Recent updates
Update, March 20: An internal memo, confirmed by Collins to Rascal Gaming, has revealed more about Hasbro's motives for the layoffs, including the fact that Sigil's "distinct monetization path will not be realized". Click here for the full story.
Hasbro's stab at a virtual tabletop (VTT) looks to be in deep trouble as over 30 developers working on it have reportedly been laid off. Dubbed Sigil, D&D's virtual tabletop released in a bit of an unfinished state, one I was a little harsh on.
It showed promise, and I had a good time with the map creator, but I just couldn't picture myself running a game in it. Surprisingly high system requirements, some wobbly integration, and an over-reliance on D&D Beyond made it feel too niche when compared to other, more straightforward virtual tabletop offerings.
Judging by the speed at which Hasbro's apparently hit the eject button on this thing? I may not have been alone. Andy Collins, a former senior writer at Wizards of the Coast, made a post to LinkedIn that reads as follows: "Today, approximately 30 talented developers (90% of the team) were laid off from the Sigil (virtual tabletop) team at Wizards of the Coast, including yours truly.
- 'Hasbro pushed Sigil out of the nest': D&D's latest layoffs happened because the 'distinct monetization path' for its virtual tabletop Sigil never materialized
- D&D's new virtual tabletop is a glossy and cool idea that's already struggling with its identity in a world where jpegs and imagination are free
"I'm disappointed that we didn't get to continue working toward the full experience that we imagined, but happy for the opportunity to work on an intriguing challenge with so many smart and dedicated folks. I wish my former colleagues success in their future endeavors. I'll also be pulling for the crew left behind who'll do their best to keep improving and iterating the experience we shipped last month."
That's a downright bleak number of layoffs, leaving what is, most likely, a skeleton crew. Collin's percentage might not be exact, mind, but if 30 developers were working on Sigil, and Collins said 90% were laid off, that leaves around three to four people on the team at best. Given the wobbly state the VTT is actually in, that doesn't give me a lot of hope for the future. I've contacted Wizards for a statement, or some exact numbers, and I'll update this article if I get a response.
And, listen—I wasn't too optimistic about Sigil. I personally felt that all of the problems it was trying to solve had been sorted by more accessible, cheaper, and/or more modular programs like Foundry. More to the point, trying to turn TTRPG gaming into a glossy, monetizable force of brand recognition just… doesn't work. D&D's under-monetised not because people haven't had the bright idea to plonk microtransactions in it, but because doing so is antithetical to the whole bloody exercise.
The thing that infuriates me here is that, in hitting said eject button, Hasbro/Wizards has now left plenty of talented developers, writers, and designers out of a job. Take Collins, for example, who worked at Wizards of the Coast for 14 years—leaving in 2010, then returning in 2024 to work on Project Sigil before being so unceremoniously shown the door barely a year later. Really? We're sure we don't want to keep senior talent like that around?
When I roll my eyes at Hasbro's thirst for things like adopting the worst habits of videogame marketing, or the company's CEO raving about AI, it's with an understanding that this sort of speculative and monetisation-first nonsense is going to cause, well, stuff like this to happen.
As was the case with the layoffs that scuppered most of the team responsible for making the Baldur's Gate 3 deal happen, it feels like we're stuck in a time loop where Wizards and Hasbro are pushing out people with talent to foot the bill for bad ideas. Good thing that'd never happen in the digital gaming industry. Right… right?
