Really? What are you basing that on?
I have used numerous 3pp modules, and I'm running Primeval Thule right now. I'm really not seeing the "bloody mess" that you're talking about. Many of the modules that i've looked have have been pretty spot on. Some are not to my taste, but, that's a different kettle of fish.
It's not 2001 anymore. People have been pumping out material for D&D for over a decade now. And with a system that is as robust as 5e, it's actually pretty hard to be too unbalanced.
Not in any order, but huge Marvel comic book movie success, great new Dr. Who / Supernatural / etc. on TV, Oodles of Twitch and YouTube streams + Critical Role + Wil Wheaton + Felicia Day, fantasy fandom being bigger and more inclusive than ever, a thriving Cosplay / convention / fantasy scene, fantastically well-received Lord of the Rings + Harry Potter, ease of finding stuff on the Internet, etc. all add up to a much larger potential audience than before.
Hell, if you compare to the 80's, we've also added 80 million more people.
Not in any order, but huge Marvel comic book movie success, great new Dr. Who / Supernatural / etc. on TV, Oodles of Twitch and YouTube streams + Critical Role + Wil Wheaton + Felicia Day, fantasy fandom being bigger and more inclusive than ever, a thriving Cosplay / convention / fantasy scene, fantastically well-received Lord of the Rings + Harry Potter, ease of finding stuff on the Internet, etc. all add up to a much larger potential audience than before.
Hell, if you compare to the 80's, we've also added 80 million more people.
Unless virtually every WOTC D&D exec is just outright lying, then this is false. Three execs (Crawford, Mearls, Perkins) have all confirmed 5e has made more money than 3.5 and 4e. In addition, "2017 has been D&D's most successful year in the 20 years I've been with Wizards" said Perkins just a couple days ago. We also have quarterly Hasbro report meetings, which are governed by FEC regulations for accuracy, which stated D&D is doing better than it had done in the 3.5 and 4e years.
Paizo is not keeping up any more. ICV2 releases retail sales numbers (which are combined for all book sales), and 5e is beating Pathfinder by a good margin. All the online play platforms like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds report 5e is being played a lot more than Pathfinder. And of course all the other sales metrics like New York Times bestseller list, the Amazon and Barnes and Nobel best seller lists, and the combined sellers lists out there, all show 5e is doing much MUCH better than Pathfinder.
Contrast that with literally zero evidence the combined Pathfinder sales are beating the combined 5e sales, and I am just not sure how anyone can continue to make that claim these days. It's a theory some floated before the hard evidence started to come in, but at this point, I think it's just not a tenable position to take any longer. In fact, given the 5e PHB remains in the top 100 of all book sales for the nation (for all types of books) nearly four years after it's release, and I think it's like the PHB alone has made more money than the entire Pathfinder line for the past several years.
Not in any order, but huge Marvel comic book movie success, great new Dr. Who / Supernatural / etc. on TV, Oodles of Twitch and YouTube streams + Critical Role + Wil Wheaton + Felicia Day, fantasy fandom being bigger and more inclusive than ever, a thriving Cosplay / convention / fantasy scene, fantastically well-received Lord of the Rings + Harry Potter, ease of finding stuff on the Internet, etc. all add up to a much larger potential audience than before.
Hell, if you compare to the 80's, we've also added 80 million more people.
Chris, Mike, Jeremy are middle management at best, they aren't executives, not high enough up the food chain.
I recall them saying these past couple years have been the most profitable, but have they confirmed higher gross revenue?Are you saying they are lying, or not? It's a pretty simple question.
Well, true; but that does seem to be what the dude's argument was: 3E grossed more, so WotC is leave ng money on the table. When the business sense is, find the best balance for net.Who cares about gross revenue? It's net that's important.