D&D’s “full franchise” pivot is a long time coming but still sounds stupid

Dan Ayoub, Hasbro’s previous vice president of digital games, will now lead Dungeons & Dragons on its new “franchise model” direction. Ayoub announced his new position on July 9 via LinkedIn, saying that the toy company had “shifted our structure internally and D&D moved to a full franchise model, meaning everything: books, video games, film, and TV – everything touching the franchise lives under one roof.” He continues, saying that the restructuring will “allow a strong, coordinated, and well-funded approach for the franchise, and most importantly, for us, the fans.”

I hate a lot of the words Ayoub used in the post and how he chose to arrange them. Franchise is one of those cynical buzzwords that should have never broken containment within marketing pitch decks. Franchise once simply meant the right to sell certain products under a company’s name — think fast food franchise. In the age of IP ascendance its a promise to shareholders that a creative work can be strapped to a money-milking machine and squeezed until the skin chafes. It’s the prioritization of consumption over digestion. As Aftermath’s Riley MacLeod aptly put it: “Just say ‘series,’ jesus christ.”

Ayoub wants you to believe, in different words, that the best thing for your favorite RPG is merchandise and license dividends assuming a hockey stick shape on a graph.