Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks Says They “Misfired” on D&D Open Game License
But says that D&D Beyond cancellations did not significantly impact company’s bottom line
In a recent quarterly earnings call with investors, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks addressed the fallout from the recent controversy surroundings the Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License (OGL); the legal framework that governs how D&D rules and content can be used by third-party content creators.
Hasbro’s original plan to retool the decades old OGL had resulted in a massive online backlash, with thousands of fans calling for a boycott of D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast and the story receiving significant mainstream news coverage.
“We misfired on updating our Open Game License,” Cocks said during the call. “We have since course corrected, and are delivering a strong outcome for the community and game.”
Notably, Cocks also addressed the mass cancellation of subscriptions on D&D Beyond; the online content platform which Wizards of the Coast purchased for over $149 million back in April of 2022.
While many fans had believed the large number of cancellations of D&D Beyond was partially responsible for Wizards of the Coast deciding to walk back changes to the OGL, on the call Cocks indicated that the move had minimal financial impact.
“We had some subscription cancellations,” Cocks said, “but they were comparatively minor in the totality of both the D&D [profit and loss] and the Wizards [profit and loss].”
Cocks added that Wizards of the Coast had been actively contacting users who did cancel their subscriptions and found that “a lot of them are very open to restarting their subscriptions.”
Cocks also pointed out organization has since made good on its investment into D&D Beyond, with the platform experiencing a 20% user growth in 2022 along with a growth in revenue.
“It is a great platform,” Cocks said. “It’s a really good value, and it’s something that’s been a good growth factor for us.”
While the OGL controversy has settled somewhat in recent weeks, it still remains a sore spot for many fans. Wizards of the Coast has been attempting to smooth things over, with a PR blitz from D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink, who has been doing a number of interviews with influencers and creators, including most recently with D&D YouTuber Ginny Di. That being said, with new products like Keys from the Golden Vault launching before the dust has settled on the OGL, the financial impact may yet to be seen.
Much of the D&D brand’s financial future will depend on the success of the upcoming film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, starring Chris Pine, which is slated for release on March 31st. Cocks also noted on the call that the upcoming video game Baldur’s Gate 3, is also expected to provide a significant boost in revenue when it launches in the fall of 2023.
We’ll be keeping a close on this and other D&D stories in the days ahead.
More D&D News Coverage
For more from the world of Wizards of the Coast, visit our D&D News page.
Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
