond, accompanied by a larger a shift into IP and lifestyle property.

D&D has had cartoons, toys, comics, and so on for decades, so this is not new, but the focus on these IP-based licenses appears to be gowing.

In Hasbro's latest earnings call, CEO Chris Cocks notes that the company -- by which he is referring to Hasbro, WotC, and their digital studio teams -- "delighted more than 1 billion kids, families and fans, secured partnerships that further underwrite future growth, advanced our evolution to a digital-first play and IP company and delivered record profits for our shareholders."

As we enter 2026, we view playing to Win and more importantly, the execution behind it by our Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast and digital studio teams as a clear success. Despite market volatility and a shift in consumer environment, we returned this company to growth in a meaningful way. We delighted more than 1 billion kids, families and fans, secured partnerships that further underwrite future growth, advanced our evolution to a digital-first play and IP company and delivered record profits for our shareholders.

As previously mentioned, this isn't really new information, but it is informative to see it clearly laid out by Hasbro's CEO. In the last couple of years, the company has had massive success with Baldur's Gate 3, and critical (if not commercial) success with the movie Honor Amongst Thieves. At least two D&D TV shows are currently in development--one from HBO as a sequel to Baldur's Gate 3, and another from Netflix, also set in the Forgotten Realms. In the eanrings call, Cocks notes that they have "top-tier creative partners across more than 60 active entertainment projects."

Digital sales currently make up 60% of D&D's revenue. With digital-exclusive expansions being sold on D&D Beyond, a robust virtual tabletop integration, and the bringing in of the larger third-party D&D content creators as partnered content, D&D's move towards digital-first is well underway. While there is no indication that the physical books will go away, they are slowly becoming secondary or collector's items rather than the primary product.

 

[Argyle King]

In theory, from a pure economic perspective, one must ask what the "point" of eating out is. Is it merely offloading the labor of cooking and preparing food onto someone else, a literal exchange of money for a good and a service?

Or are you going to a restaurant for the experience, the ritual, the "theater" of fine dining? The "May I take your coat sir" and the "Excellent choice sir" and the "Is everything to your liking?" of the white tablecloths and stuffed shirts?

If the telos of the restaurant is the former, then the labor provided by the server and the wages paid to them are wasted, much like friction generates heat in a machine that simply radiates into the air rather than being put to use. If one were to better design the machine and use frictionless materials, that energy could be recaptured into the system, or in this case, eliminating the waiter should in theory pass the savings on to the consumer.

But if it's the latter, then until we have machines that are 100% indistinguishable from humans, and part of what you're paying for is the idea that you are getting attention and service from someone who is choosing to engage in the ritual that brings you comfort, then, sure, you're allowed to prefer it. But you have to acknowledge then this is a matter of subjectivity, not an engineering problem.

Speaking only for myself, the scanning -assuming it works at all- adds too many extra steps to something that is already simple, and the 'reward' or 'benefit' is rarely enough to make those extra steps worth it.

Then, if there's an issue (which, often, I have found that there is) extra steps are then also added to coming up with a solution.

I'm certainly not anti technology though. It depends what it is. In contrast to my dislike for restaurants using digital menus, I find that I vastly prefer self-checkout at the grocery store. It's quicker, and I can bag my items the way that I would like them to be bagged. (Proper bagging is a lost art.)

In terms of rpgs, technology is (I feel) a mixed bag. For me personally, I find that there are a lot of digital tools that are useful before I am at the table, but I don't particularly care for them once I am actually at the table. Thinking more, that's not even limited to digital tools; there are also a lot of analog and physical accessories that I find to be impediments to gameplay rather than facilitators.

My previous comments were in regards to anecdotally knowing people for whom the ttrpg experience is primarily physical by choice.

 

[Morrus]

If WotC eventually makes a 6E that they do not print on paper and only releases it on DDB... some enterprising company will just take the SRD made for 6E (which will be necessary by WotC to make in order to get all the 3PPs to make material they can sell on the platform) and print the document up themselves and sell it.

It won’t be necessary. They could just license companies directly.

 

[overgeeked]

Cool. So we'll be getting official pdfs of the 5E books then, right? Right?

 

[Sulicius]

We just got TWO amazing, physical starter sets that do not require ANY digital tools to use, that have been designed to be played within 30 minutes of opening the box with a bunch of newbies.

I am not worried about Digital First yet, not for a long time.

 

[Distracted DM]

Just a reminder that there have been some 1pp 5e supplements that were released as digital-only on DnDBeyond. I think the biggest drag with those is that since they're not even released on PDF, getting them in print is kind of a pain, even with the fan-made chrome extension that lets you PDF-ify your owned DDB stuff.

 

[Sulicius]

Just a reminder that there have been some 1pp 5e supplements that were released as digital-only on DnDBeyond. I think the biggest drag with those is that since they're not even released on PDF, getting them in print is kind of a pain, even with the fan-made chrome extension that lets you PDF-ify your owned DDB stuff.

That is true! And I really hate that they are doing that, since I don’t use DDB and would have loved the little Lorwyn supplement.

They are making some steps to becoming “digital first”, but to me, it doesn’t look like there are creating less physical products.