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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5000518" data-attributes="member: 59082">Looking at <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/267918-hardcovers-do-you-own-plan-own.html" target="_blank">this poll</a> we can see why new editions are a financial must at some point. Look at the declining percentages in the series books:PHB1 - 98% -> PHB2 - 73% -> PHB3 - 59%MM1 - 94% -> MM2 - 60% -> 48%DMG1 - 93% -> DMG2 - 56%AV1 - 67% -> AV2 - 35% MP1 - 61% -> MP2 - 37%Given that ENWorld as a demographic is deep into the serious-to-hardcore side of the spectrum with very few (if any) casual gamers posting, I think we can still assume that these percentages are roughly representative of total sales, at least relative to each other within a series (in other words, Adventurer's Vault 2 probably sold about half of the amount that AV1 did). The question is, given that later books almost always sell less, how does Wizards of the Coast survive? What other types of products are as front-loaded as this? This is not to say that one should expect to keep on selling books at the pace of the original core three, but that if each book within a series has decreasing sales, how do they compensate to stay profitable? Is this "reverse sales creep" the primary reason for the supposed annual WotC layoffs? Is it just expected that each edition will be a downward spiral in sales until it gets to the point that they must come out with a new edition?It probably goes without saying that the WotC/Hasbro business planning department has "new edition" penciled in at a relatively specific time, likely based upon the point at which the downward spiral of sales is deemed unsustainable. But it has to be a sweet spot: not too soon (so that you piss your fanbase off enough that they won't actually buy the new edition) and not too late (so that you enter financial trouble). In this regard one could argue that 4ed was a tad too soon (although not overly so in that it still sold well) and 3ed was way too late (TSR being bought out a few years before).Is there a way out of this madness? Has there been a historical instance of a major RPG company coming out with a product line mid-edition that boosted sales substantially?Just musing here.</blockquote>

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