Clint_L
Legend
Theo is a bit prone to hyperbole in this article - for example he several times refers to 4e having "huge sales" which none of his sources state and generally goes against the gist of what his sources are saying, which is that it would have had great sales by the standards of any other RPG, but poor sales compared to what WotC/Hasbro were projecting.Yeah, I read that just yesterday. People in the know have been saying that for a while now, but the myth endures. Theo explains quite well, IMHO, why it is so.
There is no question that 4e was a disappointment for WotC in terms of sales; whether or not it outsold Pathfinder is immaterial. They weren't budgeting based on whether or not they could beat Pathfinder or anyone else; they were budgeting based upon their own targets, costs. etc. 4e consistently failed to meet their projections and divided their player base, which is why it was replaced so quickly. But I don't think 3PP and the OGL had much to do with it.