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.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

You absolutely cannot use a phone or small tablet for stuff like this. They also seem to be expecting that literally every player and the DM all bring a laptop or tablet and use that to actually play, I guess just sitting around the table staring at it.

Players don't need a tablet or laptop; a phone that has a character sheet, dice roller, quick lookup of player-facing rules and the ability to take and reference notes are all you need. The DM, arguably, is the one who needs some kind of personal computer, but I don't think that's more or less "unfair" than the DM also being expected to buy or own more books than the players. If you've got a party of say, five people who want to play D&D and no one owns a computer that can run the software, I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't crowdfund a used tablet or computer for your DM and adjusted for inflation the price per player isn't much higher than expecting everyone to have their own copy of the PHB back in the 70s or 80s.

That's interesting because it's a very different direction-of-travel to virtually all non-D&D RPGs, and it's identical to the much-criticised direction of travel of 4E D&D. Indeed it's the exact 4E vision that, when discussed, caused so much anger here on ENworld. Including from some of the same people who seem positive about this, I think.

The gulf in popularity between 5e D&D and the next most popular RPG is pretty vast, it's not like it's the 90s. D&D and PbtA may both be tabletop games, for example, but in terms of market cap and resources it's like comparing Disney Parks to Six Flags. Disney doesn't copy what Six Flags does, they target different markets... but sometimes Disney does get complacent and Universal can sometimes eat their lunch and light a fire under their ass (in this analogy, Universal is like, Pathfinder during 4e).

Using extremely loaded language in this seemingly disingenuous way is an awful way to make an argument, and shows a real apparent contempt for the reader, in my opinion.

Do you think people are too stupid to notice how incredibly loaded and biased words like "antique" and "ritual" are? Good lord. It'd be one thing if there was a wink and a bit of irony here, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

There's nothing "antique" about wipe-clean battlemats or the like, nor is "a form of ritual" to want to play RPGs the way most recent non-D&D RPGs play. What you're failing to show here is what we actually gain from this. Instead there's a high-handed dismissal of anyone who doesn't think this is great as a implied luddite or worse, some form of a cultist.

What's funny is, if we had digital tableclothes and so on, which y'know, probably aren't decades away, the "what do you gain" case might be fairly easily made. But we don't. So this aggressive move to digital seems barely less premature now than it did in 2008 (indeed technology hasn't move on terribly far since about 2008 generally speaking, whereas from say 1990 to 2008 - the same 18 year period - saw gigantic changes - the tablets and laptops, we use aren't even fundamentally different to 2008 ones).

I respect my audience enough to be honest in my contempt and vocal about my neophilia. The argument is not about the individual benefits of non-digital tools (which do exist, and I'd love to hear them!), but about the sentimental attachment to them. It's not a pipe, it's a picture of a pipe.

 

[aiouh]

As I said in my post I’m referring to the £35 hardback Forgotten Realms book I bought with the full color poster map. A £10 Whiz Kids blister pack or the £300 Beadle and Grimm set. Whatever your price range we’re in a better position than we were before.

I don’t see any evidence that digital development and expansion is weakening the physical asset. In fact I think it’s the opposite.

Fair, I just personally think that there might be a point where a digital-first product will make the physical product so hard to use that it is basically not an option anymore. Then I will have an issue with it.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Anecdotally, I know more than a few people who enjoy D&D because it's one of the few experiences left that put them in a room with other people and away from being surrounded by screens and algorithms.

So, for at least some portion of the audience, it's not that they don't have access to a smart phone, it's that they don't want to play D&D with a smart phone.

Perhaps the future for those folks is an experience that features a different rpg.

I'm not in any way surprised that D&D is becoming more digital. That is in line with what Cocks had previously expressed. In contemporary culture, it has been normalized to sell licensed access to a (usually digital) product rather than sell ownership of a tangible product.

Not for nothing but there's a setting on most phones called "DND mode"; yeah, it stands for "do not disturb" but I turn it on when I, myself, enter "DND mode" and start DMing. If you don't wanna get distracted, just turn on airplane mode and make sure not to have any distractions saved locally to your phone. It's not a question of technology, it's a question of willpower.

A smartphone that opens up big enough to use as a battlemap for in-person play? Plus display your personal character sheet and allows you to look up things in the books at the same time? Wow, you must have large (and deep) pockets.

I think you're confusing compute power as the only thing needed to bring usable technology to the gaming table.

You're thinking too small. My DM in 2023 had a bluetooth projector and they would just project the image of a battlemap onto a white table and we could place our minis in the projection. That way he didn't have to lug around a stack of individual maps, nor did he have to take time drawing maps and decorating them.

 

[Distracted DM]

My only concern with the digital tools is that I'm a maximalist for homebrew when it comes to D&D; any default tool that isn't easily amenable to manual editing of the available options isn't something I want to use in my game.

I want tables that are excited to look at new options from the book I just got on Kickstarter, not ones that say "But how do I select that option on my electronic character builder?"

Unfortunately "is it/will it be on DnDBeyond?" is a big qualifying question for many players. And conversely, (almost) any creator would love to have their stuff on DnDB. @SlyFlourish pointed out the walled garden effect some time ago with DnDB.

DnDB does allow you to "homebrew" content by typing it in yourself ofc, but I imagine that's largely DMs doing such work.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The argument is not about the individual benefits of non-digital tools (which do exist, and I'd love to hear them!), but about the sentimental attachment to them.

You've made no case whatsoever for there being a common irrational sentimental attachment, merely asserted that there is one. amd just pre-insulted and pre-demeaned anyone who thinks that non-digital-heavy approaches have value! Which you now agree they undeniably do! Why come in that hot? When you come in so hot even I, an idiot, would think twice, that's coming too hot imho!

So the "ceci ne pas une pipe" is hardly relevant or apposite, is it?

There's an obvious potential future which hybridizes the benefits of both physical and digital with large, durable screens, single-purpose (or easily locked-down devices), and so on, but unfortunately the world we live in isn't very interested in producing cheap, durable, reliable, non-bothersome devices, because all the profit is in trying to convince people they need to be on social media 24/7, getting updates 24/7, using AI 24/7, subscribed to a thousand services, and that they need to replace their device, which should be as expensive as possible because otherwise they'll look like some kind of peasant, at least once every two years.

So the "good future" of hybrid digital-physical actually seems to be receding, a path not taken. I'm not without hope but it would require a bit of a turnaround.

Not for nothing but there's a setting on most phones called "DND mode"; yeah, it stands for "do not disturb" but I turn it on when I, myself, enter "DND mode" and start DMing.

I will admit this is a pretty good bit.

 

[Blue]

Look, as long as the game still allows me to play as I play right now I'll be fine with this. Which means there's no barrier to using my homebrew, the thing I just bought off kickstarter, books from any and all 3pp, books that I bought back in the 90s with no digital component and won't get updated with one, with no need to every rebuy something I've already bought in a different format, buy-once not ongoing subscription fee, and able to play both in-person and online equally well.

If their move takes makes it harder to play like I play, then... well, there's plenty of other RPGs out there. I love D&D, but if the stewards of the game want to depreciate how I play in search of profits so be it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Fair, I just personally think that there might be a point where a digital-first product will make the physical product so hard to use that it is basically not an option anymore. Then I will have an issue with it.

I'm pretty sure we've already had products like that, just for years and not for major RPGs. I suspect if I thought about it hard enough I could come up with one.

But yeah when we see this for D&D or w/e that's going to be pretty bad. And it will happen. How people and WotC react to it will be important. It may be that the product is hyped and people are mad and there's a backlash. Or it may be more of a "creeping" thing where minor products go this way first and there's no solid/strong backlash, just people quietly dropping off from using D&D, which wouldn't be informative/instructional to WotC in the same way.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

There's an obvious potential future which hybridizes the benefits of both physical and digital with large, durable screens, single-purpose (or easily locked-down devices), and so on, but unfortunately the world we live in isn't very interested in producing cheap, durable, reliable, non-bothersome devices, because all the profit is in trying to convince people they need to be on social media 24/7, getting updates 24/7, using AI 24/7, subscribed to a thousand services, and that they need to replace their device, which should be as expensive as possible because otherwise they'll look like some kind of peasant, at least once every two years.

I mean, the obvious answer is if the technology is useful and scalable... maybe Hasbro/WotC can look into selling it?


I could see a future in the late 2020s or early 2030s where they can sell an interactive touchscreen pre-loaded with D&D software for around $300 bucks, and pitch it as "the cost of a single video game for each player at the table". Price-point wise, that's not terrible off from big collectables that Hasbro has sold in the past like the USS Flagg from GI Joe which cost like $150 in 1985 money, or like $450 today.

 

[Blue]

You're thinking too small. My DM in 2023 had a bluetooth projector and they would just project the image of a battlemap onto a white table and we could place our minis in the projection. That way he didn't have to lug around a stack of individual maps, nor did he have to take time drawing maps and decorating them.

You were the one who put that everyone is carrying around a smartphone so there's no barrier and everyone has the technology to play with them at all times. Now you admit there's a barrier and additional equipment that is needed just to play how we do now?

So, thank you for admitting facts showing you were wrong. Now, will you actually admit you are wrong in your assertion that not all gamers have access to the technology to play purely digital?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I could see a future in the late 2020s or early 2030s where they can sell an interactive touchscreen pre-loaded with D&D software for around $300 bucks, and pitch it as "the cost of a single video game for each player at the table".

Why you gotta hurt me like this man, that's brutal.

That said I can't rule it out when they're trying to sell games for $90 and stuff already (I mean, they always did, but it's becoming a lot more common). God knows how much GTA VI will cost.