Wizards of the Coast unintentionally shook up the roleplaying game business early this year, damaging the Dungeons & Dragons brand value and strengthening its competition in the process, but with an overall positive effect for Spring (January through April) sales. The shake-up was the result of WotC’s ham-handed efforts to change its Open Gaming License to exert more control and derive more revenue from third-party content.
A distributor summarized. “The real impact we saw from the OGL 2.0 debate was a spike in our non-D&D RPG sales, with Pathfinder aggressively working to take advantage of the situation,” the distributor said.
Overall D&D sales may have been buttressed by the theatrical release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves in March, which didn’t cause a surge in sales, but may have prevented a decline.
The biggest launches in the period were Magpie Games’ Avatar Legends RPG and Steamforged Games’ Dark Souls RPG.
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ICv2’s Top 5 Roleplaying Games – Spring 2023 (Hobby Channel) |
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Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
|
1 |
Dungeons & Dragons |
Wizards of the Coast |
|
2 |
Pathfinder |
Paizo |
|
3 |
Avatar Legends RPG |
Magpie Games |
|
4 |
Vampire: The Masquerade |
Renegade Game Studios |
|
5 |
Dark Souls RPG |
Steamforged Games |
The in-depth version of this article appeared in Internal Correspondence #104. For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, click here.
For other market reports on Spring 2023, see:
Top Brands Drive TCG Modest Growth
Games Workshop Slims Down Channel, ‘BattleTech’ Bulks Up, ‘D&D’ Declines
Board and Card Game Sales Softer
If you are a U.S. retailer, e-mail Dennis Viau at DViau@ICv2.com to get your free subscription to ICv2’s Internal Correspondence.
ICv2 Pro subscribers have early and complete access to Internal Correspondence. Click here for the complete Internal Correspondence #104.
Source: ICv2
