WotC President Chris Cocks Talks Magic and D&D

[Parmandur]

I'm not sure how to read that. In context, it seems he's talking about releasing sourcebooks for classic and new MTG worlds, rather than say Greyhawk or Dark Sun.

Personally, I'm not particularly interested in any MTG sourcebooks as the lore doesn't appeal (and I say that as a long time on-off Magic player), so hope we see SCAG equivalents for some of the classic D&D worlds. It's a shame the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron didn't get the full dead-tree treatment as it would be a useful measure of demand for some of the existing non-FR settings.

Minor grumblings aside, this is very positive news for the hobby. I still can't believe the swell in popularity D&D has experienced under 5th Edition. Long may it continue!

The most natural way to read it is that it means old Magic settings AND old D&D settings, and new to both settings. At the very least, this means they are thinking and talking about these options extensively if it spills over from the Prez in a fluff piece.

 

[tigycho]

Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron will get the dead tree treatment... when they're done. They released it digitally in Beta form as an experiment, and will continue to tweak that until they're happy, at which time content will be locked and go to presses

 

[Badvoc]

The most natural way to read it is that it means old Magic settings AND old D&D settings, and new to both settings. At the very least, this means they are thinking and talking about these options extensively if it spills over from the Prez in a fluff piece.

This would truly be the best of both worlds (pun unashamedly intended).

Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron will get the dead tree treatment... when they're done. They released it digitally in Beta form as an experiment, and will continue to tweak that until they're happy, at which time content will be locked and go to presses

Ah - thanks for that. I thought it was going to be PDF only for some reason. That's an insta-buy then.

 

[tigycho]

It's a shame the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron didn't get the full dead-tree treatment as it would be a useful measure of demand for some of the existing non-FR settings.

Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron will get the dead tree treatment... when they're done. They released it digitally in Beta form as an experiment, and will continue to tweak that until they're happy, at which time content will be locked and go to presses

 

[Parmandur]

This would truly be the best of both worlds (pun unashamedly intended).



Ah - thanks for that. I thought it was going to be PDF only for some reason. That's an insta-buy then.

The book is in PDF as a playtest. They have said the plan is to enable Print on Demand as an option when the crunch rules are finalized, and have talked about doing a full Hardcover book repeating the UA crunch, but with other fluff.

 

[TerraDave]

It’s also core book sales. The PHB is STILL in the top 100 of ALL books sold on Amazon.

You know I know that! They have held high, but is that growth? I guess there could be overall sales growth on Amazon...

But since you brought it up

MM 173
DMG 193
XGtE 411
MToF 788
DM Screen 706
VGtM 1052

AND

Art & Arcana 85
Art & Arcana D’lx 164
Dragon Heist 619

Its core books, but not just core books.

 

[Parmandur]

You know I know that! They have held high, but is that growth? I guess there could be overall sales growth on Amazon...

But since you brought it up

MM 173
DMG 193
XGtE 411
MToF 788
DM Screen 706
VGtM 1052

AND

Art & Arcana 85
Art & Arcana D’lx 164
Dragon Heist 619

Its core books, but not just core books.

If the core book sales remain steady and high, that suggests the overall number of people playing is increasing. Which means other things sell more over time.

For instance, the Starter Set is currently 761 in Books on Amazon, and I doubt veteran 5E players are buying many of those copies.

 

[darjr]

[MENTION=22260]TerraDave[/MENTION]
Well, in my defense, I should have......

 

[Parmandur]

Another thing to consider, in addition to continued strong sales on Amazon and in local stores: D&D Beyond got up and running in the past year, and they seems to be doing brisk business, as well, without slowing down the print game. Also, DMsGuild, Fantasy Ground, Roll20 and other chain stores like Barnes & Noble or Target (the Starter Set is well placed in the toys section) carry the game.

 

[Alzrius]

Anybody remember Spellfire?

Assuming you mean the card game, then I do. But it's not coming back; it was a CCG version of D&D, and didn't have very much that was unique to it (save for a few characters like Gib Htimsen), so it won't get singled out for any sort of special treatment as a book (and it'd never come back as a card game; they don't want to siphon players away from M:tG).