D&D 5E Could D&D Die Again?

[mamba]

My understanding is that in spite of revisionist history, until Hasbro axed it, 4e performed better than 3.x and then just as well

I have not seen anything to support this, but hard numbers appear to be impossible to find. At a minimum the short life cycle suggests otherwise

 

[Vaalingrade]

My understanding is that in spite of revisionist history,

I think it's about time we just realize that revisionist history has won.

4e made zero money, not a single person purchased, played or enjoyed it, and we have always been at war with Oceana.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think it's about time we just realize that revisionist history has won.

4e made zero money, not a single person purchased, played or enjoyed it, and we have always been at war with Oceana.

No one's claiming that.
. The other metric though is online players. Few years back OSR had double the numbers of 4E and 3.X was a lot bigger than OSR.

This was around 5E landing iirc.

No idea what current numbers are.

We've also learnt 3.5 didn't do very good numbers either. But finding an online 3 5 or Pathfinder Game was easy. Then 5E crushed everything.

 

[teitan]

No one's claiming that.
. The other metric though is online players. Few years back OSR had double the numbers of 4E and 3.X was a lot bigger than OSR.

This was around 5E landing iirc.

No idea what current numbers are.

We've also learnt 3.5 didn't do very good numbers either. But finding an online 3 5 or Pathfinder Game was easy. Then 5E crushed everything.

By the time 5e came out 4e was dead for two years while Pathfinder was still going strong and WOTC had published 3.5 core books, 1e corebooks, 2e corebooks and a 0e anniversary set. 4e was unsupported and lay fallow. 3.5 was a huge seller, compared to 2e which flatlined after a year and a half. So it wasn’t a poor seller and its success was why Hasbro thought it could do more with 4e and the plans they announced for it and the unlimited budget they threw at the developers. It failed within a time frame to meet the expectation and was slashed. It wasn’t even cancelled by Hasbro, it was iced. That’s why it was nostalgia products for 2 years. They had a miniscule budget. They had to farm new material out for others to work on. OSR isn’t a good comparison because you’re talking several games, of varying systems from White box styles to 1e and BX which are not all that related but share a common ancestry and the various sub games in the OSR with changes that create fiefdoms within the OSR like LOTFP.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My fear now is it could die, like in the same way Star Wars franchise.

The company should be ideologically neutral and they shouldn't get into troubles, not "enter into a chemise of 30 feet" ( a chemise is the wall betwen two towers and in a casle siege they are too hard to atack there).

 

[Zardnaar]

By the time 5e came out 4e was dead for two years while Pathfinder was still going strong and WOTC had published 3.5 core books, 1e corebooks, 2e corebooks and a 0e anniversary set. 4e was unsupported and lay fallow. 3.5 was a huge seller, compared to 2e which flatlined after a year and a half. So it wasn’t a poor seller and its success was why Hasbro thought it could do more with 4e and the plans they announced for it and the unlimited budget they threw at the developers. It failed within a time frame to meet the expectation and was slashed. It wasn’t even cancelled by Hasbro, it was iced. That’s why it was nostalgia products for 2 years. They had a miniscule budget. They had to farm new material out for others to work on. OSR isn’t a good comparison because you’re talking several games, of varying systems from White box styles to 1e and BX which are not all that related but share a common ancestry and the various sub games in the OSR with changes that create fiefdoms within the OSR like LOTFP.

It's numbers were similar to AD&D which had been out of print 14-24 years at that point. That suggests a very very rapid collapse of the playerbase.

3.5 (a poor performer D&D wise) was still more popular and was putting up better numbers than AD&D while Pathfinder was a thing.

 

[Bill Zebub]

My fear now is it could die, like in the same way Star Wars franchise.

The company should be ideologically neutral and they shouldn't get into troubles, not "enter into a chemise of 30 feet" ( a chemise is the wall betwen two towers and in a casle siege they are too hard to atack there).

I thought it was lingerie for a fire giant.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Really the original expression in Spanish languange is "meterse en camisa de once varas".

 

[CommodoreKong]

It seems like Wizards is spending Anton of money on One DND, especially with the VTT. I wonder what their measure of success will be. I could see a scenario where One DND does better than any other version but is still considered a disappointment due to how much was spent on the VTT.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

One D&D- VTT shouldn't be only fantasy, but they should open space for other genres, for example sci-fi.