Hasbro CEO Teases "Universes Beyond" Style Content for Dungeons & Dragons

Buoyed by a strong year for the brand, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks says that Dungeons & Dragons' growth will lay partially in expanding the D&D Beyond platform, including an expansion of "Universes Beyond"-style content that would cross over other franchises into the tabletop roleplaying game. Earlier this week, Cocks was asked about the drivers of growth for the Dungeons & Dragons business during Hasbro's quarterly investor call. "I think the contributors for D&D's growth last year will be similar to what they'll be moving forward," Cocks said. "We continue to think D&D Beyond was an excellent acquisiton. It really is the way increasingly people are playing tabletop roleplaying games. I think it is an excellent platform for us to build upon and expand the ways people can play...and also for us to distribute and showcase a more diverse set of content, whether that's Universes Beyond style content like we do for Magic, or our major creators' content or user generated content. So I think we'll see more of that on the tabletop side." Cocks also spoke about the expansion of Dungeons & Dragons into entertainment (mentioning the Dungeons & Dragons streaming show on Paramount+ as an example) and growing out a slate of D&D video games. 

None of Cocks' comments are a surprise, although his mention of looking to mimic Magic's success with the Universes Beyond content is eyebrow-raising. Magic has expanded its business by featuring sets of cards that use characters from other IPs into Magic: The Gathering. While this started off with small limited-run "Secret Lair" sets, the Universes Beyond content has grown to include full sets of cards, with last year's Lord of the Rings set being the best-selling Magic: The Gathering set of all time. 

Dungeons & Dragons has also toyed with IP crossovers before. In addition to Stranger Things and Rick & Morty-themed starter sets, D&D also released a digital exclusive content pack on D&D Beyond last year that featured monsters from Minecraft. Given that Cocks specifically mentioned D&D Beyond as the home of this kind of content, it's likely that his vision of "Universes Beyond" is more in the line with monster packs and other more selective bits of content rather than entire digital rulebooks and campaign setting books focused on other worlds. Of course, Dungeons & Dragons' first "crossover" products for 5E were a series of Magic: The Gathering campaign books complete with new spells and rules for players, so anything is on the table.

Should Wizards decide to pursue "Universes Beyond" style content for Dungeons & Dragons, one challenge could be obtaining licenses to make tabletop RPG content for other IPs. Most of the franchises used for Universes Beyond content in Magic: The Gathering - Lord of the Rings, Warhammer 40K, Doctor Who, Fallout, and even The Walking Dead - all have tabletop RPGs published by other companies.