Mercurius
Legend
This suggests an interesting hypothesis: D&D (and, yes, I'm including Pathfinder here) does better with a small company/start-up mentality. Early TSR, WoTC and now Paizo. Assuming the hypothesis is correct, why would that be? Is D&D just not "big" enough for a corporate mentality? Is it because D&D is made for outsiders it needs to be made by outsiders?
Interesting? Sure. Surprising? Not really. Call me a grouchy aging liberal, but this is rather typical of what happens when a small company grows (too) large: the focus turns away from what the company was originally designed to support towards making more money. Not always, but usually.
About 15 years ago I worked at a health food store called Nature's in Portland, OR. It was started by a rather idealistic group of hippy boomers in the early 80s (I think). They got big quickly and expanded to half a dozen stores or more in the Portland metropolitan area. Then they decided to let themselves be bought by GNC, who promised that they would retain full operating control. The idea was that they would have more money to play with, but under the protective umbrella of a larger corporation. About a year later, GNC turned around and sold Nature's to Wild Oats (which used to be the main competitor with Whole Foods, but was bought out by Whole Foods about five years ago). Wild Oats immediately turned all of the Nature's stores into Wild Oats stores and, suffice it to say, the original owners of Nature's were quite upset and most quit. Shortly after they started up a new company called New Seasons Market, which now has about a dozen stores or so in Portland and other areas in Oregon and is thriving.
This is one anecdote but it happens time and time again: A group of idealists and/or creative types forms a company, which flourishes for a period of time of rapid growth and development. Then some kind of plateau is reached, perhaps the maximum growth within the constraints of a smallish company. At some point a "real business person" hired, which often leads to a buyout or selling of the company, etc, which brings the company to a new level of economic viability. It is around this time that something happens - the bottom line of the company changes, from the product itself, its artistic development, to making money.
That is the "American Way," for better or worse. I am not saying that art and idealism on one hand, and making money on the other, are mutually exclusive, but it is a matter of what the focus is, what the bottom line is, or perhaps more accurately, to what degree profit margin is the bottom line.