Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast has apparently cancelled an announcement about their updated Open Gaming Licence for a second time this week. Inside sources at Wizards of the Coast tell Gizmodo that the company is scrambling to formulate a response to backlash against the new OGL that has occurred over the past week, following Gizmodo’s story about a leaked draft of the document.
Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this story.
According to Gizmodo sources, the new OGL, now known as OGL 2.0, was supposed to go live on Thursday afternoon, along with a detailed FAQ explaining changes and addressing fan concerns.
But after D&D personality Ginny Di tweeted that people should cancel their D&D Beyond subscription in order to send a clear message to Wizards of the Coast regarding what the fanbase thinks of the developments around the Updated OGL. The message was widely shared, and a stream of subscribers turning off their payment to D&D Beyond appeared to temporarily shut down the landing page for subscription cancellations because of server errors.
Seems that @DnDBeyond‘s Subscription Management page is down as a movement grows to cancel subscriptions to protest reported OGL changes. This comes up when you try to use the Subscription Management page. pic.twitter.com/HOlFvvt8zk
— Christian Hoffer (@CHofferCBus) January 12, 2023
The result of these cancellations and their impact on the bottom line of Wizards of the Coast is not negligible, according to Gizmodo’s sources at the company, and has caused upper management to scramble to adjust their messaging around the situation, leading to the delays in the OGL release
Wizards of the Coast also cancelled a pre-scheduled D&D Beyond live stream on Twitch, which had be set for 5pm on Thursday, although the company stated on its Discord that this was done to update to a previously-agreed upon schedule, rather than as a response to the purported announcement.
It remains unclear when Wizards of the Coast will release the hotly-anticipated new OGL, and what its final contents will include.
In the meantime, Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons appear to be at a critical point with their fanbase, facing petition drives, open letters, and announcements from third-party publishers like MCDM and Kobold Press rejecting the new OGL in favour of creating their own systems.
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