D&D 5E State of D&D

[Psychometrika]

They said why. They said their retailers asked them not to. They have a closer relationship with their retailers (because of MtG) than anyone else.

I wonder if by retailers they mean Amazon. Now that we are past the initial release and given the glacial release schedule, I don't see hardcover D&D books (or any RPG book really) being a meaningful revenue stream for your FLGS. I was looking at the ICv2 sales reports and the entire RPG market is around $25 million in NA compared to the annual sales revenue of $250 million for MtG globally. D&D is such small potatoes for Hasbro, I think they might view it as a halo product rather than something they want to seriously invest in and develop.

 

[darjr]

It might tie with whether or not the book is 'in print' and how well it's selling. For instance the 2e and 1e reprints didn't show up in drivethru until they were not 'in print'.

 

[seebs]

It doesn't really hurt though. D&D is a rounding error relative to the MtG side of their business. If a couple retailers were pissed off by D&D PDFs (and it does not matter if those retailers are wrong - their perception is their perception), that is more important than slightly increasing the D&D business at those retailers. MtG sells THAT much more than D&D. They're not going to spend the time to try and "convince" retailers that they are wrong about a minor product line - in fact experience in sales shows that's more likely to piss existing customers off more. It's all really not that important an issue, relative to the MtG sales. This really is the explanation. And it doesn't matter if the retailer's logic is wrong. I understand that's frustrating, but there is no mystery there. Business isn't perfect, misconceptions drive a lot of things, and it's just a fact of life that stuff like this routinely happens in distribution sales. It's hard enough to keep the major product line sales on target - some errors in the minor products just are not that important in the grand scheme of things.

This argument is self-contradictory. If D&D's sales are that tiny compared to Magic's, then it is completely incoherent for someone to claim that they'll stop making huge amounts of money on magic based on a policy decision about D&D books. It simply doesn't make any sense; a retailer dumb enough to stop selling Magic stuff because they're butthurt about D&D PDFs isn't going to be in business long enough to matter.

 

[darjr]

It might not be. D&D sales might be perceived as a sort of loss leader by some stores and they might not carry it at all if not required to. Even then they might not unless they get certain concessions.

 

[seebs]

Actually it isn't. D&D sales compared to magic are perceived to be so small that many stores wouldn't carry it unless forced to and even then only if certain concessions are made.

But if D&D sales are that small, what does Wizards care whether they carry D&D? Not enough money at stake to care about.

 

[darjr]

Because they might think or know that it would sell far less if not in the retail stores.

 

[Scribe]

Because if something is profitable, that your name is behind historically already, its foolish to burn a bridge that doesnt need to be burnt.

 

[Remathilis]

It doesn't really hurt though. D&D is a rounding error relative to the MtG side of their business. If a couple retailers were pissed off by D&D PDFs (and it does not matter if those retailers are wrong - their perception is their perception), that is more important than slightly increasing the D&D business at those retailers. MtG sells THAT much more than D&D. They're not going to spend the time to try and "convince" retailers that they are wrong about a minor product line - in fact experience in sales shows that's more likely to piss existing customers off more. It's all really not that important an issue, relative to the MtG sales. This really is the explanation. And it doesn't matter if the retailer's logic is wrong. I understand that's frustrating, but there is no mystery there. Business isn't perfect, misconceptions drive a lot of things, and it's just a fact of life that stuff like this routinely happens in distribution sales. It's hard enough to keep the major product line sales on target - some errors in the minor products just are not that important in the grand scheme of things.

Don't worry, the MTG side of WotC is doing everything possible to piss off the retailers as well. Sales are down due to lackluster sets and high-cost barriers to entrance (a competitive deck is 500-1500 dollars depending on format) and attendance at tournaments (including Friday Night Magic, Magic's answer to AL in terms of demo-floor model gaming) is way down. So while D&D is steady and growing (slowly), Magic is starting to dip in sales (again slowly).

It's easy to think of D&D as WotC's other child it took in from the rain and keeps around for sentimental reasons while MTG gets all the love, but WotC is getting hammered from both sides (RPG/CCG) from electronic gaming (especially from Blizzard), distribution methods (Paper vs. Digital) buy-in costs (the cost to start with either D&D or MTG is in the hundreds, once you decide to get past intro/starter items) and an aging gamer population (the average age of a player of either game is around 30, give or take 10 years). They can't afford to piss off anyone, let alone lgs's.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[darjr]

I wish they could convince the retailers of the value of selling current PDFs. Or whoever it is at WotC would be convinced. I don't know if its profitable, but I would have purchased it in hardback and PDF. The PDF specifically so it would be easier than lugging books to the LGS.