Actually. I can guess why the firings.

Sigil is up and running. Released a week ago? Seems to work and has enough to get going. Some things are locked behind the Mester subscription. But that was a 100% gonna happen thing.

So what happened was they did what MMO companies do. They fired everyone not integral to mainenance and modelling. Maybe keep a writer. But odds are wotc thinks they can do all that with chatGPT and dont need em.

Have not downloaded it yet. But watched someone else bumble through tinkering with their Master access.

Surprisongly it can port in Beyond PCs. But only ones made with fake 5e.

All that makes sense but why hasn't WotC come out with a statement saying Sigil is alive and well and just shipped and the doom and gloom is just click-bait guesswork?

Quote from: Ruprecht on March 21, 2025, 10:58:19 AMAll that makes sense but why hasn't WotC come out with a statement saying Sigil is alive and well and just shipped and the doom and gloom is just click-bait guesswork?

You mean "Why hasn't WotC learned how to communicate with its customers given all of its past failures due to the same?"

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 19, 2025, 01:45:41 PMEven if this were a viable avenue, WOTC have shown they are incapable of implementing a VTT twice now.

It's pretty amazing that a company this big has had this tough of a time.

Quote from: Shteve on March 21, 2025, 11:38:57 AM

Quote from: Ruprecht on March 21, 2025, 10:58:19 AMAll that makes sense but why hasn't WotC come out with a statement saying Sigil is alive and well and just shipped and the doom and gloom is just click-bait guesswork?

You mean "Why hasn't WotC learned how to communicate with its customers given all of its past failures due to the same?"

Very this.

But I did get a notification it was up and running via my unused Beyond account. They probably e-mailed off to all Beyond accounts it was up and running.

Theres probably an announcement on the site too.

But this is wotc afterall and so thats it probably. Practically a stealth release.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sigil

If Collins is right then theres now like a skeleton crew left. Which is in line with how many MMOs treat staff once the groundwork is done.

Quote from: D-ko on March 21, 2025, 12:10:14 PM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 19, 2025, 01:45:41 PMEven if this were a viable avenue, WOTC have shown they are incapable of implementing a VTT twice now.

It's pretty amazing that a company this big has had this tough of a time.

To be fair the first time was outside their control.

Beyond has been chugging away for several years now. Just lacks the 3d side. But its still a VTT.

Sigil is up and running so who knows what will happen with a skeleton crew.

Oh ho. Looks like this was not a wotc thing. Hasbro ordered it.

QuoteRascal spoke with one of the affected workers (who also asked to remain anonymous), and they confirmed the text of the internal message. They said the Sigil team was notified Monday that all but three team members would be laid off. Wizards of the Coast president John Hight reportedly cried while delivering the news, stating that the company may return to the project one day if enough interest was shown, but that it will currently exist as a perk for Master tier subscribers to D&D Beyond.

    The employee told Rascal that the atmosphere surrounding work on Sigil had felt off and increasingly strained since late last year, following a somewhat disastrous tech demo as part of a Gen Con 2024 performance that featured Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Anjali Bhimani, and Baldur's Gate 3 actors Neil Newbon and Samantha Béart. Hasbro president Chris Cocks became involved in the project for the first time soon after and was reportedly not very supportive of continued development. The anonymous employee believes development was likely cancelled internally around December, and the last three months constituted a last-ditch effort to create the best product possible spearheaded by project lead Chris Cao.

    [...] Sigil's sudden death was more of a murder, according to the employee. They describe a company-wide lack of coordination during their tenure where they never interacted with the book publishing team and only stumbled into the already existing Maps VTT by accidentally signing up for an internal playtest believing it was Sigil, instead. In fact, the employee claims WotC engineers would constantly clash with D&D Beyond staff over access to the latter's fiercely protected internal data. Sigil's original vision was to eventually move beyond D&D to encompass My Little Pony, Transformers, and the rest of Hasbro's vaunted license portfolio. Over time, the team narrowed the scope to creating a D&D application for PC and mobile devices that integrated D&D Beyond data and usability. The team apparently always felt as though they performed miracles with a limited set of tools, constantly moving goalposts and a distinct lack of interest from Hasbro management — until the end.

    Source: https://www.rascal.news/wizards-of-the-coast-shutters-sigil-virtual-tabletop-project-lays-off-30-staff/

QuoteJohn Hight reportedly cried

Shit, at least somebody there still can feel. That actually gives me hope.

You guys remember this?

https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1752830891385086118

At the time I commented that this might signal a lack of faith internally at Hasbro regarding their own VTT project.

Quote from: Ruprecht on March 21, 2025, 10:58:19 AMAll that makes sense but why hasn't WotC come out with a statement saying Sigil is alive and well and just shipped and the doom and gloom is just click-bait guesswork?

D&D Shorts (on Youtube) did a short video review showing how a bunch of things just don't work and that the system requirements are pretty high.

Quote from: BronzeDragon on March 23, 2025, 08:54:21 PMYou guys remember this?

https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1752830891385086118

At the time I commented that this might signal a lack of faith internally at Hasbro regarding their own VTT project.

Or wotc not knowing what wotc is doing... again.

Quote from: Omega on March 24, 2025, 10:23:39 PM

Quote from: BronzeDragon on March 23, 2025, 08:54:21 PMYou guys remember this?

https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1752830891385086118

At the time I commented that this might signal a lack of faith internally at Hasbro regarding their own VTT project.

Or wotc not knowing what wotc is doing... again.

I'm thinkin I agree with Professor DM. The project was managed to death.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 25, 2025, 12:33:35 AM

Quote from: Omega on March 24, 2025, 10:23:39 PM

Quote from: BronzeDragon on March 23, 2025, 08:54:21 PMYou guys remember this?

https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1752830891385086118

At the time I commented that this might signal a lack of faith internally at Hasbro regarding their own VTT project.

Or wotc not knowing what wotc is doing... again.

I'm thinkin I agree with Professor DM. The project was managed to death.

If what I've been getting snippets of is even half true then Sigil was not managed enough and wotc tried to half-ass it by merging two groups that might be at odds instead of trying to find a way they could both co-exist. Ir at the very least actually managing them so the Beyond side couldnt sabotage the Sigil side.

Feels like someone had an initial viable plan. But wotc probably fired em and just tried to merge.

It really sounds like there's a massive level of dysfunction at Hasbro/Wizards. Entire teams get hired and fired at whim, lack of communication between teams and a management that doesn't really know what to do with the IP. Let's make movies- no let's sell off that part of the business. Let's do video games- and then no longer do business with the company that gave us an amazing success there. Hey, the future is digital/VTT- whoops, just kidding.

It's also sounding like DnDBeyond is in a sorry state these days as well as Wizards doesn't seem to be capable of keeping it running properly. So even if they bought a VTT that was functional, it doesn't appear that they'd be able to run and manage it properly, long term. Maybe they could squeeze a business model out of buying working products from third parties, slapping the D&D logo on it, and milk it for all it's worth while they drive it into the ground. Rinse and repeat.

Quote from: Dracones on March 28, 2025, 12:19:08 PMIt's also sounding like DnDBeyond is in a sorry state these days as well as Wizards doesn't seem to be capable of keeping it running properly. So even if they bought a VTT that was functional, it doesn't appear that they'd be able to run and manage it properly, long term. Maybe they could squeeze a business model out of buying working products from third parties, slapping the D&D logo on it, and milk it for all it's worth while they drive it into the ground. Rinse and repeat.

For all the guff 4E got for needing a program just to make character-building possible*, the number of 5e players who are entirely reliant on D&DBeyond to manage their characters truly staggers me. If it ever stops working the number of players who wouldn't be able to even function would probably kill half the campaigns at my FLGS.

* for the record, the majority of 4E PCs in games I ran/played in were done without a builder. The builder only made sure you had EVERY option from every splat and article ever released available to you, but just the core book with whatever class you wanted to play always had more than enough options to actually be fully playable.