D&D 5E Poll: How do you feel about 5e pace of releases?

[Parmandur]

I posted a slightly different version of this graph in the thread from which this poll was spun off, but for comparison, here it is again. I counted only RPG products released by TSR/WotC, and not licensed accessories from 3rd parties. The release pace for the last decade is the slowest since the 1970s, at least in terms of the number of products.

What is interesting to me about this chart is thst the product releases seem to pick up juat as the initial D&D fad ended and we know from Riggs et al that sales were collapsing. Sonwhen TSR was healthy was when product releases were on part with 5E....

Correlation is not neccesarily causation, but sometimes there may be something there.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've had no issue with the release schedule over the past nine years. I think putting out a player-facing Everything splat book only every three years or so was a very good decision, and one major adventure book once a year was also smart because it made the build-up and expectation for it higher and the advertising could be focused around it.

I personally think the game could stay in this particular release pattern each year and still be good:

1 mega-adventure
1 book of small adventures (a la Journeys or Keys)
1 setting book
1 'other' book (rotating between things like PC splat book, monster theme book like Fizban/Bigby, DM specialty book.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What is interesting to me about this chart is thst the product releases seem to pick up juat as the initial D&D fad ended and we know from Riggs et al that sales were collapsing. Sonwhen TSR was healthy was when product releases were on part with 5E....

Correlation is not neccesarily causation, but sometimes there may be something there.

I suspect it was shrinking sales that caused TSR to accelerate the release schedule, but as you say, it's impossible to know.

 

[Nikosandros]

What is interesting to me about this chart is thst the product releases seem to pick up juat as the initial D&D fad ended and we know from Riggs et al that sales were collapsing. Sonwhen TSR was healthy was when product releases were on part with 5E....

Correlation is not neccesarily causation, but sometimes there may be something there.

There has been plenty of discussion about how effective the current release schedule is as a commercial strategy. I agree that the reasonable assumption is that it has been quite effective. In this thread I was interested about how people felt about it for their own personal tastes.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I posted a slightly different version of this graph in the thread from which this poll was spun off, but for comparison, here it is again. I counted only RPG products released by TSR/WotC, and not licensed accessories from 3rd parties. The release pace for the last decade is the slowest since the 1970s, at least in terms of the number of products.

Furthermore, folks making melodramatic comparisons to the TSR-driven mega-glut are simply incorrect. Every edition has had a lower average publication rate than that, much lower. Indeed, from what I'm seeing, every WotC edition has had a lower average publication rate than the one that came before.

 

[mamba]

What is interesting to me about this chart is thst the product releases seem to pick up juat as the initial D&D fad ended and we know from Riggs et al that sales were collapsing. Sonwhen TSR was healthy was when product releases were on part with 5E....

Correlation is not neccesarily causation, but sometimes there may be something there.

I certainly see no causation there, if anything it is the reverse. To stave off the declining total sales they release more products in hope of attracting buyers.

Who knows, if TSR could do basic accounting, it might even have worked, but selling products below cost without even realizing it is not a viable approach, no matter how many releases you have

What is clear is that there is such a thing as too many releases, and that 5e is below that threshold

 

[Parmandur]

There has been plenty of discussion about how effective the current release schedule is as a commercial strategy. I agree that the reasonable assumption is that it has been quite effective. In this thread I was interested about how people felt about it for their own personal tastes.

Fair: for me, it's gotten a bit fast. One book a Quarter is probsvlynideal, but that is still an absurd amount of game material when considering the time of entertainment each book provides and hownlong it can take to digest and actually use. 5 the past two years (2022 and 2023) is a little nutty, though thst might be OK if they spread them out better over the year (like, one in Winter, one in Spring, One in Summer and two in Fall).

 

[Parmandur]

I certainly see no causation there, if anything it is the reverse. To stave off the declining total sales they release more products in hope of attracting buyers.

Who knows, if TSR could do basic accounting, it might even have worked, but selling products below cost without even realizing it is not a viable approach, no matter how many releases you have

I wouldn't assume causation based on just that, but the data point of 5E success in combination with OD&D and early 1E success raises questions.

 

[schneeland]

I was hoping for more modular options but the DMsGuild and the large 3pp are fulfilling that role for me.

Yes, more things as replacement options for the base game (in particular skill systems, but maybe also alternative approaches to magic, etc.) was something I would have liked. Also setting books for the IPs WotC own's (in particular Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Greyhawk). And for these two, I would have preferred for WotC to do it themselves (in collaboration with the creator's).
Technically, I would also have liked a few smaller adventures that were not just remasters of content from previous editions. But that's the area, where I'm most open to buy 3rd party stuff.

 

[mamba]

I wouldn't assume causation based on just that, but the data point of 5E success in combination with OD&D and early 1E success raises questions.

no, you cannot really assume either for certain, I am just leaning more towards the increased output being the result of declining sales.

Isn’t that also how Ben Riggs tells it?

To me there is no doubt that you can flood the market beyond what is reasonable / sustainable and 2e to 4e did so