Neonchameleon
Legend
So it comes down to who has the better players/team? I'm OK with that.
A bit more than that. I won't say Lisa Stevens and Eric Mona are better at running a business than anyone at WotC. But they are definitely better at running an RPG business than anyone there. Wizards' A Team is on the thing that makes 90% of their money: Magic the Gathering.
Holy Schneikies... But devils advocate, how much of that was profit from services? After overhead, server costs, author costs, payouts to failed products, etc...
A lot of that is where WotC has a structural advantage. Server and bandwith costs are cheaper in bulk - and WotC has MtG and MtGO. So the overheads are for things they are already buying. Author costs: Pretty low I think. A lot of Dungeon/Dragon was volunteer. And I know of one product that actually failed; the systemless Menzobaranzan.
Any other current RPG company would call DDI a success beyond their wildest dreams.