WotC President Chris Cocks Talks Magic and D&D

[Parmandur]

Chris Cocks spoke to GeekWire. He had some interesting things to say, but my main takeaways were that D&D is up at least 30% in 2018 over 2017, and Magic/D&D crossovers are likely to continue: "Growth in hobby game stores, a core driver of Wizards’ business, is also a leading factor in the company’s success. And the huge audiences attracted to the streaming of games online, on platforms such as YouTube and the Amazon-owned Twitch, has helped “D&D” in particular see record sales. Cocks said they’re in their fourth year of in excess of 30 percent growth per year on “D&D.”

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MtG crossovers -- "The company is set to release a major crossover between “Magic: The Gathering” and “Dungeons & Dragons” with “Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica,” a new sourcebook that will get players of the two games in the same multiverse. Cocks said to expect more of that, with classic worlds from the past and new worlds that are still to be created."

Digital future -- "The tabletop side is obviously where the majority of our businesses is today and we still see a big robust future for that,” Cocks said. “The digital side is kind of where the disconnect comes between the straight-line growth curve and the hockey stick. So a fair amount of my time is spent on new initiatives and helping to build those teams and groom our plans for that.”

See the full interview for more.

 

[bedir than]

30+% growth for 4 straight years, on a product 40 years old is unheard of

 

[darjr]

And it’s awesome and grueling. We need more DMs.

 

[thundershot]

What an unfortunate last name. Worse than mine..:

I don’t care about MTG but I AM interested in revisiting classic worlds with books like this...

 

[Parmandur]

What an unfortunate last name. Worse than mine..:

I don’t care about MTG but I AM interested in revisiting classic worlds with books like this...

Yeah, I'm not really into Magic but this has possibilities. We have a Magic world ported into D&D now, but we can have a D&D world ported into Magic in the future (which would mean it gets attention including a D&D revival). One intriguing possibility that this interview suggests is that they might make a new fantasy world, outside of either game, and then have both games design trams make use of it. If they go through all the trouble to have James Wyatt build a new fantasy world, why not use it for multiple games?

 

[Blue]

30+% growth for 4 straight years, on a product 40 years old is unheard of

True, but it was a product that had a rather severe slump when the fan base fragmented with 4e and Pathfinder. I see this more as a recovery with a newly introduced product - not just a new version, but a new business model (slow and steady) which reduces barrier to entry. My *guess* is that AL is also doing a better job of introducing new players + welcoming returning ones then the 4e in-store initiatives, but I don't have numbers for that.

 

[77IM]

Anybody remember Spellfire?

 

[TerraDave]

True, but it was a product that had a rather severe slump when the fan base fragmented with 4e and Pathfinder. I see this more as a recovery with a newly introduced product - not just a new version, but a new business model (slow and steady) which reduces barrier to entry. ....

Its a good summary. The first year or two probably did take them out of the hole, the next couple represent substantial growth thanks to the slow role-out, the quality of the game, and the whole spectator sport thing.

He noted strong hobby store sales, which I thought was interesting. My guess is that core rules sales have remained strong, but I not sure they have gone up in the last two years, or at least not 30%. Some of the growth must then be coming from the two monstery books, XGtE, and building up a wider set of perennial sellers.

 

[darjr]

It’s also core book sales. The PHB is STILL in the top 100 of ALL books sold on Amazon.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/Players...-Wizards/product/0786965606?active=sales_rank

 

[Badvoc]

The company is set to release a major crossover between “Magic: The Gathering” and “Dungeons & Dragons” with “Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica,” a new sourcebook that will get players of the two games in the same multiverse. Cocks said to expect more of that, with classic worlds from the past and new worlds that are still to be created.

I'm not sure how to read that. In context, it seems he's talking about releasing sourcebooks for classic and new MTG worlds, rather than say Greyhawk or Dark Sun.

Personally, I'm not particularly interested in any MTG sourcebooks as the lore doesn't appeal (and I say that as a long time on-off Magic player), so hope we see SCAG equivalents for some of the classic D&D worlds. It's a shame the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron didn't get the full dead-tree treatment as it would be a useful measure of demand for some of the existing non-FR settings.

Minor grumblings aside, this is very positive news for the hobby. I still can't believe the swell in popularity D&D has experienced under 5th Edition. Long may it continue!