Hasbro, the parent company of Renton-based Wizards of the Coast, announced Thursday its plans to lay off 15% of its global workforce, a total of 1,000 employees. Hasbro declined to specify if the layoffs would hit Wizards of the Coast employees.
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The layoffs are part of broader leadership and organizational changes, according to the company. Hasbro’s overall revenue decreased 17% in the fourth quarter and 9% throughout fiscal year 2022 compared to the same periods the previous year.
The original OGL 1.0a, first released in the early '00s, will now "remain untouched" WotC announced in a tweet Friday. What's more, the entire D&D Systems Reference Document (SRD)—which also includes creative content like classes, spells, and monsters trademarked and copyrighted by WotC—is now available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, meaning it's free to use as long as proper credit is given.
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Now the entire SRD is under a Creative Commons license that, Brink pointed out, is "irrevocable in a way that doesn't require you to take our word for it." Choosing such a license is like going through "a one-way door," he added. "There's no going back."
Yeah I'll just bet those two news items are effect and cause. "OK you won't let us turbo-monetise everything about D&D? Guess we don't need to pay so many people to make D&D then huh?"
Yeah I'll just bet those two news items are effect and cause. "OK you won't let us turbo-monetise everything about D&D? Guess we don't need to pay so many people to make D&D then huh?"
You left out another thing: their new D&D movie that they sank a lot of money into/plan on cranking out more of for revenue and really don't want a lot of people boycotting because maybe something pissed all their fans off at the same time.
(Oh, and they have yet to say they've laying off any WotC people. Their losses are coming from other divisions, so the last thing they'd want to do is lay off people that are producing profit. A lot of that is MtG money, sure. But I'm pretty sure they're turning a decent profit off the folks working on D&D as well. Of course, they already made the poor decision of dumping poison in the well, so what do I know... But this is part of why they tried to squeeze even more money out of it: it was one of the few things they were making money from. So the logic goes if it's making money, it can make more money.)
And right now mass layoffs at WotC would be a bad idea for a second reason, they just gave their competitors increased market share via the license blunder, and cutting employees loose risks them getting snapped up, never to return. Institutional expertise is not easy to replace.
And right now mass layoffs at WotC would be a bad idea for a second reason, they just gave their competitors increased market share via the license blunder, and cutting employees loose risks them getting snapped up, never to return. Institutional expertise is not easy to replace.
I suspect they may need to hire even more people to be cultural shills ambassadors to try to rebuild all the stuff they torched.
However, I do not expect the sort of MBA bobblehead that thought the licensing snafu was a good idea to directly admit they fucked up because they clearly neither understand the product or the customer. That's adjacent to actually getting held accountable. Blame will get redirected to whatever poor fool(s) trusted them enough to not shield themselves from such.
And right now mass layoffs at WotC would be a bad idea for a second reason, they just gave their competitors increased market share via the license blunder, and cutting employees loose risks them getting snapped up, never to return. Institutional expertise is not easy to replace.
My experience is that the C-suite value institutional expertise on about the same level as yesterday's toilet paper.
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It was the wrong weight. That's why Indy poured out some of the sand, he's trying to keep the bag the same weight as the idol.
That was how the trap is triggered. Too heavy or too light and the pedestal goes down to start the ball rolling.
Next you'll ask how those dart air tanks stayed pressurized for a 1,000 years
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/01/dd-maker-retreats-from-attempts-to-update-longstanding-open-license/
You left out another thing: their new D&D movie that they sank a lot of money into/plan on cranking out more of for revenue and really don't want a lot of people boycotting because maybe something pissed all their fans off at the same time.
(Oh, and they have yet to say they've laying off any WotC people. Their losses are coming from other divisions, so the last thing they'd want to do is lay off people that are producing profit. A lot of that is MtG money, sure. But I'm pretty sure they're turning a decent profit off the folks working on D&D as well. Of course, they already made the poor decision of dumping poison in the well, so what do I know... But this is part of why they tried to squeeze even more money out of it: it was one of the few things they were making money from. So the logic goes if it's making money, it can make more money.)
I suspect they may need to hire even more people to be cultural shills ambassadors to try to rebuild all the stuff they torched.
My experience is that the C-suite value institutional expertise on about the same level as yesterday's toilet paper.