As outrage over Sony’s physical media crusade builds, Dungeons & Dragons players like myself can’t help but feel a sense of deja-vu.
A few years ago, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, the companies that develop and distribute D&D, pulled a very similar stunt to the one Sony is pulling now. The D&D community fought back and won, and the “Save the Disc” movement might want to study their tactics.
The great Dungeons & Dragons debacle of 2022 revolved around the Open-Game License (OGL). This long-standing copyright agreement allowed independent game developers to use D&D‘s core mechanics to create and distribute original content without fear of reprisal. From fan-favorite D&D adventure modules to entirely new TTRPGs like Pathfinder, the creative freedom promised by the OGL led to some amazing creations.
