Article from linux website

[qstor]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere.

http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/62560.html

I'll try and follow the rules on 4e comments So Piratecat won't have to edit my post.

Mike

 

[EricNoah]

I believe this is the same AP article that was posted a couple of weeks ago, if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[Griego]

Too bad there won't be a Linux version of the client. Maybe it can be tweaked to run under Wine or Cedega...

 

[Derro]

That's an interesting perspective from the outside. I'm curious about this:

D&D had about six million players worldwide last year, according to a survey by Wizards, though Rouse said the figure may be somewhat inflated. Many of those players probably yield little revenue for the company. The gamers buy books and sometimes miniatures, but only one player in the group needs to own a copy of each book.

Wizards does not reveal sales figures, but Pramas estimates the overall market for traditional role-playing games at US$30 million annually.

The last line indicates the hobby broadly and not WotC alone I assume. Does that mean gamers spend less than $5 per year, per person on tabletop rpgs. Now obviously my math is way off there but that's got to be an indicator of what the hobby generates per hobbyist.

Frankly, I'm surprised.

I am by no means a wealthy captain of industry. I probably spent $200 last year on gaming products and I'm sure more in previous years once or twice. Books, minis, magazines, and admittedly not just WotC products. Not big on the PDF purchases but I'm sure many are. I am not exemplary for the group that I roll with. Collectively we probably spend just over a grand a year on game stuff amongst our group of 7 or 8.

Is the industry really that cash poor? I'm not doubting it but I'm surprised. In this day and age $30 mil per annum just doesn't seem like much. Especially at, what 35, 40 bucks a book.

Suddenly I don't feel so bad about 4e being a cash grab.

 

[Treebore]

No, the 30 Million estimate is just too low. Hasbro/WOTC does not publish specifics, but they do release it in press releases and various reports. Still, D&D doesn't make the kind of money their card games do, or did.

However, after subtracting various values from various reports and news releases, WOTC's D&D brand all by itself makes about $70,000,000.00 per year. Well, as of about 3 years ago, when I last cared to research it. That is in sales, not profits. I couldn't find consistent profit numbers. However, knowing what I know about profit margins, their profit on that $70 Million would be below $10 Million.

So no, the D&D brand for WOTC is not very profitable. Which is why they like their card divisions so much. Those profits were around 20% of their sales totals. They may have been as much as 30%. Where as the D&D brand was about 14% profit on their sales.