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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 6292564" data-attributes="member: 2525">From what we've heard over the years, Hasbro itself has NEVER been concerned about that publishing chart.  They've always been concerned with overall revenue and profits.  The ICv2 chart is actually a relatively obscure thing, and from Hasbro's perspective it's almost certainly meaningless.  It's not like a bestseller chart or something - you cannot even use it to advertise your products.  There is no inherent value to Hasbro to topping that obscure chart - it's not a money generator itself, and it cannot be leveraged to generate money either.LOL this is not Mearls' philosophy, this is what came FROM Hasbro.  What he outlined is him following the recent Hasbro gaming study that gamers want to sit down and play, that they have less free time, that they play for shorter periods of time at one time, etc..  We went through that in a much older thread, and I even predicted at that time we'd be hearing something like this.  It's definitely the opposite - focusing on the brand over the books is from the top, and focusing on faster game play and shorter game time to play is from the top.It's not a "sales chart" though.  It's a brick and mortar retail book chart.  They have much MUCH better "sales charts" than this internally.  They are competing, it's just not primarily over people buying RPG books.  They are competing for all entertainment dollars, which is a much bigger sea of competition than Paizo.  It's going to be for apps and video games and novels and lunch boxes and bedspreads and tv shows and movies and toys and collectibles and t-shirts and posters and mugs and Halloween costumes and everything under the sun.  Sales of RPG books is just one very small component of that overall set of product sales.  They don't care if they are #1 or #2 on that one item, if the overall brand does well for them.The plan appears to be for the primary "D&D-customer" (as opposed to the "D&D RPG customer") to be the general 20-40something nostalgia nerd who has some awareness of D&D and might have played it once in the past (perhaps decades ago).  The people who enjoy Big Bang Theory and Community and Hunger Games and World of Warcraft and The Room app and 80s throw-back T-shirts and Dr. Who and Game of Thrones and Superheroes, etc..  THAT is their primary customer.  Just like that is the typical customer for Marvel.  They will still sell RPG books to players of the game, just as Marvel still sells comic books to readers of comics.  But it's no longer the driving force behind their sales - general sales to the much larger nostalgia nerd population (mostly through licensing) is the driving force behind their sales.  At least, that seems to be the plan.</blockquote>

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