D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Parmandur]

Paizo, and Pinnacle comes to mind.
I literally just talked to the Creative Producer of Pinnacle and they said they publish more then WoTC does for their games, they dont understand wtf is happening their, but something is off, despite being a fraction of the size.

WotC is putting out a big hardcover every other month, and has been hiring more and more designers (at the top rate in the industry, too)?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No the book is a tie to BG3.

OK, that's not what that word means, but thank you for clarifying.

 

[Charlaquin]

Posting Justin Alexander's comments from his discord server, because they mostly echo my own:

The game ain't mothballed. The anemic approach to content is consistent with 5th edition's history.

Yeah, my reaction is pretty much the same. Matt’s take is 9 years late here. Everyone else was making these observations when 5e first released. Now they’ve had a decade of accidental success and are finally starting to make moves towards capitalizing on it, and Matt only takes notice now? Weird…

 

[payn]

Yeah, my reaction is pretty much the same. Matt’s take is 9 years late here. Everyone else was making these observations when 5e first released. Now they’ve had a decade of accidental success and are finally starting to make moves towards capitalizing on it, and Matt only takes notice now? Weird…

You folks crack me up.

 

[see]

I feel like if they actually satisfied the demand Level Up wouldnt even have to exist to begin with.

Yes, WotC could make Level Up completely unnecessary by crippling new player acquisition in order to sell to the subset of their current audience who buy things like Level Up.

Of course, that means dooming themselves to the "New edition, then rapid sales decline spiral" pattern seen with almost every other RPG in human history.

 

[Charlaquin]

Specifically, customers in general see "PHB 2" and think that means it replaces the old busted PHB 1 that nobody needs anymore...because that's how most people engage with video games like Madden if Call of Duty. So they found people got frustrated and angry that they could not get thw game going with juat the PHB 2 or 3...

Yeah, and amusingly Matt makes this observation now… when WotC is actively in the process of developing a new PHB that will actually work the way the casual market expects a “PHB 2” to work

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, and amusingly Matt makes this observation now… when WotC is actively in the process of developing a new PHB that will actually work the way the casual market expects a “PHB 2” to work

Lol, I hadn't even thought of that, but that's true.

 

[mamba]

Yes, WotC could make Level Up completely unnecessary by crippling new player acquisition in order to sell to the subset of their current audience who buy things like Level Up.

I am not sure how they would even go about ‘accomplishing’ this…

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That sounds it has to be a comparison of apples and oranges

I agree. I wasn't the one who brought up Paizo. My point was more exactly that. It's apples to oranges. Paizo and Pinnacle can say that they produce more product and/or support it more (whatever that means) - but it's a different model. WotC keeps EVERYTHING for 5e in print (other than Variant Covers and they combined two books into one with Tyranny of Dragons). The other publishers do not. Who is "supporting" their product?

And as far as the distributor goes, yes, some of that is probably the distributor being out of stock while the publisher still has the product available. But the main reason for that would be low demand. Is it really much of a brag to create more product of a type that less people want?

Look, I'm not on WotC's "side" here. I love other publishers. This is a discussion on whether WotC's publishing plan works or not. IT DOES. Whether WotC is "mothballing" D&D or not. THEY'RE NOT.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, WotC could make Level Up completely unnecessary by crippling new player acquisition in order to sell to the subset of their current audience who buy things like Level Up.

Of course, that means dooming themselves to the "New edition, then rapid sales decline spiral" pattern seen with almost every other RPG in human history.

If it makes good games... D&D had plenty of success prior to 5e, and so have many other game companies.