The Cheerful Death of the D&D Monopoly

on the 13th of February 2024 Hasbro owners of Wizards of the Coast and d and d reported a $1.06 billion loss for quarter 4 of 2023 that December they laid off 1,100 employees including members of Wizards of the Coast at almost the exact same time three high-profile competitors to D and D emerged dagger Hearts the mcdm RPG and dc20 this has left many people wondering is the D and D Monopoly dead oh yes baby let's tear into waty let's ruin them revenge for the ogl calm down Pitchfork shorts this isn't a takeown video remember many people at wizard of the coast also opposed the ogl and worked with the community to stop it from happening oh really so we're being nice to watsy now well we're not going to sugarcoat anything watsy have done but this is about the whole Community not just them let's cool off and approach this question seriously so let's start with the obvious Dungeons and Dragons has always been the TT RPG through the'80s and the satanic Panic it was DND D all over the news DND D was Satanism it was pushing kids to murder have sex and learn real witchcraft I don't know about you but a game that can do all that sounds awesome like every moral Panic ever all it really amounted to was free promotion D and D was all over TV and films if you're writing a nerdy character you make him play D and D then a group of nerdy ass voice actors start streaming Dungeons and Dragons and become the biggest show on Twitch then the biggest TV show in the world drops on the biggest media platform and the main characters play DND D and name their antagonists after its monsters then a global pandemic hits at the same time a new app called Discord is making it effortless to connect and game together all these factors saw D and D explode in terms of reach and cash so what's happening now take a look at these numbers Hasbro reported that wat's traditional tabletop sales amounted to 266 million in Q4 of 2023 that is money from both Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons however a 3 to 5% growth for Magic the Gathering translated to only a 1% growth overall for tabletop gaming sales if magic has grown 3 to 5% which for magic is huge it's a billion doll brand but magic and d and d together have only grown 1% there is only one explanation D and D must have lost money I see V2 suggests this is due to the ogl catastrophe to the lackluster performance of the D and D movie at the box office and the announcement of One D and D why buy a new book when the game is just going to change anyway right with that in mind the newest q1 report from Hasbro announced a 5% increase in tabletop gaming sales from last year primarily driven by The Fallout Magic the Gathering release D and D's money seems to be coming through licensing I.E balers Gate 3 that's very important we'll touch on it later all this s a bump in Hasbro stock but revenue is still down 24% from last year then throw on a string of General controverses watsy published material that they themselves admitted was racist in spal Jam they sent the pinkertons round to a Content Creator's home who physically stopped him closing the door on them and reduced his wife to tears Executives giving themselves multi-million dollar bonuses while Hasbro loses money and firing employees and reducing teams that are actively delivering profits and some terrible Glass Door reviews from employees working at the company hey you said this wasn't a takedown piece sorry yes I know I know but we do need to recognize that these things are important that doing bad things does have a negative impact on your community and on your profit margin but that's only half the story because while watsy have definitely dropped a few balls other people have been very busy in fact let's talk about one right now let's cut away to a bob World Builder adbreak hey DM we got a problem what what is it we're playing Dungeons and Dragons but there's no dungeon Dungeons and Dragons doesn't have dungeons in it anymore what is this the aces we want dungeons dude oh you want dungeons I want dungeons too man but no one makes them anymore there aren't any epic dungeons now that's where you're wrong God I'm better I'm Del did you just say you were the devil no I said delve delve is a two 200 plus page guide to dungeons by Bob World Builder and aventer games it's got an in-depth guide to building and surviving deadly dungeons 10 awesome plug andplay dungeons 40 new magic items 40 new monsters 30 new traps hazards and puzzles and new subclasses Feats and species for 5e plus cards and handouts to bring physicality to your game table you can also grab delve in a variation for the shadow dark RPG with new class Talent so no matter your favorite system you can play there's an early bird special on right now pledged for a physical product in the first 100 hours and get three exclusive holographic Monster cards I even designed them a monster the rag time skeleton with its own combat mechanic based around gaining and losing Tempo it's awesome take your games to the literal next level as you dive deep into dungeons with dve back it now on Kickstarter Link in description hey a relevant ad you'd think I'd planned this but I didn't I don't know what I'm doing but it leads us nicely to the next section because if a monopoly is dying it's because people are spending money elsewhere let's talk about the competition the most obvious competitor here is dagger heart critical role the group responsible for a huge amount of D and's cultural explosion have dropped their own game and it's good playing dagger heart feels pretty much the same as playing D and D 5 so it's a perfect system for people to transition to and with the weight of critical role behind it dagger har is going to take off big time but it is not alone standing to the left of critical role on the second place Podium of cultural influence is Matt cville the original DND YouTube guy before people like me came along and made videos full of explosions D and D YouTube was a static camera pointed at a man in his early 40s who talked about D and D for an hour at a time it was awesome Matt cville pretty much taught the entire covid generation of players how to run d and d 5e and he's also made his own game and that made 4.6 million in the first month on backer kit the mcdm RPG says directly to the viewers hey you know that game I taught you how to play I've made a better one come and play this and then there's the Grassroots systems which are growing from inside this community like dc20 by the dungeon coach this game is pretty much D and D sixth edition solving many of the problems with the current version of the game that people have it's the evolution that most people wanted one D and D to be I'll put a link to that one down below if you haven't checked it out yet then there's Pathfinder which exploded last year in response to the ogl selling 8 months worth of product in 2 weeks everyone who plays Pathfinder goes on about how great it is I've still not learned but those people who left they're not coming back and then Cobalt presses tales of the Valiant a system creat created directly in response to the ogl broke $1 million on Kickstarter as well and everyone's creating now monkey DM Bob World Builder the dungeon dudes me the world record for the biggest 5e Kickstarter ever was broken twice last year the competition is fierce it's really good people are actively engaging with it and as is always the case with the rich and the powerful they brought it on themselves with their own greed let's remember the things that shot I to the stratosphere the pandemic at least in terms of global lockdowns is over stranger things is finishing the final season comes out next year and there's critical role who now have their own game system to promote and talk about the response to wat's products has definitely shifted online as well spell Jammer was definitely the Tipping points but I think it started around stricks Haven Twitter and Reddit used to buzz with hype before every single watsi release and now they just don't the hype just isn't there and even here on YouTube things have evolved where once 5e was King you now have great channels like deck of DM things Viva Le dirt League XP to level three crit crab cork boards and Curiosities jinny D Matt cville dungeoncraft dungeon coach dungeon dad AR entric dingo Doodles all making content that isn't really 5e specific you don't need to play 5e to get value out of those channels that's why they're doing so well they are Broad hell Caleb Harrington is a YouTuber who's created one video at time of recording and it's awesome it has over 130,000 views right now and it's all about how Pathfinder is better than Dungeons and Dragons it used to be that you talk about Dungeons and Dragons 5e or you die on this platform but now only talking about D and D is actually harming YouTubers and once that ball gets rolling it doesn't stop the algorithm always wins if YouTube likes creators that talk about a broad range of TTR RPGs then those creators will be the ones that rise to the top and shape the public perception of the industry this is terrible for Dungeons and Dragons so in terms of a cultural Monopoly in terms of how people talk what cdnd is way weaker than it was even just 3 years ago but even that is a minor thing compared to this final point this is where the video turns into more of an opinion piece but from what I can see Hasbro and watsy just aren't interested in publishing anymore watsy have laid off their book team they've cut ties with penguin random house and they've reduced the design team again publishing doesn't pay enough to interest Hasbro D and D aren't even translating their stuff into Portuguese anymore despite a huge audience in Brazil the ogl was in part an attempt to monopolize the content creation space take away people's rights to create freely because that would mean no competition when that got slapped down they tried again this time attempting to strangle vtts because that would mean no competition for their VT luckily the community you came together again and slapped that down as well Innovation is hard it's risky and it takes time and costs money and Hasbro need money now that means squeezing money out of you making a VT they can push everyone into and then hit them with a subscription fee they believe there is more money there than there is selling bucks license ing the DND D brand to Lego or larion is perfect Hasbro don't need to do anything they can fire everybody and this is significant as before the money from D and D is coming from outside the house it's Boulders gate it's Lego it's other people and although those things might sell quite well they're not converting new people to the DND D ttrpg the money Hasbro C in the ttrpg is just doing what magic the Gathering is doing D and D universes Beyond where we see Fallout or Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter Etc as D and D three book sets that's their strategy Outsource and license so we have new creators rising up both inside and outside of D and D while watsy are leaving publishing behind in fact maybe the best thing they've done recently is approach thirdparty content creators and put their content on D and D Beyond this is a positive move for everyone but it does feel a little bad to take a handshake from someone who tried to murder you the year before yes yes the ogl was bad we know yes I know look D and D is a monopoly they don't need to be the best they just need the everyday person to not realize there is competition that is their ultimate advantage and that's what they gamble when they fire the book team and reduce the designers we're all better off when people understand they might prefer dagger heart or the mcdm RPG or dc20 or Pathfinder to D and D you might also prefer an mcdm or a loot tab 5e book over a watsy one in fact you definitely would and understanding that means you have power if their Monopoly is going to topple it starts here it starts with people like you making an informed choice on what to do with your money understanding all the options that you have so is the DND Monopoly dead well if critical roles switch to dagger heart for their next campaign if creators keep talking about new systems and books if people like you keep checking out and supporting third party content creators and if watsy and Hasbro continue the trend of moving away from making their own stuff and just licensing the brand to others leaving the tabletop scene open for smaller more ethical companies who want to be involved with the community then yeah I think we stand at that precipice it's actually kind of exciting right speaking of third party creators and systems I'm now making 3D Minis that you can use in any type of game you run you can download and print these minis from from my FS account like the gelatinous terask or your own special custom dice the taskque is free and you can get 50% off your subscription for epic monthly drops of minis with code D and D shorts 50 check that out to take your games to the next level and support the channel also remember to like And subscribe check out other videos and yeah that's all I got I'll see you next time

Channel: DnD Shorts

Views: 165,838

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Id: o9zLqIrPKWM

Length: 13min 51sec (831 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024