Age of Worms & Savage Tide HCs

[Olgar Shiverstone]

An AoW Hardcover is a niche luxury good among RPG products. I think we must conclude that Shackled City did not sell well enough for WotC to think the benefit was there to fish in those waters again.

I doubt that Shackled City was a failure ... or Paizo wouldn't have been repeatedly asking WotC for permission to do an Age of Worms hardcover (and they probably wouldn't have continued Adventure paths in Dungeon). I suspect they didn't get the green light due to competition concerns from WotC -- SCAP was likely successful enough to pull potential sales away from Wizards.

My theory: WotC won't revisit the remaining APs now because they'd have to share the income with Paizo.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I doubt that Shackled City was a failure ... or Paizo wouldn't have been repeatedly asking WotC for permission to do an Age of Worms hardcover (and they probably wouldn't have continued Adventure paths in Dungeon). I suspect they didn't get the green light due to competition concerns from WotC -- SCAP was likely successful enough to pull potential sales away from Wizards.

My theory: WotC won't revisit the remaining APs now because they'd have to share the income with Paizo.

I didn't say it was a failure, I said the sales were not high enough to make it profitable enough for WotC to want to do it, given its lower margin for them and its adverse affect on its other products' sales. Sales cannabalization was not a factor for Paizo as it was for WotC.

In other words, I think we're saying the same thing

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Really? But why would wizards interfere?

Because they know that they can't hold a candle to Paizo's adventure crafting and this is easier than trying to make an effort and compete.

You know: The same reason they killed Dungeon and Dragon.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It's not hard to see why WotC does not want to see a hardcover like that out in the marketplace. It's huge, necessarily very expensive and so would not likely sell very well.

Wouldn't Paizo publish them, with Wizards only getting a piece of the cake, but none of the risk?

Worse, among the gaming groups that do buy it and play it, its size and length pretty much take that DM and group out of the market for other adventure products for a year or several more.

And I think that's the real reason for the whole thing.

 

[Treebore]

If the sales weren't "high enough" I don't think Paizo would have asked to do HC's of even more. Nor would they risk doing PAthfinder.

But my answer to the OP is, if it were going to happen it would already have done so. But who really knows? I doubt even WOTC can say for absolute surety.