D&D 5E cancelled 5e announcement at Gencon??? Anyone know anything about this?

[Keeper of Secrets]

Honestly, I don't know either way. Its possible that they were set to announce something (even if they had minimal work on a finished product) and then pulled back. Or they could have circulated rumors and then did nothing just to see what bloggers and message board people would write about. If it was an echo chamber of 'bad idea' then that gives them some informal market research.

 

[wedgeski]

I could see it happen within WotC, plans to announce 5E at GenCon 2011, marketing goes off, design goes off. Design isn't ready, forgets to inform marketing, marketing forgets to ask, things get planned, things get canceled.

I hear what you're saying but there's no actual evidence (beyond anecdotes, suppositions, assumptions and agendas voiced on this board) that WotC have a 5E so far along in development that an announcement was prepared for GenCon. And on top of that, there's next to no benefit to the company in keeping it quiet for so long! For Wizards RPG there is nothing bigger, ever, than the announcement of a new edition of D&D. I'd expect countdown timers, viral marketing, the whole shebang.

 

[Nagol]

I hear what you're saying but there's no actual evidence (beyond anecdotes, suppositions, assumptions and agendas voiced on this board) that WotC have a 5E so far along in development that an announcement was prepared for GenCon. And on top of that, there's next to no benefit to the company in keeping it quiet for so long! For Wizards RPG there is nothing bigger, ever, than the announcement of a new edition of D&D. I'd expect countdown timers, viral marketing, the whole shebang.

Nothing undercuts current sales like the announcement of a new version. People simply stop buying the current stuff and wait for the new stuff as much as they can.

The longer the wait between the announcement and the unveiling, the longer the walk through a desert of sales weakness.

 

[Eridanis]

Here's me taking off my mod's hat and hypothesizing out of whole cloth.

5E annoucement was planned and ready to go as an Apple-style "And one more thing..." button to the Sat product seminar. 5E is going to be a minis-based skirmish game, sold in non-random packs, with optional rules for leveling up your minis through repeated play. It will go one sale at GenCon 2012. Someone decides at the last moment that whatever they're doing doesn't need a year's leadup, and they want to save the big annoucement for D&D Experience in Feb 2012, where they can manage the whole marketing rollout of the new edition and do a better job of manging customer reaction over six months rather than a year. (As well as keeping sales up for the handful of 4E products it has just announced.)

I'm sure this is incorrect on particluars (5E may be a more traditional RPG, but I doubt it), but based on what I know of marketing people and business, it wouldn't surprise me if this is close to what went down.

Before I put my stylish mod's hat back on (complete with rakish feather), remember that I know nothing more than any of you do. However, I was fully expecting a 5E annoucement, and when it didn't come, I figured I was just plain wrong. This makes a lot more sense to me.

 

[wedgeski]

Nothing undercuts current sales like the announcement of a new version. People simply stop buying the current stuff and wait for the new stuff as much as they can.

That doesn't really prove anything. Unless the announcement is immediately followed by stuff on shelves, that's always going to be the case, whether you announce it now at GenCon or later at Experience, or whenever.

 

[Thanee]

WotC_Trevor said that everything they wanted to talk about at gencon they did, so no cancelled last minute announcements.

Take from that what you will...

They obviously didn't want to talk about it, which is why it got cancelled.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nagol]

That doesn't really prove anything. Unless the announcement is immediately followed by stuff on shelves, that's always going to be the case, whether you announce it now at GenCon or later at Experience, or whenever.

Obviously, as I as offering no proof!

My post was a response to this part of the post:

And on top of that, there's next to no benefit to the company in keeping it quiet for so long! For Wizards RPG there is nothing bigger, ever, than the announcement of a new edition of D&D. I'd expect countdown timers, viral marketing, the whole shebang

I presented a benefit. Keeping quiet allows continued sales of existing product. It could easily be that WotC management reviewed the last post-annoucement/pre-sale period and didn't like the result of a year's delay.

It could also be that the 'announcement' was to scotch rumour of a 5e development and someone high up said 'Don't feed the rumour mill; it never is a benefit. Do not say anything!'

Personally, I expect 5e has just started its 2-year development cycle and will be ready in 2013. The first part of that cycle defines the patterns and success criteria for the latter part. We're seeing some pattern defintion from Mearls.

 

[delericho]

I'd expect countdown timers...

Of course, for 4e they had a countdown timer. It turned out to be a countdown to their website crashing.

Not sure they'll do that again.

 

[Azgulor]

Doesn't WotC have their own con, D&D Experience or something? If they were going to announce 5e, wouldn't they do it there rather than GenCon?

 

[Cergorach]

I hear what you're saying but there's no actual evidence (beyond anecdotes, suppositions, assumptions and agendas voiced on this board) that WotC have a 5E so far along in development that an announcement was prepared for GenCon. And on top of that, there's next to no benefit to the company in keeping it quiet for so long! For Wizards RPG there is nothing bigger, ever, than the announcement of a new edition of D&D. I'd expect countdown timers, viral marketing, the whole shebang.

Of course it isn't evidence, you just said that you "can't think of a credible scenario", I just thought of a credible scenario were it could happen. I'm not saying it did happen, I'm just saying that some seriously twisted things happen a corporations, that sound ridiculous (to one who has never experienced such ridiculousness before).

Also would they do a timer 365 days in advance? You make an announcement at an important event, the flashy stuff comes later, not before, not at the same time. The announcement itself should stand on it's own, all the stuff afterwards is to remind people of the product.