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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jan van Leyden" data-source="post: 7647959" data-attributes="member: 20307">Entering wild-speculation mode here.Hasbro doesn't focus on single items or game lines, but on brands.D&D is a brand, but - as opposed to licensed brands - has no external synergies like in marketing or brand-awareness. So D&D as a brand has to be developed by Hasbro-forces.The D&D brand traditionally consists of two lines: RPG and novels. These two lines will probably not achieve the critical revenue Hasbro demands for an active brand.One could either try to stretch oneself in order to reach this goal or add more lines to the brand. The first solution will probably be a hard fight which never ends.We have already seen two new lines, board games and DDI. Board games are an addition to the brand, while DDI tries to strengthen the RPG line.The traditional publishing model giving as a new edition of D&D (RPG) every few years does little to increase revenues of the line. It's more suitable to fight the loss of revenue caused by more and more specific products which find less and less buyers - a sign of an edition well endowed with all necessary and/or interesting books.WotC will have to add more new product lines to the D&D brand, which, all together, hopefully reach the goals.For D&D (RPG) to prosper, one can address the customers of other product lines in the brand. This will work better when D&D (RPG) can use synergies with these other lines.If some of the lines are computer-based or can be computer-supported, subscription model becomes more and more interesting. They'd allow for effortless cross-marketing between the lines.Edition numbers are a hindrance for the brand, as they divide it rather than strengthen it.So what are possible brand additions? TCG, MMO, for sure, but what else?Are there possible brand additions which provide continuous revenue as opposed to fads which earn truckloads of money in one year and next to nothing after that?Is the brand D&D strong enough to entice other companies to license it and to provide their own support for it?What role will the RPG department play if the D&D brand reaches its goals? Could they continue to be brand developers or would they be just users of the brand developed in other departments?Having just written this, it seems that the future of D&D (RPG) will change anyway. Either it'll get shelved together with the whole brand or it will have to be managed in a very different way. Both scenarios would mean that other companies would have to take over development and publishing of "traditional" RPGs. Interesting times, indeed... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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