I imagine the logic was that someone at Hasbro saw Critical Role, Dimension 20, etc making millions and felt it was "unfair" they're not getting any money.
But there's a quote attributed to Bill Gates that feels relevant here: "A platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it."
DnD is a platform now. That's really cool for them, and long term will benefit them a ton, even if they aren't able to "optimize" their revenue right now.
But Critical Role is also great advertisement. If Hasbro goes after them, Critical Role can just switch to another system and give them free advertisement instead. I guarantee that every single RPG creator would love for Critical Role to pick their system.
I think Critical Role is in no danger of them “going after” them as there are officially licensed Critical Role books and miniatures.
I’d imagine they’re wanting to get a cut of whatever money Paizo, and Kobold Gaming Press, or the D&D miniatures and books kickstarters that regularly raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I think the primary target is VTTs serving D&D 5e gameplay systems as an alternative to their planned 6e microtransaction machine in their upcoming OneD&D/D&D Beyond VTT. They want to sell classes and feats and spells etc. to players as microtransactions and justify it with 3d models and animations, but at that price many players would opt to forgot the 3d content for a system where they didn't have to pay... unless Wizards manage to prevent that system existing.
As a secondary target, getting a cut of Paizo's revenue is something I imagine Wizards like the idea of, but was not the primary goal.
Critical Role will probably just get a plain royalty free license for use in their main show as a side deal for the amount it promotes the game.
Oh I 100% agree. This is lose-lose for Hasbro (either people pay and are angry, or leave), and there's no way they ultimately make more with these rules than without them.
> DnD is a platform now. That's really cool for them, and long term will benefit them a ton, even if they aren't able to "optimize" their revenue right now.
Assuming they don't tank their platform, which it very much looks like right now.
But there's a quote attributed to Bill Gates that feels relevant here: "A platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it."
DnD is a platform now. That's really cool for them, and long term will benefit them a ton, even if they aren't able to "optimize" their revenue right now.