…This, when the reason Hasbro is struggling is because they’re having a hard time competing with computer games.
Is this unusual though? I mean, I thought even back in the WotC days, there were lay offs right before the holidays to avoid the bonuses. It’s awful and abhorrent that companies do this but I think this has been a pattern at WotC for a long time.
My sympathies to all of them on the timing and the unexpectedness of it.
Dropping Mearls is a pretty big deal regardless of the timing. Though out of all of them he’s got the least to worry about; he has name recognition in an industry where almost nobody gets name recognition.
That’s a good point.
Here is the former owner/CEO of Hasbro on it.
Not only that but also to make the shares look good, for CEO bonuses.
Then slowly many are rehired.
Big companies do this all the time.
Yeah, after he sold WotC for like $325Million.
I’m sorry that I wasn’t clear. I think it’s reprehensible that it’s done. Sadly, I think it’s all too common.
In the fwiw category, Adkinson is embarrassed about some of the things he has done. I doubt that will stand up to any kind of scrutiny, though. He still did it. Nope, I can’t apologize or excuse this from him. He acted like any other CEO.
I did see that WotC said that anyone could use their VTT and input data into it. It’s a meaningless gesture, though, because who would push their customers to their competitor? It’s one thing for Paizo to use and promote Foundry, which has no connection to Paizo. It’s another thing to push people to WotC’s VTT.
Thanks for the discussion!
Summary: Hasbro ditches D&D executive producer and hires John Hight from Blizzard and World of Warcraft to support “digital experiences” and monetize the game into a billion dollar per year property.
Stranger
It’s been pretty clear for many years now that WotC’s goal with D&D is to create a walled garden for their customers in the form of digital content. They haven’t been able to meet that goal yet but they’re trying. If they get their way, you’ll see every player at the table with the D&D app. Assuming they’re playing at a real table and not a virtual table top. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I do accept that I’m outside WotC’s target demographic for the game and I am most certainly not the future of D&D. But given how unethical the video game industry as a whole is, how they abuse their customers and their own employees, I think concern is warranted.
It’s weird that I think 5th edition is the best version of D&D yet, but I own so few 5th edition books. Part of it is that I’m just not interested in D&D style games these days, but also because WotC just hasn’t released that many books I’ve been interested. And so I’m drifting away to other games like Call of Cthulhu, Aliens, Bladerunner, and anything else that isn’t D&D. I even checked into Runequest but decided I’d never find other players for it.
I did get a chuckle when he said the people at Gen Con were still his age. That he doesn’t see many younger people. I suspect the price of going to Gen Con has something to do with that.
It’s even worse than that. Boutique game software companies—which is what Hasbro appears to be trying to turn Wizards of the Coast into—tend to be not very lucrative businesses long term and are frequently not viable unless they are purchased by a larger, highly diversified game studio. This is in part because of platform changes and also the necessity of updating graphic engines, game aesthetics and art design, et cetera, every few years but also because it is a market with a lot of competition and finite growth for new products unless they establish broad appeal.
Developing a VTT type of platform in a ‘walled garden’ environment might make sense in terms of keeping players invested in Dungeons & Dragons® as a game, but the smart thing to do would be to contract or license it out, making the implementation and maintenance someone else’s problem; instead, they seem to want to make something more tightly integrated than just a virtual play environment with a lot of automation, animation, and doubtless, eventually some kind of generative AI that will supplement or replace the Dungeon Master, and essentially dispense with the publishing side of the business except as a premium niche. I’m sure some MBA thinks that this will be all profit and no ongoing cost once they pay a group of offshore developers to set up the platform for them, but the reality is likely to be a white elephant that is costly to maintain and difficult to attract new players into their costly subscription model.
Although I have never played it, from what I’ve heard D&D 5th Edition is the best rules of any edition in terms of making things more consistent and well organized; however, I’m not sure that this makes it the best version of the game in terms of challenge, conflict, or a sense of being a game with unique character. There is certainly a minority but vocal segment of RPG players looking for the more classical and “gritty” style of dungeon crawling and hex exploring using ‘Old School’ type rules, either cleaned up versions of original D&D/AD&D (1e) or modern rules but with the same sense of challenge and vulnerability of the ‘Seventies/‘Eighties era play.
Wizards of the Coast has the advantage of having the definitive brand of the industry that is recognizable by name even to people who have never played a role playing game, and that inertial will carry them a long way when the next largest competitors do a few percent of the revenue, but as you note they are putting less effort into producing appealing content (even while they tried to restrict or enrich themselves off of the third party creators actually keeping interest in their game and system alive) and more into trying to find ways to “monetize” their brand into double or even triple digit growth, which is the kind of logic that you only get by obtaining your Masters in Business Administration and going to a lot of Tony Robbins seminars.
Stranger
And, even if D&D is, by far, the biggest RPG out there, it’s still tiny, as a portion of WotC, much less Hasbro.
The link below, in which people were looking through Hasbro’s 2023 annual report, and trying to read the tea leaves, suggests that D&D tabletop RPG products only generate about $30 million in annual revenue. This represents only about 3% of WotC’s annual revenue – the rest would be Magic: the Gathering. FWIW, WotC, as a whole, is about 29% of Hasbro’s total revenue, so D&D sales represent probably less than 1% of Hasbro’s overall revenue.
However, it’s also noted that D&D (according to Forbes) generates about $100 million as a brand, meaning that the rest of it is coming from licensing (such as to video games like Baldur’s Gate, and the movie).
Which means that the smart thing for Hasbro would be to do everything they can to keep the brand alive, even if it means taking a loss on the tabletop gaming sector.
I keep hearing they want to turn D&D into a billion dollar brand, but that seems like quite a stretch to me.
That dude-“professor DM” makes his $ by getting clicks from clickbait anti WotC vids- and in many of them his “facts” are doubtful.
And I dont see anything wrong with wanting to monetize a game. Hell, I designed some stuff and I certainly wanted some monetization from it. And of course this have nothing todo with the fake OGL issue.
No, this is false. Yeah, they hope that their digital game branch goes big time. But they still make and sell physical books. There is nothing that indicates they are trying to take away “paper and pencil” in person tabletop gaming. But there are a LOT of people who cant get a in person group together- WotC hopes to make online gaming easy- and profitable.
I have played every edition, OD&D, 1e, 2e, 3e, 3.5, 4e (and PF1) and 5e. And yeah, there were issues with OD&D and 3.0 (3.5 came out quickly to fix a lot of stuff). But every other edition is fun- because the edition doesnt really matter- it is the DM and the players that make a great game. Hell- I have played great games of Tunnels and Trolls even- so the system doesnt even matter that much.
5e is kinda special as it is comparatively simple and easy to learn- you dont have to be an experienced gamer to join in. So- for new players and bring in new gamers- it is the best . (Holmes Basic also did that well).
WotC has seen there is a lot of undeveloped market out there for online gaming of D&D.
Then it should be trivial for you to demonstrate that his statements are false, right? And while the few videos I’ve posted here pertain to WotC and Hasbro because that is the topic of the thread, the vast majority of his content has nothing to do with Hasbro/WotC corporate politics or even much about Dungeons & Dragons per se; he largely discusses OSR-style fantasy game reviews, game mastering and player management techniques, et cetera.
The problem isn’t that Hasbro is trying to make money off of D&D; it is that they are explicitly trying to ‘monetize’ (i.e. force customers to pay for) every part of the player experience that they possibly can, largely by blocking third party content creators (which was the root of the OGL 1.1 debacle) and trying to lure players into their “walled garden” of OneD&D…instead of, say, publishing high quality adventures and sourcebooks, or participating in the larger RPG community by making content readily available for existing and popular VTT platforms and fostering third party creators by offering product support to the benefit of garnering more engagement and more resources for DMs and players.
Stranger
What statements? Yeah Hasbro hired Hight. No one was “ditched” to hire him. Williams resigned three months ago. No news article about Hights hiring mentions anything about “monetize the game into a billion dollar per year property.”
I am not gonna watch one of his crappy clickbait YTs.
Nor did I claim that in THIS YT are the facts in doubt. I said “in many of them his “facts” are doubtful.” Likely there are some bad facts here also, but without a transcrpt, I could not point them out for you.
Cite? And no a biased YT is not a cite.
WotC has recently published quite a few high quality sourcebooks-
Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants (Dungeons & Dragons Expansion Book), The Book of many Things, Spelljammer, Planescape, Quests from the Infinite Staircase (July 16th) , Vecna: Eve of Ruin, etc etc.
Not to mention Baldurs gate 3.
How about The Washington Post:
https://wapo.st/4cMYMBz
The leaked changes to the OGL, Jarvis and other critics argue, seem designed simply to monetize and extend control over the sprawling network of creators the OGL once empowered — part of a consolidation of the D&D brand under the One D&D label, a project WotC is calling “the future of D&D” that includes an updated ruleset, the D&D Beyond subscription service and a forthcoming official virtual tabletop app.
Stranger
That’s mainly because WotC telling their shareholders they planned on doing a better job monetizing the brand is something they told their shareholders last year or the year before. And it appears as though they’re looking to adopt similiar strategies we’ve seen video game companies employ to monetize their brand.
That article was written about the OGL controversy- which turned out not to be a controversy. The Olg draft was leaked, fans said they hated the idea- and WotC not only dropped the idea but publicly apologized. So that article is outdated and meaningless.
And there is nothing wrong with that. When I came out with my supplement, I sure as hell wanted to “monetize it” (it didnt really happen). In fact every game designer I know likes to have their products monetized. Oddly, game designers like to eat on a regular basis and pay rent, etc. I mean, we (and I can use we altho I only consult now) do love the hobby and yes, that is part of why we write. But money is nice too. And Hasbro/WotC is the only RPG game company I know that is publicly traded - and they have to answer to their shareholders.
Professor DM seems to think “monitize” is a bad word- altho of course he has … what’s that word ?..oh yes…Monetized his clickbait YT channel. 
You don’t really think critics of the monetization statment are against WotC or other game companies making money, do you? Part of the monetization effort includes licenses for video games, toys, movies, etc., etc. which I think most people are fine with. I’ve certainly never heard anyone criticize WotC for those things. Like the video games industry, they’re trying to monetize the game by making customers recurrent spenders. i.e. They’re going to nickle & dime their customer base with subscription fees and micro transactions. WotC is going to to their best to push players into their walled garden where even those playing at the table won’t be playing without their D&D app.
The critic in question is is against WotC even existing, let alone making money. he found out he could get more clicks by being the WotC hater guy, and that is where he is. He has made “monetize” into a dirty word.
Which is standard for online video games. That doesnt mean WotC is gonna do that, but since most everyone else is doing it, it seems a bit hypocritical to say WotC is evil if and when they do it.
And this last line
is not true. WotC is selling books too- the new edition is available as a book. Yes, they would like people who cant find a table or who want more gaming than once a week to play online, and there is nothing wrong with that.
I mean look at Games Workshop, which constantly changes the armies so that old armies are totally worthless and you have to buy new armies- not to mention they sued fan Artists.