the Jester
Legend
I'll certainly buy at least the core rules. I'm a whore for D&D.
I can imagine a large number of people who bought the 4e books right out of the gate sight unseen. There might have been sizable preorders, either in stores or places like Amazon. The first six months of PHB and Core book sales could easily have been much larger for 4e than 3e.
Sales were supposedly strong for all of 2008. Not as strong as 3e but still strong. So there was the initial spike that dropped off as people decided not to keep buying. This decline likely continued once the character builder was released and people realized they could pay $7 and get the complete content of a $40 book. And the Pathfinder came out and people had another choice.
WOTC also staggered the release of the core 3e books over a 3 month period. The purchase of the first two books were spread out over two to three months as some people purchased books as they were released an others waited until all three core books were released3e likely had a slower build, as people slowly heard of the new edition over time. I was on the internet back in 2000 and discovered 3e by total accident on a comic buying trip. And as 2e had been "dead" for so long and producing such irregular and niche content.
On these boards you had several people admitting that they were preordering 3-6 copies of the 4e PHB from Amazon. Many of them then regretted doing so. They either read the books and disliked what they saw, played a few sessions and were disappointed, or their groups for whom they bought the multiple copies did not want to switch.I can imagine a large number of people who bought the 4e books right out of the gate sight unseen. There might have been sizable preorders, either in stores or places like Amazon.
I also have a couple of deal-breakers - if it requires minis, if it requires any electronic tool, or if it requires any subscription, I'm out. I don't mind any of those things existing, nor do I mind if they're very, very nice-to-have. But if they're required, then I'm out.
Uhm... just noticed that I voted "Yes, I'll buy!" in that poll about 4e. But it turned out that I didn't.