My group has been using D&D Beyond pretty much exclusively for our games. As such, we have gone completely digital with 5e and dont actually own any hard copy versions.
Well one of my players brought this question up during our last game. I have poked around to see if I can find the answer to this or to see if I could find the terms of the agreement. But I haven't found anything.
So yeah, what would happen to our paid content if the licensing deal with WotC ended?
Eventually, you would probably lose access to your WOTC content here. Even in the "best case" listed above, if they lost the license, odds are the site would ultimately shut down, as its primary purpose for existing would be gone. New players would not be able to buy content so they would go elsewhere, and the site would stop making money so it would have to shut down.
Caveat emptor on this -- buyer beware. It is the same exact situation you have with Kindle, with Nook, with Apple Books, with Vudu, etc. If the company that owns the property yanks the license, you are going to lose access through that medium, and yes, almost certainly have to buy access in the new medium, whatever that happens to be.
This is why physical hardcopies are always important because no one can take those away from you. That's why I buy almost all movies on Blu-Ray or 4K with the digital copy, and then redeem the copy. If the movie companies ever yank the license I still have it, as long as they keep making 4K players....
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It isn't something we can be sure of until it happens, but the odds of it happening is really really low.
Im not too sure about that considering Hasbro is putting a ton of pressure on WOTC to transition to digital markets for all of their products. Just look at whats happening to MTG for proof of this. At any time they could decide they want to keep this in house to keep 100% of the product/control. There have also been rumors that WOTC is being shopped around to being sold to another company.
It isn't something we can be sure of until it happens, but the odds of it happening is really really low.
Im not too sure about that considering Hasbro is putting a ton of pressure on WOTC to transition to digital markets for all of their products. Just look at whats happening to MTG for proof of this. At any time they could decide they want to keep this in house to keep 100% of the product/control. There have also been rumors that WOTC is being shopped around to being sold to another company.
I've heard no such rumours and considering that from Hasbro's last quarter reports mtg and DND are their most profitable IPs, I think this is bunk.
It isn't something we can be sure of until it happens, but the odds of it happening is really really low.
Im not too sure about that considering Hasbro is putting a ton of pressure on WOTC to transition to digital markets for all of their products. Just look at whats happening to MTG for proof of this. At any time they could decide they want to keep this in house to keep 100% of the product/control. There have also been rumors that WOTC is being shopped around to being sold to another company.
I've heard no such rumours and considering that from Hasbro's last quarter reports mtg and DND are their most profitable IPs, I think this is bunk.
Alpha is just one of the guys talking about it. I am not saying this will necessarily happen but it could. Also bear in mind even if Hasbro were to keep WOTC at some point a 6th edition will be released which may mean the content we bought on DDB will be expunged to make room for the new edition.
It isn't something we can be sure of until it happens, but the odds of it happening is really really low.
Im not too sure about that considering Hasbro is putting a ton of pressure on WOTC to transition to digital markets for all of their products. Just look at whats happening to MTG for proof of this. At any time they could decide they want to keep this in house to keep 100% of the product/control. There have also been rumors that WOTC is being shopped around to being sold to another company.
I've heard no such rumours and considering that from Hasbro's last quarter reports mtg and DND are their most profitable IPs, I think this is bunk.
Alpha is just one of the guys talking about it. I am not saying this will necessarily happen but it could. Also bear in mind even if Hasbro were to keep WOTC at some point a 6th edition will be released which may mean the content we bought on DDB will be expunged to make room for the new edition.
From what I have heard about any future 6th edition is it will be compatible with 5th edition. Also if a 6th edition did come out I do not believe the 5th edition here would be deleted for a new edition, due to all of us 5th edition customers of DDB would be upset and not continue to be DDB customers buying a 6th edition. If a 6th edition would be offered as well as that would continue to allow us the choice of 2 editions to use here.
Remember Hasbro is squeezing WOTC for as much revenue as possible now so reverse compatibility would be contingent on them being able to get Hasbro to sign off. I am sure thats the goal but that might not end up being the reality.
And there were a ton of people who played 3.5 and refused to switch to 4e. Didn't stop them from killing support for the game. All I am trying to say is that people should know that anything you buy on DDB could disappear a year, 5 yrs who knows from now.
If you want further evidence just look at what WOTC has done in the past. They were fully invested in Stainless Games to develop a new magic online then they dropped them to develop Arena while continuing to run MTGO. It is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of the expected life when WOTC has switched providers so often in the past.
I would hate for someone to drop $500 in the marketplace then 5 yrs from now have nothing to show for it.
hasbro wont force a 6th edition now due to 5th edition being the best selling edition ever as far as I can tell, And as for editions being compatible, 1st edition worked with 2nd edition then they went with 3rd edition then had to go with 3.5 due to issues then went to 4th and lost many players. Now we have 5th edition which had the largest playtest ever and it is very strong with a lot of the old school gamers and the newer gamers, looking at the history they won't do another edition fiasco and alienate everyone.
Someone would buy it. No way in hell WOTC would allow that many players to be left empty handed. The same thing happened to many a digital movie distri utor. Licenses just transfer.
My group has been using D&D Beyond pretty much exclusively for our games. As such, we have gone completely digital with 5e and dont actually own any hard copy versions.
Well one of my players brought this question up during our last game. I have poked around to see if I can find the answer to this or to see if I could find the terms of the agreement. But I haven't found anything.
So yeah, what would happen to our paid content if the licensing deal with WotC ended?
Check out my Homebrew Magic Items
That would depend entirely on the deal WotC and DDB have with regards to licensing.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Eventually, you would probably lose access to your WOTC content here. Even in the "best case" listed above, if they lost the license, odds are the site would ultimately shut down, as its primary purpose for existing would be gone. New players would not be able to buy content so they would go elsewhere, and the site would stop making money so it would have to shut down.
Caveat emptor on this -- buyer beware. It is the same exact situation you have with Kindle, with Nook, with Apple Books, with Vudu, etc. If the company that owns the property yanks the license, you are going to lose access through that medium, and yes, almost certainly have to buy access in the new medium, whatever that happens to be.
This is why physical hardcopies are always important because no one can take those away from you. That's why I buy almost all movies on Blu-Ray or 4K with the digital copy, and then redeem the copy. If the movie companies ever yank the license I still have it, as long as they keep making 4K players....
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It isn't something we can be sure of until it happens, but the odds of it happening is really really low.
Im not too sure about that considering Hasbro is putting a ton of pressure on WOTC to transition to digital markets for all of their products. Just look at whats happening to MTG for proof of this. At any time they could decide they want to keep this in house to keep 100% of the product/control. There have also been rumors that WOTC is being shopped around to being sold to another company.
I've heard no such rumours and considering that from Hasbro's last quarter reports mtg and DND are their most profitable IPs, I think this is bunk.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
actually there has been alot of discussion of these rumors in the mtg community over the past year or so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPuBOvTIUQ
Alpha is just one of the guys talking about it. I am not saying this will necessarily happen but it could. Also bear in mind even if Hasbro were to keep WOTC at some point a 6th edition will be released which may mean the content we bought on DDB will be expunged to make room for the new edition.
From what I have heard about any future 6th edition is it will be compatible with 5th edition. Also if a 6th edition did come out I do not believe the 5th edition here would be deleted for a new edition, due to all of us 5th edition customers of DDB would be upset and not continue to be DDB customers buying a 6th edition. If a 6th edition would be offered as well as that would continue to allow us the choice of 2 editions to use here.
Remember Hasbro is squeezing WOTC for as much revenue as possible now so reverse compatibility would be contingent on them being able to get Hasbro to sign off. I am sure thats the goal but that might not end up being the reality.
And there were a ton of people who played 3.5 and refused to switch to 4e. Didn't stop them from killing support for the game. All I am trying to say is that people should know that anything you buy on DDB could disappear a year, 5 yrs who knows from now.
If you want further evidence just look at what WOTC has done in the past. They were fully invested in Stainless Games to develop a new magic online then they dropped them to develop Arena while continuing to run MTGO. It is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of the expected life when WOTC has switched providers so often in the past.
I would hate for someone to drop $500 in the marketplace then 5 yrs from now have nothing to show for it.
hasbro wont force a 6th edition now due to 5th edition being the best selling edition ever as far as I can tell, And as for editions being compatible, 1st edition worked with 2nd edition then they went with 3rd edition then had to go with 3.5 due to issues then went to 4th and lost many players. Now we have 5th edition which had the largest playtest ever and it is very strong with a lot of the old school gamers and the newer gamers, looking at the history they won't do another edition fiasco and alienate everyone.
Someone would buy it. No way in hell WOTC would allow that many players to be left empty handed. The same thing happened to many a digital movie distri utor. Licenses just transfer.
Dude this topic is old and is no longer relevant since WOTC bought them out lol
Check out my Homebrew Magic Items