Thank you for not answering my question. That was very not informative.
It looks like a pretty direct and reasoned response to your question.
Thank you for not answering my question. That was very not informative.
I'm becoming a broken record by this point, but I'm still concerned that this marketing plan doesn't appear to include a place for DMs to get the monsters (and other things) they need for existing D&D settings without buying mega-adventures.
WotC shared info on how low subscriptions got? Man, you've seen something really major! Please try to remember! Do you even remember which site it was or who was interviewed? You say you saw it quoted here on EN World? The only ones I'm aware of recently are the one in the OP here and Mearls' Reddit AMA the other day, but it's neither of those.
I'm becoming a broken record by this point, but I'm still concerned that this marketing plan doesn't appear to include a place for DMs to get the monsters (and other things) they need for existing D&D settings without buying mega-adventures. They will put out a player's guide for the adventure paths they create, and then the one or two books with the adventure itself (like Tyranny of Dragons) but the only thing mentioned at all about campaign setting books was the tentative language about maybe probably someday somehow, not now, but possibly then, we might have a Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
As someone who wants to buy official products to populate the worlds and planes with the inhabitants I expect to be there, I'm concerned I'm going to end up having to buy hardcover adventure books I don't want every year just to get the scattered monsters that I do want.
I'll be surprised if the upcoming Elemental Evil Adventurer's book doesn't include genasi. But I'll be surprised it if does include aasimar or (Planescape) tieflings. So there are 3 books I'll need to get my Elemental Planes stuff. Then when they decide to put out a Gith-based adventure path, I'll have to buy 3 books to get my Astral Plane stuff.
And then Dark Sun...no way around a monster manual there. It uses a completely different set of creatures than the rest of D&D. Does it get an exception, or get the shaft?
Tying all the new content to "story" in the sense of "adventure path" just doesn't work for those of us who aren't going to use that story and have to buy hundreds of pages of it to get the content we expect in a D&D edition.
Yes, i saw that too. It wasn't much, but it did mention that sales were not good for the magazines and there would not be a print edition.
THAT SAID...........does anyone read Gygax magazine, the imprint from Gary's son? I imagine it would continue supporting 5e 100% in the same capacity of the classic Dragon magazine. Hell, they even use the same font and advertisement styles.
The subscription info was in the magazines themselves. IIRC Dungeon in 2007 had around 20k subscribers with 30k+ printed. Paizo said they were making money on them as well, not vast amounts but they were not losing money.
I suspect WoTC thought they would be the centerpiece of DDI and the subscribers would come along as well. 2/3rds stayed with Paizo though
2/3rds did not end their subscription with Paizo, but that does not mean that some of those same 2/3rds did not also buy WOTC products. Some people bought stuff from both companies. Some people liked the content from those WOTC PDFs. I know I got a lot out of it. And DDI subscription rates were relatively high.