D&D 5E 5th edition driving people back to 1st/2nd edition.

[Zardnaar]

I suspect 3E outsold 5Es launch some numbers went up here a year ago) but the profit per unit with 5E is higher. I am reaosnably convinced that 5E has been the biggest selling D&D since 3.0s launch year and IDK how well the follow up 3E books did after the PHB.

So the the hard cover books after the core may have sold more than say Sword and Fist softcover back in the day. We do not know what criteria WotC is using for their claims. Profit margins on the 3.0 book apparently were razor thin since at $20 a pop they were being sold at 1989 prices in 2000. That would be the equivalent of the 5E books selling for $35 before Amazon discounts.

 

[Hussar]

You talk about sales rankings but you don't go into detail as to these figures.

You can't really rely on rankings because exactly who are they in competition with? Also, yes people have purchased the game. It's a new edition and people do have to buy it to get the full effect but who's to say they are not buying it and then deciding to go back to another edition after they've played it? All new editions sell well in the beginning.

Beginning? What beginning? The game is almost two years old now. By this point in time, 3e was dead and buried. 4e was dead. 3.5 was only a couple of years from replacement.

By all accounts 5e is still selling very strongly. Every single piece of evidence we have says this. Whether it's reports from gaming stores, industry reports, Amazon rankings. Everything says that 5e is still selling strongly.

What evidence do you have that 5e is slowing down?

 

[Shasarak]

Come one, 5e has at least 14 years to go before we can start to compare it to 3x.

Dead and buried, pfft.

 

[C-F-K]

Did someone drew the death card in his/her Tarokka deck and thought it would be the end for 5th? You know the death card isn't really about death right...?

Let's give it another, let's say 10 years before we can compare the editions.

My 2c:
People liked AD&D so much because it was extensive and detailed. You didn't only have the PHB to create your character, but also a book for almost each class, the psionics, detailed works on all the other planes (I ain't gettin' in no plane!) and more than 15 years of novels, adventures and what-nots.

No, 5th edition isn't perfect. But what edition is? And still, if 5th becomes "perfect", some people are still going to hate it because they have childhood memories of playing 1st, 2nd or AD&D, and those can't be replaced.

So no, I have only heard of people quitting AD&D and started with 5th. And they (Including me) all agree, it's not perfect but it might be in the future.

(Last note: If the game sucks, your playing it wrong...)

 

[Guest 6801328]

Nathan Steward of Wizards, from about a year ago:

We don’t always openly talk about numbers, because Hasbro is a publicly traded company, so we can’t give exact details from Wizards’ business. But I will tell you that we don’t even have a full year of sales on this yet, and we believe very, very strongly that this will finish out on the current trajectory to be the best launch we’ve ever had, both in terms of dollars and in terms of units.

I think if you would have told us –or anyone– that before launch, they would’ve said, “Really? You’re gonna do bigger than third edition or 3.5?” and the answer is, undoubtedly, yes.

Everything exceeded our forecast. We didn’t go in and say, “Hey, it’s gonna be the best launch ever,” that’s a gutsy forecast to make, but we forecasted pretty high. And we re-printed everything, so when everything exceeded our forecast, in most cases we re-printed within weeks of the official launch, if not months.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2015/04/15/new-dungeons-dragons-fifth-edition/#12f699642e50

 

[darjr]

Nice find. There was also a quote from Mearls talking to another employee about how the numbers were so good it kinda spooked them for a while. And I still have a bet that the DMG delay was due, in part, too their printer scrambling to get PHBs out the door.

 

[PatriotofKarrnath]

I dont think it has "driven" them back, but having played it, yeah I went back to the previous edition. It was not different enough from 3rd to be "better" to me than 3rd. I enjoyed 4th considerably more than 5th. We as a group preordered through our FLGS, and gave it a couple whirls through, we all ended up trading them in for store credit ( lost a bundle on the deal but lesson learned) Its not really a bad game, its just that it felt so lackluster. sorta dull paced when so used to 4th ed and I personally really dont like the forgotten realms over eberron, so when everything seemed so FR centric it really lost my interest. the phb did give some diety stuff for eberron, but thats about it. the game played "slow" with everything being so stat oriented it was frustrating. So while it did not "drive us away" it did bore us away. On its own merits its a pretty good game (none of us were thrilled about the price) and if they did a eberron book, might consider giving it another try, as it is now, I would not have called it D&D 5th edition, I would have called it "Forgotten Realms RPG"