D&D 3.x 3.5: Out With A Whimper

[Dormammu]

As has been said, you can't really keep things going unless you don't announce the new edition. And not only would it upset people to spring a new edition on them with no warning, it would also prevent you from doing pre-release marketing.

So you have to balance the trade-off between marketing the new edition and killing the old edition because those two things must coincide, by their very nature.

 

[mattcolville]

In other news, MS no longer makes X-Box games, preferring to put their resources into 360 games.

Nintendo no longer makes Game Boy games in favor of the DS and has abandoned the GameCube in favor of the Wii.

Companies promoting their new product over one they don't make any more.

Shocking!

While the PS2 still outsells the PS3.

 

[Vigilance]

While the PS2 still outsells the PS3.

Sometimes you gotta take a chance.

Or else I'd still be playing my Atari 2600, or OD&D.

That might make Diaglo happy, part of it anyway (not sure where he stands on the Atari).

 

[dmccoy1693]

Instead of one of the Expedition books (take your pick which was the worst, everyone's got their opinion), they could have instead done Expedition to Fourth Edition

 

[Menexenus]

Reynard, I believe you've hit the nail smack center of its proverbial head. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I, too, think Reynard's original post is right on target.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Why is everyone saying that the OP is saying that 4E is crap? I don't get it.

What the OP said is:

"WotC dumped 3.5 6 or 9 months before they had 4E ready. How are they going to keep going in between? Why didn't they produce something to sell in between? Why the suddenness of it all, and the gap in new product (and thus, revenue for WotC) that it's producing? Was it a good idea for them to handle the matter this way? Or was it some kind of knee-jerk decision that's going to cause them problems from a dead period of sales?"

Which, IMO, are very good questions.

In my opinion these are not very good questions since they make the rhetorical assumption that the only thing that Wizards sells are the D&D RPG game books. As several people have pointed out above, this assumption is false. Wizards are not a one-product company - they have multiple other product lines which will be providing revenue at the same time.

I recall (but can't find) a post here saying that Wizards would have to give the companies they sell through a roughly 9 month warning on new product. If they wanted to release in the middle of next year they had to announce roughly when they did. Since that decision is forced on them they have to accept a 9 month period of low RPG sales. Once they've announced 4e a lot of buyers seemed to lose interest in the previous edition.

 

[crow81]

My main issues with the release announcement and strategy for the release of 4e is three fold.

1) As it has been stated in this post 3.5 didn't die the way 2e did it was killed off. I was at the WotC Gencon Announcement they merged 3.0 and 3.5 into a single point in the presentation to gloss over the fact it was 2 rounds of books in 8 years.

2) It also bothers me that 2 years into the life of 3.5 development of 4e began. The products after that time were full of errors and had balance issues. As if they were trying to break 3.5. Do you really think that they won't expect that kind of turn around from 4e. I am all for companies to make money but they should do that by putting out a superior product not churning the brand name. The amount of errata published shows a poor QA process.

3) Finally at DDXP this year it was stated by WotC that only DDXP would serve as the source of major announcements. They lied intentionally or unintentionally I don't know but they lied all the same.

If you haven't guessed I am in the camp that most likely will not be moving on to 4e between the treasure trove of 3.5 3rd party material and games like the new Twilight 2013 and Shadow Run 4th ed I'll have enough to keep me busy for a while.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

My main issues with the release announcement and strategy for the release of 4e is three fold.

1) As it has been stated in this post 3.5 didn't die the way 2e did it was killed off.

Better to announce a new edition while the old one is still good and popular than to wait until 3.5e would have been as tired and messed-up as 2e.

I was at the WotC Gencon Announcement they merged 3.0 and 3.5 into a single point in the presentation to gloss over the fact it was 2 rounds of books in 8 years.

Which isn't an unusually fast pace in RPG field, really. AD&D was an exception to the normal pace of revisions and new editions, and it shows; it got left behind while the other RPGs went on.

2) It also bothers me that 2 years into the life of 3.5 development of 4e began. The products after that time were full of errors and had balance issues. As if they were trying to break 3.5.

Sounds paranoid to me, to be honest. One of the reasons why balance issues may have increased is simple: 3.5 had grown larger and more complex. The more options and possibilities you have around, the harder it is to design things so as to avoid combinations which bring about balance issues.

Do you really think that they won't expect that kind of turn around from 4e. I am all for companies to make money but they should do that by putting out a superior product not churning the brand name. The amount of errata published shows a poor QA process.

I think there are plenty of reasons to assume that 4e will, indeed, be a superior product.

3) Finally at DDXP this year it was stated by WotC that only DDXP would serve as the source of major announcements. They lied intentionally or unintentionally I don't know but they lied all the same.

I do not think they ever stated DDXP would be the only, exclusive source of major announcements. Overall, I think a lot of people blame WotC of lying, when in fact they've managed to misinform themselves, or get convinced of internet speculation as the truth.

 

[pogre]

Didn't they have some adventure they cranked out prior to 3e that helped DMs to blow up their 2e worlds? I cannot recall the name of the module right now (Apocolypse something?). I wonder if it was successful? I kind of doubt it.

 

[Glyfair]

Didn't they have some adventure they cranked out prior to 3e that helped DMs to blow up their 2e worlds? I cannot recall the name of the module right now (Apocolypse something?). I wonder if it was successful? I kind of doubt it.

IIRC, they had 3 billed that way. One was The Apocalypse Stone, one was the Reverse Dungeon (which really didn't seem to fit the bill) and the last may have been Die, Vecna, Die (which was a bit more campaign specific, even if it spanned several published campaigns).