D&D: WotC Just Laid Off a Major Chunk of Its Virtual Tabletop Team
According to a Linkedin post from a now-former developer, approximately 90% of the team working on D&D’s “Sigil” have been laid off.
Not long after WotC rolled out the official launch of its new Sigil Virtual Tabletop Platform, it has apparently laid off the majority of the team responsible for developing it. According to a Linkedin post from Andy Collins, whose previous experience includes Marvel Heroes, State of Decay 2, and tabletop RPG supplements in both 3.5E and 4E D&D, most of the team were let go yesterday.
Sigil, D&D’s new 3D virtual tabletop platform using the Unreal engine, released about two weeks ago on February 27th with very little fanfare. At present, it’s available to anyone with a D&D Beyond account. But only Master-Tier subscribers can use the full functionality of the platform, including the ability to save more than one map and create/host multiplayer sessions.
WotC Lays Off Sigil Staff Following VTT Release
Per Andy Collins’ LinkedIn post, there are still plans to keep “improving and iterating the experience”:
“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.
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.
If you’re interested in talking with me about opportunities in game design, narrative/writing, or team leadership, reach out.
Be kind to yourself. And if you can, be kind to someone else today too.”
For those doing the math, that leaves approximately 3 people behind to work on developing Sigil. And while it is standard practice in the video game industry to lay off staff after a project is complete, reducing the size of your team that much is a sign that progress will be slow. Which is unfortunate, considering the “unfinished” feeling that Sigil has.
As Polygon put it in their recent review of the VTT platform:
“There’s enough variety in terrains, props, and bespoke items to build a certain kind of campaign, but longtime DMs won’t need long to notice missing biomes and props. As of press time, there’s no way to manually make and insert, say, a wagon or caravan.”
For a platform that is meant to be the future of D&D Beyond, it seems like WotC is hamstringing it before the platform can find its footing. But it’s hard to tell at this early juncture.
Best of luck to all those laid off, hope you find somewhere to land soon.
