Project Sigil 90% Of D&D’s Project Sigil Team Laid Off

Reports are coming in of a swathe of layoffs at Wizards of the Coast, constituting 90% of the team of the new Project Sigil virtual tabletop platform. In all, over 30 people have been laid off, leaving a team of around 3 people.

Sigil is still in beta, only recently made public three weeks ago. Recent reports indicated that the scope of the project was seemingly being cut back.

WotC’s Andy Collins—who has worked on multiple editions of D&D and other WotC TTRPGs going back to 1996—reported via LinkedIn that he was one of those laid off. He indicated that the small team left behind would continue to work on the project.

More news as it comes in.

 

[Reynard]

2024 just optimized the language, dialed back on natural language and codified it more.

The theory is nonsense, but 2024 did not clear up anything. The game is an organizational disaster. If you aren't using Beyond with its hyperlinks, ever rule requires page flips through multiple volumes. It's a mess.

 

[TiQuinn]

cross posting from the other thread:

Here is what one Dev just posted on Discord:

As mentioned before, Sigil is not shutting down. I just now have more work to do. Hopefully with less meetings I can actually get more work done

 

[Older Beholder]

The theory is nonsense, but 2024 did not clear up anything. The game is an organizational disaster. If you aren't using Beyond with its hyperlinks, ever rule requires page flips through multiple volumes. It's a mess.

Every rule in 5E24 requires you to flip through multiple volumes?
Every rule? Sounds a tad hyperbolic.

 

[Reynard]

Every rule in 5E24 requires you to flip through multiple volumes?
Every rule? Multiple volumes? Sounds a bit hyperbolic.

Stealth. Travel. Combat. Social. Inspiration. XP.

Yes. All of these and more.

You probably could have looked those up yourself, but you preferred to be dismissive.

 

[Mournblade94]

This pretty much guarantees I don't buy the Monster Manual 2024. I didn't like the changes they made anyway. I'm still doing 5e but I'm going to leave 2024 behind now. I will probably pick up the new Forgotten Realms book by Ed Greenwood (Unless they cancel that too) but that's it.

If 2025 FR is more of the same I'll just try to transfer my 11 year old to play the 3rd edition or 2nd edition with me. She's in a good 5e game with her friends so I won't feel like I'm holding her back.

 

[Mournblade94]

Well, kinda. After all, the map tool seems to be doing quite well. But, yeah, the point is taken.

But, on the other hand, VTT's like Talespire are doing quite well. So, it's not impossible to do. Just seems that WotC hasn't figured out how to do it.

You can say that again. Despite the jobs lost at least its not as tragic as the Gleemax 4e VTT

 

[SteveC]

What I'm saying is that WotC is being pulled in several different directions because the Hasbro C-suite doesn't understand the audience, can't comprehend how to make D&D profitable enough for them, and have no organizational vision of what their goals or purpose is. They are wasting money and goodwill and will ultimately lose fans. WotC and Hasbro desperately need to get their stuff together.

I work in management. This stuff is inexcusable.

I think that was a pretty solid list. With this latest development, I'm sure there will still be a chorus of "This is fine," but I just have to say that, no, it's not fine. I think there's an interesting discussion to be had about splitting the folks who design and love the game from those making financial decisions, but that only works as long as the people spending the money make smart judgments. I expect there are more than a few MBA corporate gamers (I know of at least one, who's one of my closest friends), and it seems to me that something needs to change. Or, I suppose WotC could sell D&D off and wipe their hands of the situation. The only problem is that I understand that Hasbro pretty much never does this.

I suppose it will be interesting to see what comes next. Hopefully not more layoffs.

 

[AlViking]

Stealth. Travel. Combat. Social. Inspiration. XP.

Yes. All of these and more.

You probably could have looked those up yourself, but you preferred to be dismissive.

Hiding is covered in the glossary. If you're confused about what cover means, that's another entry in the glossary. Not sure what the issue is with travel, combat, inspiration. It's explained in the Playing the Game chapter. XP is also mentioned there and in the glossary along with where to look it up in the DMG.

So if people are dismissive it's because you just threw out something that doesn't seem to have any basis.

 

[Reynard]

Hiding is covered in the glossary. If you're confused about what cover means, that's another entry in the glossary. Not sure what the issue is with travel, combat, inspiration. It's explained in the Playing the Game chapter. XP is also mentioned there and in the glossary along with where to look it up in the DMG.

So if people are dismissive it's because you just threw out something that doesn't seem to have any basis.

Did you look? Because I did. All of those things have entries in both the PHB and the DMG and are incomplete in each individual book.

Seriously, the tendency to just move to defense mode without actually making an effort to.examine or confirm is exhausting.

The rules for D&D 2024 are fine. The art is amazing. The monster design is by and large an improvement. But the organization sucks. That's just something that is true.

 

[AlViking]

Did you look? Because I did. All of those things have entries in both the PHB and the DMG and are incomplete in each individual book.

Seriously, the tendency to just move to defense mode without actually making an effort to.examine or confirm is exhausting.

The rules for D&D 2024 are fine. The art is amazing. The monster design is by and large an improvement. But the organization sucks. That's just something that is true.

Yes I looked and have no problem with how they did it.