D20 Modern Spectaculars Canceled

[gladiator]

As others have pointed out, a book this close to publication date must be mostly complete, so there's already a substantial investment.

It's possible that the book was cancelled some time ago, but the distributors weren't notified until recently.

If WotC believes that a cancelled book announcement could hurt sales of their entire d20 product line then it would make sense for them to delay the announcement for as long as possible.

 

[JPL]

If WotC believes that a cancelled book announcement could hurt sales of their entire d20 product line then it would make sense for them to delay the announcement for as long as possible.

I don't know why they would think that simply taking a book off the schedule with an explanation that it was being retooled or rethought or rescheduled or whatever would hurt sales of the entire line in any significant fashion.

And wouldn't pulling a book off the schedule months ahead of time and providing a reasonable explanation attract a lot less negative attention and speculation than doing it this way? I mean, now we have folks speculating that this means the death of entire line.

 

[Eternal Knot Games]

Then again letting the rumours fly allow for more people to hear about the product. People like me...

I did not even guess that WotC was thinking about a supers game and now I do. BTW I got both M&M (1&2) and Blood 'n' Vigilance so I'll not be getting it but there might be others out there that would pick it up because WotC done it and so must be good.

 

[Qualidar]

And wouldn't pulling a book off the schedule months ahead of time and providing a reasonable explanation attract a lot less negative attention and speculation than doing it this way? I mean, now we have folks speculating that this means the death of entire line.

The death of the entire line explains what we're seeing, so naturally people are speculating that it could be what's driving this.

~Qualidar~

 

[JPL]

The death of the entire line explains what we're seeing, so naturally people are speculating that it could be what's driving this.

~Qualidar~

Except "what we're seeing" apparently also includes d20 Dark*Matter on the schedule, which doesn't sound like a dead line to me.

And Eternal Knot, I don't see how "getting people talking" about a product WotC is NOT publishing puts any money in WotC's pockets. Building buzz = good; building buzz about vaporware = bad; building buzz suggesting the whole line is kaput = very bad.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I think part of the skepticism is that many distributors in this industry are notorious for errors and misinformation, so people are dubious about anything they state that's not confirmed by a company.

Matthew L. Martin

 

[Morgenstern]

Well, the rather obvious difference is that Star Wars had nothing scheduled for a very long time. d20 Spectaculars is an actual scheduled product, due for release relatively soon. In the past, when previously announced products have been delayed/dropped/whatever, WOTC has updated the release info on their website to reflect that.

Fair enough. I'm just saying we should be examining their silence in light of past behavior. If they've been good about promptly announcing cancellations in the past, then this is odd. But 2 different distributors closing out their pre-orders sounds a lot like conducting business rather than saving face.

So... perhaps I'm naive, but it seems logical to conclude that WOTC will clarify the product's status, probably relatively soon (in real world time, not internet time).

Agreed on all counts. Both that they will be compelled to say somehing fairly soon if the book doesn't hit shelves, and that any such action will take place in real world time - which is often the last possible second when you have to give out bad news .

Add to that the fact that I can't see what advantage I derive from learning of the product's cancellation (or whatever) now vs. up to a month from now, and I guess I just don't see any reason to rush to judgement.

Again, I think you're looking at it backwards. Anouncements aren't about the advantage they give customers, they are about the advantage they give the company - and it seems clear that in general, making a damaging announcement about a line that may be on shakey ground is something you don't rush into unless you have a very personal relationship with your customers. IF (note the qualifing value of this word) distributors are hearing about it now, the decision was probably made some time ago. Probably a public statement was planned for around the same time and they didn't expect the word to get out so quickly. Or maybe we've just got bad intel and nothing's up with this book .

 

[Morgenstern]

I don't know why they would think that simply taking a book off the schedule with an explanation that it was being retooled or rethought or rescheduled or whatever would hurt sales of the entire line in any significant fashion.

Sure, if you are retooling, rethinking, or rescheduling. If you are just canceling, then no, months in advance is a pretty bad play. And saying you're re-doing a book in some fashion when you never intend to come through is even worse.

And wouldn't pulling a book off the schedule months ahead of time and providing a reasonable explanation attract a lot less negative attention and speculation than doing it this way? I mean, now we have folks speculating that this means the death of entire line.

Depends on your explination, I would think. If 5 months ago they anounced "We don't think Spectaculars will be a money maker. We're canceling it." They would only have earned themselves 5 more month of "Is d20 Mordern on it's way out?" sepculation that would have almost certainly hurt the sales of existing products and probably put a crimp in Critical Locations because a certain number of fans would have wandered off in the mean time. I can definitely envision holding this statement as long as possible to give Critical Locations a fair chance during its most critical sales period.

Seriously, what advantage does it net them? I realize it's inconvienient to us to find these things out at the last second, but that's not the motivation.

 

[arscott]

Except "what we're seeing" apparently also includes d20 Dark*Matter on the schedule, which doesn't sound like a dead line to me.

And Eternal Knot, I don't see how "getting people talking" about a product WotC is NOT publishing puts any money in WotC's pockets. Building buzz = good; building buzz about vaporware = bad; building buzz suggesting the whole line is kaput = very bad.

No, In fact, we're seeing Dark•Matter mysteriously not on the schedule. There's an entry for three dragon ante where the book should be.

That evidence supports the theory of a last-minute decision to drop d20 Modern

 

[arscott]

Fair enough. I'm just saying we should be examining their silence in light of past behavior. If they've been good about promptly announcing cancellations in the past, then this is odd. But 2 different distributors closing out their pre-orders sounds a lot like conducting business rather than saving face.

I don't think we've seen two different distributors cancelling. I think we've just heard about Alliance cancelling from two different people.