WotC Hasbro gains big time from D&D, Magic, Monopoly, and Baldur's Gate 3

[Oofta]

I will only share my can of beans with people who can accurately describe the difference between the OGL and the Creative Commons licenses.

You've been warned.

So basically you're not sharing.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So basically you're not sharing.

As they say, Sharing is caring.

And, well, you know me by now ....

 

[mamba]

Paizo had probavly already stopped printing PF2E first edition so they could make room for the replacement PF2E second edition later this year. Doesn't mean that there wasn't a real rush, but stock was probably at a very low tide.

no idea if they had stopped printing, but didn’t they sell something like 6 months worth of books in two weeks or so? It wasn’t just already low stock meeting a slight increase in sales

I believe they had another print run because of that, which would indicate that they had not stopped printing

EDIT: Pathfinder and Call of Cthulhu RPGs sell out months’ worth of books in two weeks after D&D OGL backlash

“Paizo announced on January 26th that it had seen an “overwhelming” amount of interest in its fantasy RPG Pathfinder - which was originally built on D&D 3.5 using the OGL.

According to the publisher, it sold out of eight months’ worth of the game’s physical core rulebook in the last two weeks, with the RPG’s Beginner Box starter kits seeing a similar ‘surge’. Paizo confirmed it had ordered an additional print run of the hardcover core rulebook to meet the demand, due to arrive in mid-April.”

 

[Parmandur]

no idea if they had stopped printing, but didn’t they sell something like 6 months worth of books in two weeks or so? It wasn’t just already low stock meeting a slight increase in sales

I believe that had another print run because of that, which would indicate that they had not stopped printing

They appear to have expected what they had on hand to last till the revisions, which would have already been in the pipeline. So it was a surge, but on a deprecated product. Complex situation.

 

[mamba]

They appear to have expected what they had on hand to last till the revisions, which would have already been in the pipeline. So it was a surge, but on a deprecated product. Complex situation.

maybe, I have no idea how much inventory they usually have, selling 8 months worth in two weeks does not sound like them running out was mostly a matter of low inventory though

 

[darjr]

With respect, I don't think I am the one in an echo chamber. Just saying.

Oof.

Well it’s a fact that sales after the OGL bumped significantly. Stores sold out and couldn’t get more. And it was a reaction to the OGL fiasco.

As far as the hobby goes it doesn’t get much more wide spread than that. It would have ti involve the secind group of even more casual gamers like someone posted here.

And as far as anecdotal, the mood at cons was significant effected. For instance Joe Mangienllo brought many of his gaming group to GaryCon. And they played with Kobold Press at their live streamed Black Flag table.

 

[Velderan]

They appear to have expected what they had on hand to last till the revisions, which would have already been in the pipeline. So it was a surge, but on a deprecated product. Complex situation.

They didn't have the revisions planned to be released any time soon though. They had just received the 4th (I think) print run of the CRB and over 2 weeks got hit with so many orders they had to bring in temp help to augment their warehouse crew to fill the orders. No idea how many books that was though.

Erik Mona said they had to scrap their publishing plan for the following year and push some of those books back to focus on the revision work. He never said what the original plan was for the Remaster books since they only had firm plans for the upcoming year, but it sounded like that was still a couple years away and not as aggressive in what it would change.

 

[Velderan]

Given that most players I've seen that play D&D don't even know all of the abilities that their own characters have, I find it ... difficult ... to believe that most D&D players would be able to spell "OGL" if you spotted them the O and the G.

This was an incredibly big deal, but not for the wider population of D&D players.


ETA- to be clear, I think people often don't understand what "most people" know or what is "widely heard about". I still remember learning in 2018 that more than half of all Americans could not name a single Justice on the Supreme Court. Not one. Now, that number might have creeped up in the last five years, but still.

I think something worth mentioning is I don't think the general population typically goes to a FLGS to begin with, sadly. So sales trends there already probably represent a pretty small portion of the population compared to say Amazon, Target, or Barnes and Noble.

 

[Scribe]

You know, I see a lot more 'The OGL situation was nothing.' still, from the same camp, than I do people saying it the end of Wizards.

I dont understand the value in relitigating what actually was observable in terms of the impact of what Wizards communicated.

If anyone wants to claim it 'did nothing' well...they are wrong.

 

[darjr]

I think something worth mentioning is I don't think the general population typically goes to a FLGS to begin with, sadly. So sales trends there already probably represent a pretty small portion of the population compared to say Amazon, Target, or Barnes and Noble.

I think the Eric Mona anecdote is a clue that it wasn’t just FLGS and distribution to them. FYI.