Did I mention that Hasbro will never, ever, sell off D&D?
I think I did.
Just look at Marvel as a good example. The Marvel print Comics division is shit. Perpetual declining sales numbers, annually laid off staff, with no upswing in sight.
I keep hearing this. I guess it made some geek news circles and nobody every questioned it and just takes it as gospel.
So let's start with comics in general:
...
No let's not. No one was talking about “comics in general.”
* No one.
Holy Crap dude.
I was actually agreeing with your larger point, which made up the majority of my post! And then you climb back on this molehill to die on?
What part of me mentioning Marvel or DC Comics leads you to believe that I’m talking about anything else but Marvel and DC Superhero Comics? Worth noting that I
explicitly used the phrasing
"Marvel print Comics division" in my post that you directly quoted!
No one else but you seems to have a problem getting this.
You didn't "keep hearing this". This argument already happened. You did question it. Got told.
Busted this bit of deflection in this thread:
https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/will-the-current-woke-environment-hasten-or-delay-a-wotc-commitment-to-6th-ed/msg1161368/#msg1161368A reference for those who don’t want to read the other thread all the way:
The Below was current as of late 2017:
Marvel filed for bankruptcy in 1996.
In 2007 Marvel took in 45% unit market share. Marvel was on a roll, Iron Man came out the next year, which brought in $585 Million at the box office.
In 2009 it was bought for $4 Billion by Disney. An incredible turn around. Unfortunately, by then Marvel had become entirely converged.
What’s more, the security of being owned by Disney allowed the Marvel executives to let their Social justice Freak Flag Fly. It would be hard to find a SJW cause that Marvel has not Relentlessly pushed. Everything from LGBTQ, Body-positive Obesity, feminism, and pushing comics that tried race/gender flipping a good chunk of their iconic characters.
When Marvel got pushback after introducing Spider-Man replacement Miles Morales in 2011, Marvel Marvel’s editor in chief Axel Alonzo responded “Simple fact is Marvel Comics reflect the world in all its shapes, sizes and colors. We believe there’s an audience of people out there who are thirsty for a character like Miles Morales.” Original Spider-Man creator Stan Lee voiced his support saying “Doing our bit to try to make our nation, and the world, color blind is definitely the right thing.”
But whether doing their bit to impose color blindness on the world is right or not, their belief in the size of that audience was evidently misguided.
Six years later, Axel Alonso was out of a job, the most recent issue of Spider-Man featuring Peter Parker had sold close to a million units, while the Miles Morales version has seen one series after another shut down after 12 issues or so. After one year, Brian Michael Bendis’ new comic chronicling the further adventures of Miles Morales had lost almost two-thirds of its readership.
As a result of its convergence, despite an almost ten-year string of successful movies that constantly advertised its famous characters to the public, Marvel as of 2017 was still the #1 seller but at a 39% unit market share. It was a comic industry in decline. Single issue sales declined 10.40% and graphic novel sales declined 9.38%, for a total drop of 10.09% over 2016. In fact July 2017 Sold 25% fewer comics than July 2016.
How did Marvel stay #1 in a declining market?
Because their closest competitor, DC comics had decided early on that they, under no circumstances whatsoever, would allow DC comics to become less woke than Marvel…
fast forward to 2020:
As we have seen in the time of the Corona-Chan, when people have more time than ever to stay home and read:
Print book sales actually rose 8% in 2020:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/85256-print-unit-sales-rose-8-2-in-2020.html
Yet...
You have Marvel doing things like this late last year:
Disney Axes Two Top Marvel Employees In Latest Round Of Job Cuts:
https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/11/09/disney-axes-two-top-marvel-employees-marvel-in-latest-round-of-job-cuts/
And hear things like this being bandied about DC comics:
DC COMICS WILL CLOSE DOWN IN JUNE SAYS RUMOR
https://cosmicbook.news/dc-comics-closing-down-june
This is really not that hard.
FYI for future reference and all that: If someone comments on Marvel or DC comics; they mean Marvel or DC comics. You know, the ones with all the famous superhero's in them. They are not talking about "comics in general".
Marvel and DC Comics = Marvel and DC comics. Work on that. I have every confidence you'll get it.
Back to the point.
In past history Magic was better earner for WOTC, but D&D has always had more overall potential as an exploitable IP.
5e D&D as a game is doing absolute gangbusters right now. It's silly. They've been selling hardbacks by the boatload just retreading old AD&D material! Almost a license to print money with no end in sight.
But going woke does funny things. Dr. WHO once rode high, but recently has been plagued by
rumors of outright cancellation. Some think that might be due to the fact that when they started turning out woke garbage they alienated a lot of their fanbase who then stopped watching. But those people are probably just misogynist racists, and the real fans will come rushing back next season now that all the toxic elements of the fanbase have been purged and can no longer gatekeep.
Which is why NOW is a good time for Hasbro to try and put over D&D as a Brand so that it can bring in big $$$ without RPG sales. They got a movie, they are working on a tv series. And if those hit you bet they will pound out the novelization books, toys and YA novels to follow!
If Hasbro succeeds in what they are doing, then they could likely give a toss how woke the RPG line gets.
But, if they don't, and they let WOTC dial up the woke...
That being said. D&D has made such huge gains the past few years that they probably could literally alienate half of their audience, and still be the #1 selling RPG by a pretty big margin.
Between WOTC and Baizuo the cost of real competition for the top RPG spot - even if they do pull Chinballs Dr.Who moves, is higher than ever.
Even with 4e level errors it will prove very difficult for D&D as a game to not be the #1 RPG. We need to remember that if WOTC has been even a little bit more johnny on the spot with their 4e SRD, Baizuo would have stayed a D&D 4e 3pp...
With no one out there to pull their card over the 4e nonsense, D&D as a Brand might be in a very different place today.
*IMHO - If illustrated kids books now count as comics, then the time has come when we must all recognize the One True King of comic books:
Dr. SeussAll Hail.