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.

 

[ENWorldUser]

Digital first, yet the hatred of pdf continues.. the apparent discontinuation of scanning the legacy pdf's, and the lack of 5e availability due to supposed piracy concerns.. yet Pathfinder et al do not complain about this.

 

[Dire Bare]

Digital first, yet the hatred of pdf continues.. the apparent discontinuation of scanning the legacy pdf's, and the lack of 5e availability due to supposed piracy concerns.. yet Pathfinder et al do not complain about this.

Hatred? Okay.

It would be nice to get the 5E books in PDF. Sure.

Do you have any actual knowledge of the "legacy" ebooks "discontinuation"? The back catalog is mostly available. There are gaps, of course. Is this because WotC and DriveThru have "discontinued" the project, or because of other issues? Availability of source files? Licensing issues?

 

[Gambit42]

Sucks for you, but not for me and my group.

The DM has a laptop (we rotate the DM seat, and the DM always has a laptop running), the players each use a tablet. We are considering investing in a cheap projector to throw battle maps on the table.

We often also bring some books (we're old), but it's usually easier to look up something on the tablet. Ironically, when a player is bored and distracted, they can often be found browsing the physical book they brought!

We're having fun!

Right on, tablet would be fine, I just personally find trying to play on a 7 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch phone to be untenable, which is what I was referring to.

It's funny though, this conversation doesn't really touch on that its not terribly uncommon for tables/DM's to have a "no phone out at the table" rule. I have played in games with such before and it is rather refreshing.

 

[Argyle King]

Right on, tablet would be fine, I just personally find trying to play on a 7 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch phone to be untenable, which is what I was referring to.

It's funny though, this conversation doesn't really touch on that its not terribly uncommon for tables/DM's to have a "no phone out at the table" rule. I have played in games with such before and it is rather refreshing.

I was recently at a tavern in Florida, at which you would be asked to leave if you spent too much time on your phone while sitting at the bar.

It's great that I have a supercomputer in my pocket, but I also greatly appreciate that there are spaces available to escape the constant barrage of digital screens that has become ubiquitous contemporary culture.

As far as D&D goes, I, like many people, greatly appreciate that digital tools are available. Many can be helpful. During the Covid lockdowns, using a VTT was the only way to play rpgs. I've also played in play-by-post games. So, I'm no stranger to the digital experience, and I'm not opposed to digital tools.

But, for me personally, one of the best parts of ttrpgs is that it is an experience that is sitting down with other people and interacting without a screen constantly in my face.

I think it is smart for WotC to have a focus on whatever they feel is the best business model for their products. For many people who are younger, a digital experience is their preference, and those are (theoretically) the customers of the future.

At the same time (and regardless of age,) I do not believe I am alone in feeling that a desired part of the ttrpg experience is that it is less digital. For that, there are still companies creating physical product; we're living in a time when alternatives to D&D -and people to play those alternatives with- are very easy to access.

Games like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Shadowdark, Daggerheart, etc are still fun, physical, and available.

 

[Umbran]

Not resisting the urge to check your phone isn't a character flaw, complaining to others about your inability to stop checking your phone and expecting the world to facilitate that for you absolutely is.

Mod Note:
Hey, there.

Look, the username "Misanthrope" is cool and all, but we need you to publicly live up to it a bit less. Maybe pull back form being insulting here - you have the willpower for that, yes? Thanks.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And they should bring back their novel publishing under ebooks. Let third parties like penguin handle physical copies for the bigger names

They put out a new Ravenloft novel late last year, tuned to modern fantasy tastes. There was a lot of angst about that amongst older fans here, but if the approach worked, I would expect the powers that be to greenlight more of it. (Well, maybe. They historically don't do a lot of stuff that seemed to work for them just a year or two before, so who knows.)