Hasbro Buys ‘D&D Beyond’, WotC Has Plans For All That Data
Earlier this week, Hasbro announced they were acquiring D&D Beyond, the leading digital toolset for 5th Edition D&D. And WotC has plans.
Big news in the tabletop world this week. Hasbro, parent company of WotC, makers of D&D, announced Wednesday that it was acquiring D&D Beyond for $146 million in cash. Shortly thereafter WotC announced, very clearly, “we have no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond.” This is sure to be good news for the toolset’s userbase.
One of the chief concerns has been Wizards of the Coast developing their own digital toolset or virtual tabletop. After all, Hasbro has charged WotC to make their digital ambitions grow. But as part of their “welcome to the family” post, WotC reassured folks that everyone’s digital purchases are safe:
With over 10 million users, millions of characters created, and millions of campaigns played, the team of 80 passionate creators across US and Europe have brought so much joy to D&D players around the world, including helping friends and family come together to play through a global pandemic.
You’re probably wondering what kind of change might happen as a result of these two teams coming together, so let’s make this clear: we have no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond. The purchases you’ve made, the characters you’ve created, and the campaigns you’ve run aren’t going anywhere.
Hasbro + D&D Beyond Means Dungeons & Data
D&D Beyond, originally created by Curse in 2017, exploded onto the 5th Edition scene. The original product included digital compendiums, character sheets, and campaigns. But they quickly added more features – and though the Roadmap for the site has changed over the years, by and large they’ve continued to improve. Some of the more interesting features D&D Beyond employs include Twitch integration for livestreamed games, as well as an encounter builder.
Later, Fandom acquired the digital toolset, and expanded D&D Beyond’s digital presence. But for a while, one of the chief benefits of D&D Beyond was its insights into player habits. The data D&D Beyond had access to let us see things like the most popular spells, classes, and more.
This is a tool WotC’s new president, Cynthia Williams, plans to leverage. In Hasbro’s announcement, Williams outlined WotC’s thinking:
“The strategic acquisition of D&D Beyond will deliver a direct relationship with fans, providing valuable, data-driven insights to unlock opportunities for growth in new product development, live services and tools, and regional expansions. As part of Wizards, the brand’s leadership will soon be able to drive a unified, player-centric vision of the world’s greatest role-playing game on all platforms.”
So clearly bigger things are still coming down the pipeline. The future of D&D Beyond looks bright. We’ll see what comes next for the billion dollar tabletop giant.
What do you think this means for D&D Beyond?
