WotC WotC'S May Community Update Talks School Support, Accessibilty, & Creator Marketplaces

The Community Update page on D&D Beyond has a new entry which briefly covers topics such as ongoing support for schools and clubs, accessibilty of D&D Beyond for players with disabilities, early plans for the third-party creator marketplace, plans for convention attendance, and the upcoming Virtual Tabletop.

It's mainly a (very brief) recap of things which came out of the recent D&D Creator Summit (see D&D Creator Summit--VTT & One D&D, D&D Creator Summit--'D&D Beyond And Beyond', D&D Creator Summit -- Morning Sessions) but the key points include:

• One D&D reiterated again as being 5th edition, not a new edition. This is something WotC is repeating frequently, and is a message they are clearly very keen to get across.
• School and club support includes teaching kits, afterschool club kits, and free access to D&D Beyond resources for educators.
• Plans to connect with accessibility experts to ensure D&D Beyond is a tool that everybody can use.
• Migration to D&D Beyond as the 'front door' of D&D.
• Intention to eventually create a third party marketplace, but this is a long way in the future.
• A new creator summit at Gen Con in August.
• Pre-alpha tests of the VTT with small groups.

D&D Community Update

D&D Beyond - Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition Tools, Rules, Races, Classes, Items, Spells, Monsters, and More

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[mamba]

I sure that would go over great with pissed off d&d fans. I am sure that nobody would ever be upset or complain about how WOTC was picking favorites and punishing people.

short of adding everything, you will always have that.

If however WotC said ‘every gold seller shows sufficient interest and can be added to DDB, provided someone ports it over’ would limit that, as this is a rather objective way to approach the whole thing.

Or like Steam, let users vote for indie games (anything on DMsG is indie for this) and once something has enough votes…

 

[Zaukrie]

I sure that would go over great with pissed off d&d fans. I am sure that nobody would ever be upset or complain about how WOTC was picking favorites and punishing people.

I just don't think that group of people is all that large at this point. I have no evidence for this, other than sales volumes of their books. Which remain ridiculously strong.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Case in point: anyone else remember having to bug a friend 'in the know' to get a Gmail?

 

[ad_hoc]

I have never seen Monster Manual Expanded not be a top 10 seller at DMs Guild (I check there way more often than I'd like to admit), and it's one of the top 121 sellers on DMs Guild and 175 of all OneBookShelf sales of all time, as an Admantine seller, meaning it's sold at least 5,000 copies (honestly, it's probably much higher for each of those 175 books, as they all remain big sellers today).

WotC selling 5,000 or so copies of a book is probably a failure in their mind, but if we guess that the Admantine sellers are each selling multiples of that, I can see the same folks who were nervous about the SRD, GSL and OGL being a little nervous about putting those books (the D&D compatible ones, at least) alongside WotC's offerings.

Speaking as a DM, which is how I view 99% of D&D-related stuff, the MME is clearly much more useful for actually running games than most of the books WotC has put out since they took over the D&D brand. Now, the right response to a book like that is to do one themselves. But the easiest thing for WotC to do would be to erect artificial roadblocks to that competition, like technical issues delaying implementation and fiddly legal terms that make it hard for the more serious competitors to be on D&D Beyond alongside some of WotC's weaker offerings.

The original goals for 5e supplement books was at least 100 000 to be considered a success.

That was 10 years ago when the game wasuvh smaller. I wouldn't be surprised if their goals for each book are much higher than that now.

WotC selling 5000 of a book is not just a probable failure, it would be a complete disaster.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they are looking to sell at least 250 000 of each book.

 

[ad_hoc]

I just don't think that group of people is all that large at this point. I have no evidence for this, other than sales volumes of their books. Which remain ridiculously strong.

Sales went up something like 10-15% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022 and they specifically called out D&D Beyond as doing well.

So I think that is strong evidence that the "boycott" has a negligible effect overall.

I could see their growth being 1% higher without the controversy but doubt it has any more of an impact than that.

 

[codo]

Staged rollouts are standard software practice. They'd like it less if the doors were opened to everyone on the same moment, and the thing fell over in the rush.

Do you honestly think if WOTC decided to let some 3rd party game designers sell their work on DnD Beyond, but don't let everybody participate, that there won't be a large group of people that gets incredibly mad and starts accusing WOTC of all sorts of nefarious plans?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

And DDB may be the best showcase. Not only they are earning money with the sales but also the players can know the publisher, and then they start to search more titles by those.

And later the VTT could merger with some videogame software. Then you could use the VTT to create homemade arcades as Roblox, Sony's Dreams, Little Big Planet, Manticore's Core or Fortnite: Creative Mode. Some failed online multiplayer videogames could enjoy a second opportunity.

* Will 3PPs allowed to publish settings in DDB?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Do you honestly think if WOTC decided to let some 3rd party game designers sell their work on DnD Beyond, but don't let everybody participate, that there won't be a large group of people that gets incredibly mad and starts accusing WOTC of all sorts of nefarious plans?

Speaking as likely one of those people that was meant to defame, a curated entry into DDB would basically be their least nefarious plan of 2023.

Like, even TubiTV or any of the other mysteriously free streaming services don't let literally anyone onto their service.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Just for reference, here is a screenshot of the top DMs Guild sellers. Of the top 5, two are already WotC products, one is by Keith Baker, and a fourth is one of the MME books already brought up in this thread. I don't think anyone would argue with those if they were brought over to D&D Beyond. The only odd one out is the Witchlight bundle.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Just for reference, here is a screenshot of the top D&D Beyond sellers. Of the top 5, two are already WotC products, one is by Kieth Baker, and a fourth is one of the MME books already brought up in this thread. I don't think anyone would argue with those if they were brought over to D&D Beyond. The only odd one out is the Witchlight bundle. View attachment 283767

Do you mean DMsGuild?