In a post on the company website, senior manager for the Dungeons & Dragons research and design team Mike Mearls outlined Wizards of the Coast’s plans for third party content, citing questions about the Open Gaming License and its impact on the new edition.  
 
"Since the start of the fifth edition process in early 2012, we've committed ourselves to taking the time to getting things right," Mearls states.  "When it comes to the mechanism by which we want to empower D&D fans to create their own material and make their mark on the many, exciting worlds of D&D, we're taking the same approach. While we are not ready to announce anything at this time, I do want to share with you some of our goals," he said.
 
Those goals include making sure that third party content is of high quality, which means that the license will not be rolled out until after the release of the Dungeon Masters Guide, which contains guidelines for creating many elements of the game, in November (see "New 'D&D' Dates, Info, and Pics").  Delay in allowing third party content to launch is also necessary to give potential authors time to “absorb the rules and how they all interact,” and to learn from what the WotC R&D team says about its development of the game, Mearls said. 
 
WotC is undoubtedly trying to avoid some of the controversy that arose when it launched the 4th Edition of D&D, and had to revise its new license after pushback from licensees (see 'WotC Revises GSL").

"While the details are still in flux, we can say that we plan to announce the details of our plans sometime this fall," Mearls said.  "After that announcement, we plan on launching our program in early 2015."