Hasbro/Wizards has laid off almost all of the people responsible for the $63M in digital licensing profits from BG3 they brag about in their investor letter. Two weeks before Christmas.
Meanwhile, Dropout (Game Changer, Dimension 20) has instituted a full profit sharing program with everyone who worked on their productions, the majority of whom are contractors.
Get the D&D people in your life a Dropout subscription instead of the newest 5E book this Christmas!
This got way more reach than I expected!
For those unfamiliar with Dropout, they're an independent production company and streaming service. They make 1) Dimension 20, the best Actual Play TTRPG show on Earth and 2) several incredible improv/game show programs, including Game Changer, a game show with improv comedians where the game changes every time.
Start with this Game Changer ep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6m0jW0X9E
Or dive straight into Dimension 20 with Fantasy High: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZxCVBi7-k&list=PLhOoxQxz2yFOcJoLoPRyYzjqCbddeOjP4&index=2
One more clarifying thing here: these layoffs are at Hasbro (which owns Wizards of the Coast, which publishes D&D).
Revenue from BG3 was the only positive note in Hasbro's Q3 investor letter. They essentially said "we made tons of money from licensing" and then fired everyone who made them that money.
Larian, the studio that developed BG3, did not have layoffs! In a year with many game studio layoffs, that's commendable! Play Baldur's Gate 3!
See also: https://recurse.social/@dylnuge/111580262016923313
Attached: 2 images @[email protected] I didn't say Larian had layoffs! Hasbro's layoffs included almost all of Wizards' digital licensing team, which was responsible for Hasbro's profits on Baldur's Gate 3. Swen Vincke, the CEO of Larian, tweeted saying almost everyone they worked with on the Wizards side is gone. Licensing is work! The people at Wizards who worked with Larian are far more responsible for the the revenue Hasbro is listing in their Q3 Investor "highlights" than any Hasbro executive.
@dylnuge no wonder Critical Role is making their own rulebook.
No wonder Paizo's Pathfinder is seeing some interest (though whether Paizo is any better than Hasbro/WotC remains to be seen).
At this point I have to start yelling that Baldur's Gate III will have been successful not because of D&D, but IN SPITE OF.
@root The good news for Pathfinder fans is I think Paizo's player-friendlyness is pretty well established by now.
They had strong market share during the 4E era especially, with PF being seen by a lot of 3.5E fans (self included!) as the successor to the game we loved. PF2E has performed well.
From the beginning they've made all rule content from all books completely free (https://www.aonprd.com/). They cut the remaining D&D OGL ties in 2E when Wizards threatened the license.
@dylnuge and more power to Paizo and the playerbase if we get all the good stuff.
The issue is I did hear through the grapevine that there WAS some ugliness about the company itself. Admittedlty the tea dates back 2 years, but a quick web search for "paizo pathfinder controversies" will surface a fair few allegations.
@dylnuge "$63M in digital licensing profits"?
Are you serious clark?
Man, money is crazy. I've been marveling at the game, when I think about it.
I bought the game for $60. That's, reasonably, paying for 1 hour of 1 game devs labor.
There were hundreds of people who worked on the game, full time, for like 3 years.
Numbers are nuts
@frigginglorious To clarify, the $63M is *Hasbro's* reported profits on BG3, not Larian (the dev studio). Some of that also came from Monopoly Go—the exact breakdown isn't provided.
I can't find solid numbers, but based on various reports the total revenue from BG3 is probably closer to $600M–$1B, with most of that money going to Larian.
My goal was to highlight that layoffs aren't concerned with "value". Hard work isn't respected, loyalty is a unidirectional expectation, and execs are greedy.
Thanks for the suggestion. I despise WotC for the corporate culture they've imposed in the years since Gygax was ousted.
Pathfinder 2 is my favourite inclusive system that's also balanced for gameplay - unless Paizo are hiding some dark secrets, but I'll give Dropout a look.
@ecosaurian @dylnuge Hasbro is terrible in the way all multi-billion dollar companies are terrible, but oh man, TSR under Gygax was a whole different kind of terrible. I read two corporate histories of D&D (Game Wizards and Slaying the Dragon), and the decisions he made for TSR were.. not great.
But yeah, there's no need to buy anything from WotC, ever. I have mad respect for their design teams, but if you like 5e, it's all in the public domain now. Support independent creators!
@kate I didn't say Larian had layoffs! Hasbro's layoffs included almost all of Wizards' digital licensing team, which was responsible for Hasbro's profits on Baldur's Gate 3.
Swen Vincke, the CEO of Larian, tweeted saying almost everyone they worked with on the Wizards side is gone.
Licensing is work! The people at Wizards who worked with Larian are far more responsible for the the revenue Hasbro is listing in their Q3 Investor "highlights" than any Hasbro executive.
I'll add that the layoffs also hit a large number of artists, designers, the D&D Beyond Live Content team which produced the wonderful Battle for Beyond series, and a ton more (all of this coming from tweets from people impacted).
I don't mean in any way to imply that these people are any more or less important; I only meant to use BG3 as a highlight for how expressly blatant it is that this has nothing to do with whether the people laid off are "productive" or "revenue generating".
@RethinkJeff There's lots of great stuff that's produced/edited!
DesiQuest (https://www.desiquest.com/) is a new show with an excellent cast and phenomenal production (including the director of D20, Michael Schaubach).
CR has a few shorter and more tightly produced side-seasons like Exandria Unlimited and Candela Obscura.
Wizards briefly was doing good stuff with Battle for Beyond, though the team was laid off.
In audio-only land, NADDPOD and Worlds Beyond Number are both edited.
@RethinkJeff Yeah, totally fair. There's not a lot that quite hits the production of Dimension 20, either.
I'm a newer Actual Play convert (been playing for forever but also never really felt I had the time for something like CR; I came to Dropout through Game Changer) so I can't tell how much is just me and how much is this is actually the case, but it does feel like there's a huge surge in AP popularity and new programs right now!
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