D&D 5E A Board Game style Release Schedule

Jeff Carlsen said:

If it were simply delayed profits, they wouldn't. But a slower release may cause each product to sell better over time, increasing the return on investment. WotC might make more money through diverse investment in other games rather than trying to maximize the profits of the D&D product line.

There is also the possibility of perennial items beyond the core books. That's common with expansions to games like Catan or Dominion. Once a few are out there, they continue to sell without any development costs.

But I believe there is a limit. It would be harder to convince people to buy Catan: Cities and Knights if there were 20 expansions. But there are really only three. Not only is it less intimidating, but it also encourages people to collect the whole set.

This model doesn't work for all RPG content, but I do think it can work very well for rules. Possibly settings as well.

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Well said! Something to add here is that one business model used in the video game industry is to use expansions/DLCs to sell more of the original game.

I know that for instance Payday 2 has had medium-large DLCs every 3-4 months. They generate a lot of publicity and actually make the original game sell a lot better. They have been doing it for 18 months now, and they still get the original game on the top 10 best seller list on steam. The game is heavily rebated, but the list is based on revenue so it actually sells really well.

Another similarity to Payday 2 is that WotC has been creating free content like the mass combat rules. This generates a lot of good publicity and is another way of increasing the sales of the complete 5e package.

I think WotC are doing the right thing to grow 5e for the long term, even if it means getting less sales to start with. I do wonder how a license would fit into this. I think that a license that would allow for third parties to make adventures would only help out, but it gets hard not to at the same time let someone do a Pathfinder and more or less copy all your hard work and use your brand as a marketing tool. (Paizo did an awesome job of it, building on their magazine knowledge, but changing it up, creating adventure paths instead).

Zardnaar said:

D&d has sod all from wotc and i suspect most players were not playing the last time this happened with a new edition in 1977. I ran a 6 hour session today finishing the last encounter from bad moon rising and the noble rot adventure. Both adventures were in quests of doom A book from necromancer games. Outside the core books all 5e material has not come from wotc 8 months after release. They outsourced the tiamat books.

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It doesn't really matter if they did the Tiamat books in-house or not, they are still the publisher and it was definitively in their 5e release schedule. They are WotC branded products done in close cooperation with WotC.

Now, for my part, I liked the Starter set adventure, but haven't really bothered with the other ones. I don't want to run any more adventure path style stuff. I haven't even finished the starter set yet, I have about 1/3rd left. I have barely had time to read the PHB/DMG/MM, so I don't need any more rule books either.

I would like to see a digital tool for character creation. Especially for spellcasters it's quite awkward at the moment. I would also have purchased any more sandboxy adventures, or free-standing adventures. I would possibly buy a campaign setting, but probably not, except in the form of a sandbox/partial sandbox. That is something I would really like.

I think WotC botched the digital tools. I have no idea why it's so hard for them to do good digital tools. That's coming from a software developer that works in a company that could have done a job like this. I find it really weird, because there should be dead easy to find someone interested in both computers and role-playing games to run such a project. It's probably something like 25% of their customers! All the free tools that have been created and removed due to trademark/copyright violations is a testament to this. It's not the work of a couple of hours, but neither is it a monumental task. The company I work in would probably only need to add an interaction designer and a graphical artist to create some awesome tools.

... did I mention that I am baffled by the lack of good digital tools for the third edition in a row?!

Shasarak said:

What happens if DnDs quality let it be a success and its release schedule kept it one?

Maybe it would not have lasted 20 years without the accessories and expansions?

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Maybe if D&D limits its expansions, a single edition of the game will last 20 years.
1e was one of the longest lasting editions and it had sparse expansions.

Blackbrrd said:

I think WotC botched the digital tools. I have no idea why it's so hard for them to do good digital tools. That's coming from a software developer that works in a company that could have done a job like this. I find it really weird, because there should be dead easy to find someone interested in both computers and role-playing games to run such a project. It's probably something like 25% of their customers! All the free tools that have been created and removed due to trademark/copyright violations is a testament to this. It's not the work of a couple of hours, but neither is it a monumental task. The company I work in would probably only need to add an interaction designer and a graphical artist to create some awesome tools.

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WotC didn't "botch" the tools, that was Trapdoor. The two companies disagreed on the nature, business, and price of the tools. That's on Trapdoor, not WotC.

Jester Canuck said:

Catan's quality let it be a success, but its release schedule kep it one. It's doubful Catan would have lasted 20 years if it filled the market with accessories and expansions

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You may doubt it. But that carries no weight.

But whatever, board game are not RPGs and you are stacking wild assumptions on wild assumptions now.

Blackbrrd said:

I think WotC are doing the right thing to grow 5e for the long term, even if it means getting less sales to start with.

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Can you elaborate here? Because I will readily agree with you that long term growth is very much worth trading off short term sales.
I'll happily wait quietly and patiently for that long term plan to play out.
But can you provide a link to it? Or at least the starting portion of it?

Jester Canuck said:

Maybe if D&D limits its expansions, a single edition of the game will last 20 years.
1e was one of the longest lasting editions and it had sparse expansions.

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1E had adventures and Dungeon magazine later on.

We know, pretty much, based upon history and research that the overloaded release schedules of 2, 3.5 and 4 were bad for the game.
So a slower schedule is called for. At least one with alot less rules type expansions.
That doesn't necessarily mean the release schedule we have is the right one either.....
For example, there's no evidence that releasing support as primarily hardback adventure paths is the ideal way to go.
Indeed it looks instead to be a decision made to maximize profit and make best use of low manpower.

Zardnaar said:

1E had adventures and Dungeon magazine later on.

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5e has adventures too. There's a super-adventure every six months plus the Adventurer's League content and the wealth of material on D&D Classics. And there are the weekly articles available for free on the website.

Even excluding old editions, there's more adventure content available now then there was in 1977 when 1e launched. Most published adventures didn't really start coming out until 1978.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_&_Dragons_modules
Heck, if you include the adventures written during the playtest, there are MORE modules for 5e than there were for 1e.

And Dungeon Magazine didn't start until 1986, closer to the launch of 2nd Edition than 1e.

BryonD said:

But whatever, board game are not RPGs and you are stacking wild assumptions on wild assumptions now.

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Depends on the board game. D&D has far, far more in common with some board games (Descent, Dungeon, Talisman, etc) than it does with many other RPGs (FATE, Fiasco, Word of Darkness).

Treating RPG releases like other hobby game releases makes sense. Other than Pathfinder - which is mimicking D&D - few other RPG releases monthly content or waves of regular splatbooks. Most space out their releases and focus on larger noteworthy expansions. Like board games and similar hobby games.