I cannot wait to read...

[Clint_L]

...the investigative journalism about what has been going on at Hasbro over the past week or so.

Because it is going to be fascinating. You can bet that there are different factions battling over what has been going on, and at this point jobs are on the line. I want to know how they screwed this up so badly. I want names named. I want drama.

I will bet you anything that right now they are remain divided over what has gone wrong and what to do about it. You will have the corporate types who don't really know or care about D&D except as a relatively small part of their business that has suddenly gone nuclear, there will be others who saw it as their ticket to running the next Marvel Studios, others who warned that this was a bad idea.

Who gets fired out of this?

 

[Scribe]

 

[darjr]

Yes, that book is going to be interesting.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Who gets fired out of this?

Who get's fired? Almost certainly nobody who deserves to.

I think they have done and will continue to do irreparable harm to the brand, but that it wont be tangibly clear very soon how great that harm is. The probable success of what looks like a pretty good movie at the end of March and/or a much anticipated Baldur's Gate 3 late this Summer (both things that actually have relatively little to do with WotC, are overwhelmingly the work of creative people at other companies, and whose appeal goes beyond people who know much at all about the table top game, much less the OGL) will further obfuscate the erosion of loyalty to the core product. Between such things and management being able to blame drops in sales on "people just putting off purchasing until OneD&D comes out" (or some such) I think the people strangling the good will out of D&D will cling on to their jobs for years to come if they feel so inclined (and I'm sure the people destroying D&D are amongst the best compensated over at WotC). Then OneD&D will come and even if its a failure it will still have strong numbers at the outset. And years down the line when its sales are in the doldrums our bad actors can presumably just tell the fancier suits at Hasbro or its board of directors "whoops, I guess the late 2010s tabletop fad just naturally ended".

Giant corporations aren't actually particularly good at running businesses, they can just afford to fail a lot more than everyone else.

 

[delericho]

Yes, that book is going to be interesting.

Yeah, but how far through it do you think we are?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

...the investigative journalism about what has been going on at Hasbro over the past week or so.

Because it is going to be fascinating. You can bet that there are different factions battling over what has been going on, and at this point jobs are on the line. I want to know how they screwed this up so badly. I want names named. I want drama.

I will bet you anything that right now they are remain divided over what has gone wrong and what to do about it. You will have the corporate types who don't really know or care about D&D except as a relatively small part of their business that has suddenly gone nuclear, there will be others who saw it as their ticket to running the next Marvel Studios, others who warned that this was a bad idea.

Who gets fired out of this?

Possible other thought.

We still haven't heard anything from Hasbro.

We do know the following-

1. There were a number of well-placed leaks. Almost as if they were sourced to drum up pushback.

2. There was, just prior to the (alleged) deadline and following all of the outrage, a coordinated response, led by Paizo, and including multiple prominent 3PPs.

I'd love to know what was going on at Hasbro. I'd also love to know ... what was happening (and when) at Paizo and other 3PPs.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

Possible other thought.

We still haven't heard anything from Hasbro.

We do know the following-

1. There were a number of well-placed leaks. Almost as if they were sourced to drum up pushback.

2. There was, just prior to the (alleged) deadline and following all of the outrage, a coordinated response, led by Paizo, and including multiple prominent 3PPs.

I'd love to know what was going on at Hasbro. I'd also love to know ... what was happening (and when) at Paizo and other 3PPs.

It's possible Paizo and some(or all) of the others were looking to break away from WOTC already and the OGL news was a convenient jumping point.

Granted that's all conjecture at this point, but that honestly wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Burt Baccara]

Financial Times has chimed in as well with, Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue.

Edit: try this link: Financial TimesDungeons & Dragons & fear & loathingIf FTAV had a quid for every time we've written about Wizards of the Coast in the past couple of months, we'd have £2, which isn't a lot,....2 hours ago

Edit 2: Nope, that does not work. Got to news.google.com, search "Dungeons & Dragons" this article will be in the results and that link seems to work.

 

[Enrahim2]

It's possible Paizo and some(or all) of the others were looking to break away from WOTC already and the OGL news was a convenient jumping point.

Granted that's all conjecture at this point, but that honestly wouldn't surprise me.

Paizo starting to release 5ed material, and PF2 being based on OGL and still far to early in it's lifecycle to even contemplate new version? I seriously doubt so.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Financial Times has chimed in as well with, Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue.

Behind a paywall. What is the gist ?