D&D being dropped by gamestore(s) in fovor of other roleplaying games...

[Cergorach]

I life in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and there's a store here that's been around for ages, it's called the Gamekeeper (previously called Compendium). It's been the place were i bought almost almost all my D&D books for a decade and a half (the last couple of years i run my own webstore), sometimes they had more then others, but you could always get most of the latest releases there. I was talking to a friend last night, with whom i've been roleplaying for 15+ years, of course there was the subject of d&d and the latest releases And then came the suprising news, Gamekeeper is going to drop the d&d line from their assortiment. While i can understand the decline in interest in the d&d books (being more of the same feats, PrC, spells, etc.), i find it shocking that a gamestore stops carrying d&d material. There's more interest in Shadowrun and White Wolf books then there's interest in d&d books. While some might say that this is only the retailers personal choice and that it's a bad one, the current owner of the store is very good at selling a lot of games with his gamestore. I can't imagine that he would stop carrying a line of rpg books because of a personal bias against the gameline (because he doesn't play games as far as i know and he's a hardcore businessman), so the only thing i can imagine is that the d&d line is selling badly at the gamestore and/or shelf space is better spent carrying other game lines.

Is this store unique, or are there other gamestores that have done or will do the same?

ps. I only heard this from someone else so i won't vouch for it's accuracy, i may have misunderstood what my friend said or my friend might have misunderstood it in the first place. Frits (the guy behind the counter) is a great guy (when last i say him, but he could have turned into a grumpy really old man ;-) so if your not sure, go ask him for the gist of it.

 

[Psion]

Is this store unique, or are there other gamestores that have done or will do the same?

Drop RPGs for CCGs or Clix? Easily.

Drop D&D for other RPGs? Hereabouts (and everywhere I've been in the US, really), it seems unthinkable. You have D&D, most likely white wolf, and from there on out, it's optional.

 

[der_kluge]

I don't know about Europe in general, but I can't imagine any game store in the states *not* selling D&D in favor of some other RPGs. I know that there are a couple of really popular RPGs which are specific to Germany and Japan, but I don't know what kind of appeal they have outside those countries.

 

[NimrodvanHall]

I also live in Holland, in Rotterdam to be precice, and i do notice growing shelf space for White Wolf. I can hardly imagine my local stores quiting D&D altogether. For the simple fact that it still is the most populair RPG to play here.
I do think that the 3.5 line is to close to 3.0 resulting into many duplications I can live without.
I still play about 8 hour each week and did that for the last decade. resulting in about a pund of dice, 3 shelves of Ad&D2nd books, 1 shelve of 3.0 books, and just 6 3.5 books (PHB DMG, MM, XPH, Complete arcane, sandstorm) we do play 3.5 since 4 months since its realase, i had the PhB 2 weeks befor its USA release. but i'm not going to spend hundreds of Euro's/dollars, on books that will become obsolete as soon as WOTC descides to bring out the 4th edition, especially if all that diferentiates the books from its 3.0 counterpart is some "Balancing of feats and prestige classes."

Dont get me wrong i love his game and i do play 3.5, but imo 3.5 should not excist.

Back on topic, could it not be that Frits, descided that to many 3rd party books, or WotC terrain/lords of battle typebooks came out for d20, that do not sell, and that he does not want to offer an incomplete line to his customers. thus he descided to quit the line altogether?

PS.
in Holland we play the american RPG's the german/japanese games here sell as well as the bible in ancient Egyptian

 

[fusangite]

I wish I lived in a place where that wouldn't be commercial suicide. But I don't.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I think there are lots of countries in Europe where D&D doesn't take the top spot of the RPGs in sales. In Germany, something like that wouldn't surprise me, either. I think that DSA or Shadowrun are still much more popular over there.

 

[mcrow]

The only stores that don't carry D&D here in Minneapolis are the ones that don't carry RPGs at all.

 

[Glyfair]

Drop D&D for other RPGs? Hereabouts (and everywhere I've been in the US, really), it seems unthinkable. You have D&D, most likely white wolf, and from there on out, it's optional.

In 2004 roleplaying games were down about 25% according to an industry report ( http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6654.html ). Only two companies actually grew, Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf. The beginning of 2005 hasn't been much better ( http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/7057.html ).

 

[Wombat]

As some people have noted, at least obliquely, I have not heard of any stores that are dropping D&D for other games, but I do know of at least two local stores that have decided to stop stocking rpgs altogether, due to lack of sales in general.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I thought the buzz was that the new WoD stuff wasn't doing well?