WotC Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, "I would say that the underlying thesis of our D&D business is all about digital,”

[Parmandur]

How much did it sell? Outselling 2e Spelljammer is not all that hard....

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Excluding FLGS or other hobby outlets, it sold at least 84,000 copies (see the ongoing threqd about the BookScan numbers). The big mystery is what percentage of purchases went through FLGS: my alt cover slipcase is not part of the 84,000 copies sold, and Dark Sun or even Ravenloft are within potential range.

 

[Hussar]

How much did it sell? Outselling 2e Spelljammer is not all that hard....

But, I don't hear constant calls for how TSR was totally incompetent to produce Spelljammer in a format that was pretty much the same as what WotC produced. TSR gets hailed for it's creativity and whatnot for making all these wonderful settings. WotC then takes those settings, gives them a bit of spit and polish, promotes the crap out of them, then sells them and they're incompetent?

Never minding outselling 2e Spelljammer, there's literally more Spelljammer material available right now than there ever was before.

For some bizarre reason, no one seems to take DM's Guild into account when discussing these settings. WotC has been really, crystal clear in how they are presenting settings. They bang out the bare bones, basic framework of the setting, along with an adventure path for that setting. Then they leave it up to DM's Guild to add in all that stuff that was used to get from TSR.

It's not like this is new. This is how they have been doing 5e since day 1 of 5e. They've stuck to their plan for ten years now.

WHat baffles me is why people still seem surprised about this.

 

[darjr]

See, it's things like this that make me just shake my head when people talk about how incompetent WotC is. This isn't an accident. This wasn't luck. They had been priming this pump for YEARS. They spent a buttload of money promoting Spelljammer. A very professional quality, free, module on D&D Beyond that was delivered over time.

Yea. A lot of 5e and things done during 5e have been executed very well.

DMSGuild for instance.
Going OGL with 5e.
Licensing out to Roll20 and DNDBeyond etc, as another.
The free Basic set.
Being very hands off with Critical Role and promoting and partnering with them.
Keeping to a slow release cycle even as they speed things up, historically it's slower than ever, other than the original 5e release cycle.
A very good starter box and essentials box. Both compounding upon each other.
Inviting third parties to write books, the adventures, early on to get third parties on board and give them hard won experience making 5e content.
I loved the Seasons too, I wish it'd come back. There was something very compelling about being on the same page with many other D&D players and talking about similar shared experiences and how they differed in cool ways at our tables.
There is more. It's rather surprising.

the other thing is capitalizing on good things that happened and walking away from the bad, even if it took them longer on some things.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If you're looking for a version of 5E not ruled by bean counters; go give Level Up a try! It's 5E free of corporate overlords! Just click on the EnShop and enter a game ruled by gamers!

 

[darjr]

But, I don't here constant calls for how TSR was totally incompetent to produce Spelljammer in a format that was pretty much the same as what WotC produced. TSR gets hailed for it's creativity and whatnot for making all these wonderful settings. WotC then takes those settings, gives them a bit of spit and polish, promotes the crap out of them, then sells them and they're incompetent?

Never minding outselling 2e Spelljammer, there's literally more Spelljammer material available right now than there ever was before.

For some bizarre reason, no one seems to take DM's Guild into account when discussing these settings. WotC has been really, crystal clear in how they are presenting settings. They bang out the bare bones, basic framework of the setting, along with an adventure path for that setting. Then they leave it up to DM's Guild to add in all that stuff that was used to get from TSR.

It's not like this is new. This is how they have been doing 5e since day 1 of 5e. They've stuck to their plan for ten years now.

WHat baffles me is why people still seem surprised about this.

nah. TSR gets excoriated for those products too. They even get a hefty blame for killing the company.

I do agree about DMSGuild getting ignored.

 

[Reynard]

nope played it for 30 hours uninstalled and got my money back.

You played it for 30 hours and returned it. I call shenanigans.

 

[Reynard]

It's worth noting that we know Spelljammer outsold the 2E version, and it has likely outsold every 2E Setting (aside from the FR).

I would liek to see a chart of all sales within X time frame. Did SJ do well because it was SJ, or because it was whatever was newest?

 

[mamba]

See, it's things like this that make me just shake my head when people talk about how incompetent WotC is. This isn't an accident.

might have something to do with a drastically larger player base...

 

[darjr]

So. Just a glimpse at how much bigger Baldur's Gate is than actual D&D. Look at the views on the videos at wizards youtube site.

The video game centric ones are a magnatude larger. The D&D centric ones, even the ones about using the video game with D&D or for it or as a leader into it, get a fraction of the views.

 

[mamba]

Excluding FLGS or other hobby outlets, it sold at least 84,000 copies (see the ongoing threqd about the BookScan numbers). The big mystery is what percentage of purchases went through FLGS: my alt cover slipcase is not part of the 84,000 copies sold, and Dark Sun or even Ravenloft are within potential range.

oh, so you are going back to the 80k bookstore figure... ok, yes, I'd say you can probably double that between hobby stores, Amazon and digital