Wizards of the Coast unveils new D&D Battle Pass Monetization
Wizards of the Coast has begun to move forward with new revenue streams for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game was deemed “under monetized.” Their first initiative was unveiled this week as they introduced a seasonal battle pass with its own proprietary leveling and reward system. “We believe that this new stage of Dungeons and Dragons will herald in a new age of heroism and profits,” said marketing lead Jason Garret. “Our hope is that the battle pass for adventures will help players feel a sense of pride and accomplishment as they gain prestige and truly become Heroes of the Forgotten Realms. We can’t wait to see you all explore every corner of Faerûn, from the top of the Sword Coast to the bottom of the Sword Coast.”
Players will have the chance to gain at least seven types of currency, not including the various denominations of coinage already in the game. Though not every detail has been explained, screenshots of the battle pass show that Art Objects pay for decorations of the PC’s home, Gems are used to boost experience, and Tomes reveal new feats. Limited edition weekly challenge adventures available for purchase at the Dungeon Masters Guild will bring new opportunities for great new items and loot, and Wizards has promised that these new adventures will definitely not just be reused Adventurer’s League material.
In order to maintain legitimacy as players level up their battle pass, Wizards is still looking into various methods for verification. “At first we were going to require that all games be played with sanctioned WotC dungeon masters,” said Garret, “but then we realized that DMs were the only people buying our product. In fact, preliminary focus groups suggest that most of the existing dungeon masters will buy the battle pass for their players.” Though a final verification method has not been decided on, Garrett has promised it will not involve NFTs or any other blockchain technology, though he had a melancholy look on his face as he said recent market developments had caused the company to look to other avenues.
54 Comments
Is this an off-season April Fools joke?
That awkward moment when you’re not sure if it’s satire or a prophecy
Wizard is so lost
Gave me a good laugh. But in today’s times, some of this actually might become true ^^;
What a great way to get more people to start playing Pathfinder!
Because everyone trusts WotC these days
Not even that far fetched, if you toned it down a little and made battle pass progression based on purchasing adventurers league content or something they could actually track, itd be downright believable
Are we still talking about tabletop gaming, somehow?
Waiting to see how many people think this is real.
Don’t give them ideas, they’ll fuckin do it.
This is idiotic on so many levels.
But what if they stopped providing you with ways to build characters and instead sold you a already built PC as an NFT? They could even do this for the tabletop game. Imagine all the paper they would save? Or maybe each book is sold as a pdf NFT? Maybe they could offer to convert troublesome players into NFTs also! Lol
This is a joke right? And a bad one at this.
What game is this?
I would make a comment but they made me sign a n.d.a so I can have my soul back.
Hahahaha. That’s great stuff right there!
Like wtf Wizards.
Pride and accomplishment you say?
I mean I guess if they are using the Wizards VTT, but how is this diffrent from the rewards and stuff on D&D beyond? None of it is helpful at all for in person games. It just makes the online tools more complicated and less user friendly I see the shift in focus from the game to making it all virtual and costing an arm and a leg making little gains for them. Like how they came out with 4th ed that was so bad many people still just play 3.5 since it was grounded and they have all the books. I see 5th doing the same, especially if the new “One D&D” will just be mostly virtual content.
Step 1: acquire beloved IP/franchise
Step 2: go woke and try to dilute the core experience as much as possible to appeal to largest audience
Step 3: attempt to squeeze as much money as possible out of said audience
Step 4: Realize that due to the nature of your IP, any product you create is supplimentary in nature and anything of quality will be naturally filtered and disseminated among its audience
Step 5: ???
Step 6: corporate overlords seethe and moan with the realization that you can’t monetize pdf readers and creativity
You’re under arrest
…is this real? Lol
I don’t understand, so now they want you to pay a subscription to play d&d with your friends? Or is this only for adventure league. Good lord stop the damn greed!
Ok announcing all this and having ZERO plan to make it work for DM is the height of foolishness. Yeah so players buy it? But no DM to run it means player stop buying. What the heck guys?
To be real I will run regardless of what DnD does as I can run old stuff and OTHER games. It just who gets my money….
Wtf is it april 1st?
Anyone want to get back into pathfinder?
I hope this backfires on them. I’m sick and tired of everyone going for “battle passes” and “regular membership” fees or ” exclusive content”.
Not everything is a “free” phone game.
Damn this new marketing system…
I hope this backfires on them. I’m sick and tired of everyone going for “battle passes” and “regular membership” fees or ” exclusive content”.
Not everything is a “free” phone game.
Damn this new marketing system…
The beginning of the end. I’m curious what what game will take the crown as most popular TTRPG.
The saddest thing is that I didn’t notice this was satire till it was pointed out.
What a world we live in
I hope not
Please for the love of all that is holy tell me this is fake XD
As a DM I will most definitely not be doing or using this new “Monetization” content. And I am fairly confident that I am not alone in that feeling.
Lol there’s no way this is real, right? Dude literally used the exact same “sense of pride and accomplishment” phrase that got EA in such scalding hot water.
What kind of idiots think people are going to pay for a battle pass or a subscription to a tabletop role-playing game. Oh yeah these idiots. This is not going to do well, people are just going to buy the old books and then homebrew the rest. Unless you can find a way to motivate players to actually pay for content as opposed to DM’s buying everything 90% of the time. you’re not going to get extra monetization out of d&d at least not without pissing virtually everyone off. Which just means the new methods will not be very successful.
Dear unfailing and loyal ATM…I mean fans,
We at Wizards of the Coast are pleased to announce that due to market conditions and the impending recession, we have made the difficult decision to cut staff in order to keep our company financially stable.
However, we also understand that our beloved Dungeons and Dragons players are the lifeblood of our company, and as such, we have decided to milk our user base for as much money as possible. We need to hit our holiday bonuses too, ya know? We believe that this is the best course of action to ensure the continued personal success our executive team.
We understand that this may be a difficult pill to swallow for some of our devoted fans, but we assure you that this decision was not made with our fans in mind. We value your loyalty and support, and know that you will continue to stand by us during these trying times – even if it means moving back into mom’s basement.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Wizards of the Coast
It’s a tabletop RPG, not a video game. We can get all that stuff already without paying for it, why would we buy a pass?
Not all people that play Dungeons and Dragons are interested in going digital. I, for one, have a rule of no electronics at my table. I do not own digital versions of the books. I prefer paper. Also, the idea that the only people that buy your products are DM’s is, quite frankly, erroneous and slightly insulting. I am just a player, but I enjoy the products.
This is going against everything DnD stands for…gygax would be ashamed.
Yeah I’m not gonna buy into these shenanigans. I’ve been DMing for 35 years, I’m good without all this extra stuff. k thank bai
…is this parody, or bullshit?
Holy shit, they actually used the forbidden line “sense of pride and accomplishment” for their shit new microtransaction system. How did that ever get past marketing????
It’s such a crappy way to phrase the IP – “undermonetized”. So instead of offering anything tangible, make new products, or even bring back the campaign worlds people have been asking for, they will just charge for nothing. Yes, I have not fully looked into this yet and my opinion may change, but it’s a move that stinks, in my opinion, because (and they even acknowledge) they do not understand their customer base.
Wow. Why would anyone pay for a battle pass for a game that primarily runs on imagination and user-generated content. As a DM I could just give the players the rewards or IDK give them rewards that synergize with their character choices? The best times I’ve had with d&d have been when I barely use the books and just wing it.I didn’t have to pay for the books I have but I did anyway because I believe in the product’s ability to bring people together.
Wizards of the coast parody team
Dumbest idea ever. They are about to lose a buttload of people. Especially thier longtime fans.
They have to know that no one is going to buy this… the vast majority of players are just normal ass people playing online or in person. Developing this is a waste of time and money.
It wasn’t the content that tipped me off this was satire, only the phrasing/quotes. Tells you a bit about what I think of WotC by now …
Can we agree that D&D characters and monsters appearing in Fortnite will most definitely be a thing?
Please be satire, please be satire lol
This is ridiculous. First they ramped the prices of their Magic cards and now they want to do a battle pass? How money hungry are they going to get?
Wizards is hard pressed to kill off their biggest franchises. This certainly does not bode well for the future of DnD.
Seeings that Hasbro owns WotC, and that Hasbro has ruined many other IP’s this comes as no surprise. TSR did basically the same thing several years ago and D&D was sold so expect in less than 10 years for D&D to have new owners. I will probably not be playing D&D One if I have to pay a monthly payment outside of dndbeyond. Greed always ruins the fun.
It’s not that shocking. TSR did it with the RPGA, KenzerCo did it with the HMA, if WotC attaches some kind of actual benefit/ reward to it, I could see it working. Imagine getting free DnDBeyond books at set levels, and instead you’re paying the monthly fee and earning them through playing the game.