JVisgaitis said:A couple reasons.
1. You're diluting your target market and selling your soul to release a ton of supplements to people that may not even care. DIe hard fans would easily get disgusted by this gross type of market mongering and move on to something else. I'd be the first to leave if this was the case. Also, just because there's a game with a pirate on the box, doesn't mean someone who likes pirates is going to buy it.
2. D&D is good at one thing: being D&D. No matter how appealing Dungeons & Dora might be to little kids, that's not what its about and it further tarnishes the brand. When people hear Dungeons & Dragons, there is a certain expection built up over the past 25+ odd years. Supplements like you are discussing certainly aren't it and that hurts the overall brand. Remember what happened to everyone's beloved Star Wars in recent years...?
TSR was at its most successful when it was producing D&D action figures, D&D coloring books, D&D cartoons, a full fledged basic set, a D&D-based board game (Dungeon!) and a variety of other D&D branded items (including the geeky 70's style two-tone 3/4 length sleeve T-shirts with D&D book covers printed on the front....yich! ). I think, if you really would leave the D&D fold due to this kind of brand-name pimpage, you're probably in a very tiny minority (which would be made up for by the massive bucks selling all these other doo-dads would rake in).