Hasbro Dungeons & Dragons: DnDBeyond.com is one of the most popular digital toolsets for the popular tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, and it was owned by Fandom until a few days ago. According to a breaking press release from Business Wire, Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, which owns Dungeons & Dragons, is in the final stages of negotiations to acquire D&D Beyond.
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The "strategic acquisition.... will further strengthen Hasbro capabilities in the fast-growing digital tabletop category while also adding veteran talents to the Wizards of the Coast team," according to the press release. The website, which has approximately 10 million users, was purchased for nearly $150 million in cash. The fact that "over the last three years, the royalty paid to Hasbro by D&D Beyond has represented a significant contribution to their fastest growing source of revenue" prompted this purchase.
It's no surprise that the pandemic has elevated D&D Beyond to the top of the digital Wizards of the Coast Bundle un-owned list. According to the press release, by 2021, 80 percent of D&D fans will have played the game virtually. This figure is likely to rise as virtual tabletop (VTT) services become more widely available and easier to use.
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On the one hand, I can see how acquiring D&D Beyond could benefit players -- Fandom had to pay Wizards of the Coast a lot of money to get their product on their site. If WotC acquires D&D Beyond outright, they may offer some kind of cross-capability with digital products across multiple sites, toolkits, and VTT, lowering the capital barriers to gameplay.
However, the uniform consolidation of digital tools under a single company banner is not good for competition and, as a result, limits the player gameplay options. Despite the fact that WotC was able to indirectly determine the price of their products on the Fandom-owned D&D Beyond, it's now clear where the money is going. If fans have to pay twice or three times for a module, class, or item description across both WotC products and D&D Beyond, a sustainable market is unlikely.