One D&D - Will the New VTT Succeed Where D&D 4e's VTT Failed to Materialize?

Last year, when WotC put out their D&D survey, a limited number of survey takers were offered questions on a potential D&D VTT. 

This week, with the announcement of One D&D (or D&D 5.X, or D&D Eternal), an integrated VTT was part of the announcement.

The question of the day - Has WotC bit off more than they can actually deliver?

Remember the promised VTT for 4e? Its demo used the graphics from Fantasy Grounds for the virtual dice. It planned to sell us virtual minis via micro transactions. Oh, and it was never completed, due to a murder/suicide with two of the main programmers.

Here's the FAQ for One D&D and the accompanying announcements: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1310-faq-one-d-d-rules-d-d-digital-and-physical-digital

Here's the part about the new VTT:

Digital Play Experience

What is the D&D Digital Play Experience?

D&D Digital is in early development. It will be a virtual play space that allows Dungeon Masters to create truly immersive campaigns and players to enjoy a D&D experience where we offload a lot of the rules referencing. Our goal is to make D&D more immersive, faster, more fun, easier to play, and easier to create in.

What’s the difference between the D&D Digital Play Experience and D&D Beyond?

This is intended to be an immersive digital experience for your D&D sessions. It will be integrated with D&D Beyond, which will continue to offer tools for reference and play.

What about all the other digital tools I use today to play D&D?

Whatever tools you love using, keep using them. Our goal is to make the best digital play experience for D&D. And just like everything else in D&D, everything is optional.

When will the D&D Digital Play Experience begin playtesting?

This experience is still in early development. Everything we’ve shown is pre-alpha. We expect to start showing more to players with a closed beta later in 2023.

I have more questions about the D&D Digital Play Experience!

We know players have a lot of questions after getting an exciting first look at D&D Digital. What you saw is still a prototype and in early development. Expect us to share more details when they’re ready.

It will use Unreal Engine 5 to power it. 

Is it aiming to hit too high a bar too fast?

Tell us your thoughts.

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