So...How are Sales of 4E Product?

[darjr]

Look, this isn't an edition war for me. I love 3.5, if my group can hammer out our scheduling, I'll continue to play in a 3.5 campaign. I'm glad that Pathfinder is doing well. I've downloaded every beta (alpha?), and my FLGS has copies for sale. I continue to buy 3.5 material, yes I love the discounts.

I also love 4e, I'm in a campaign and am playing in LFR.

I'm just posting followups, observations, and commentary. Some of this is highly amusing, see my comments about the Fatal comparison. Some of it is just plain wrong, stating that the ranking for 25th most sold book on Amazon means nothing or conflating it with the hourly sales rankings.

I'm not fighting an edition war. I really just started with a congratulations for a hard job well done. A success that benefits us all.

P.S. Cadfan, I disagree with you, we'll just have to see.

Edit: I should add that it's amusing to me. Not that I'm amusing... or maybe I am. Just that I don't know if I am or not.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

DaveMage, good answer (on the "why do some folks want 4e to sell poorly" question I asked). Those answers make sense, even if I don't like the motives behind them.

To the other point in this thread: The reason why people don't question Mona about PF's sales, and yet jump all over WotC, is the same reason why people don't care if I say I lost weight*, but plaster pics of Oprah all over the world when she says she dropped a few pounds. Indifference breeds acceptance.

That's right, Wisdom Penalty is to Pathfinder as Oprah is to Wizards of the Coast.

You heard it hear first.

G'nite -

WP



* Calm down ladies; I didn't really lose any weight. I'm still 250+ lbs. of dead sexy.

 

[Erik Mona]

That's right, Wisdom Penalty is to Pathfinder as Oprah is to Wizards of the Coast.

Damn. I think I got that one wrong on my SATs.

--Erik

 

[Rel]

That loud sound you're about to hear is me bashing some heads together if people don't start toning down the nastiness in here. Why not say some nice things about each other for a change? Here, I'll start: Erik Mona is a sexy little man.

See? Easy.

 

[Erik Mona]

Smooch.

--Erik

 

[Dragon Snack]

[Seinfeld]Not that there's anything wrong with that...[/Seinfeld]

* No horses were harmed in the making of this post

How do we know! We have NO HARD FACTS!

...stating that the ranking for 25th most sold book on Amazon means nothing...

Actually, since Amazon sold the core book set for less than some games stores could buy it for from their distributor (I know of one game store owner who bought his books from Amazon), I would posit that Amazon's sales for 4.0 are a bit inflated...

I do think 4.0 is a success, but Amazon sales don't mean a whole lot.

 

[Jack99]

Dude, I think you post about me more online than I post about myself.

Maybe you should look into that?

--Erik

PS: Pathfinder is still selling well.

It was just the easiest way to prove a point, I have nothing against you, Paizo nor your products.

And grats on the continued sales.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Don't I recall you stating in some interview back in 2003 that you (WotC) were selling more PHBs per year than during the "peak" back during AD&D 1e?

Not exactly. It would have been 2005, and what I was saying was that, contrary to the common perception (among gamers and nongamers) that D&D has for 20 years been a mere shadow of its early-80s fad highs, D&D was in fact about as big as it had ever been.

Comparisons are hard to make, because the TSR-era data is so sketchy, but virtually every metric we had good data on indicated that D&D had as many players then (2005) as it had ever had. And the numbers are probably up since then!

The broader point isn't a direct comparison of PHB sales. It's that we gamers shouldn't continue to think we live in the shadow of some glory days when D&D was really popular. These days are even bigger!

 

[Belen]

For me to see it actually selling well in my area, especially so for books beyond the core PHB/DMG/MM. At least in my area, it hasn't made a gigantic splash from when I've talked about it with a friend of mine who works at the game store I frequent, though it has managed to royally alienate just about every FR fan he and I know.

We can compare anecdotes all day long about our own demographic bubbles and if 4e is or isn't doing well therein, but without hard sales figures for various books we can't draw solid conclusions at this stage.

Agreed. The local FLGS had some initially great sales, but they have really slowed down.

 

[Belen]

To be fair, Paizo does not sell at all through the FLGS. I think that Paizo has made a mistake with the stores with their subscription program. The stores have little incentive to stock it.