GreyLord
Legend
I'm still a bit confused about what you're contesting.
We've got two recent sources of more comprehensive sales data from TSR than were previously publicly available. Jon Peterson's book Game Wizards, from last year, and Ben Riggs' upcoming Slaying the Dragon, which comes out next week.
Jon, to the best of my understanding, used actual TSR records from WotC. The numbers he put in the book were pretty high-level, though, as he wasn't interested in filling the books with numbers and charts, more in tracking how TSR did and what decisions people involved made. He gives summary sales figures at the end of each chapter.
Ben says, if I understand correctly, that he got his figures from at least one anonymous source, likely a former TSR staffer, and that they've been corroborated by other inside sources. He's openly STATED that he only has partial data. For example, he's got numbers for sales of AD&D hardcovers, but not for the modules.
So are you claiming that Jon's lying, or that Ben has incomplete data (which he's openly stated), or something else?
I added to the PS above.
I wasn't commenting on the article itself, just what was talked about here with the upcoming book. If it is based on partial information, it's hard to say if that's good to publish or not. It's good in that this is more information released then has been previously, but bad because partial information can give the wrong picture or impression.
I haven't read Jon's book, so I can't say how it looks or doesn't look. I took a look at financials many years ago (and I will say, that WotC actually did save TSR in some ways, people think D&D would have died if TSR died, that's not true. There were companies waiting to pick D&D up for a song, literally pennies once it was available. By buying TSR for what most would say was an absolutely overvalued price (TSR wasn't worth what they paid for it by any margin, or even close to it), WotC probably saved D&D from complete corporate control in the truest sense of corporate control), so it is interesting to see things that come out occasionally.
I was taking a look at the graphs and noting what I observed. If he doesn't have accurate numbers, there's nothing I really can say about it I suppose. Graphs look right overall in their pictures from my perspective, but I'm not a reliable source either as my information is not primary either so I don't have the full picture. Im not sure using partial information is the best way to go but if it's all one has...one does what they feel they need to do. I feel there are ways to get all the numbers, but the work involved to get them is probably not actually worth anyone's time to actually find and get. It would be more costly than you'd ever make back most likely, in time or money.
UNLESS, of course, as I said, they actually kept the full information from early on, which probably would be with the Gygax's or someone close to them, and later by Williams and their accountants (and I expect those accountants would be HIGHLY watched to make sure they keep their confidentiality, I don't ever expect that venue to be approved for release...but...I may also be VERY wrong as well).
PS: I think if Jon's book did go into depths on how the numbers came out and all that, it may be more interesting for me to look into, but probably far more boring for the target audience. An indepth numbers crunch with all the primary documents presented and how the numbers were derived and the formulas utilized could also be more useful for some, though, once again, probably not something that's going to sell that many copies.
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