NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bento" data-source="post: 2988133" data-attributes="member: 36597">Phew... that's an hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.Seriously, I don't think it's in the best interest of Hasbro to sell off the product line.  They, like their rivals Mattel, are all about building brands and maintaining those brands.  Every few years the brands get a new look for a new group of buyers.  In addition to the core product, the brand has "legs" that can be cross-promoted as dolls, games, direct-to-dvd movies, comics, large balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and birthday party supplies.  But that doesn't mean the company won't come in a meddle every few years or so.  It's in their best interest to keep the brand fresh and attractive to a new audience.  I see two big problems with the current D&D business model.  First there's the issue of product line bloat.  As many posters mention, there's more than enough 3.5 material to last several lifetimes.  Returns on each new year's worth of book are less than the last. Second, despite the great idea of the OGL, WoTC gave away the golden goose years ago. On the one hand it sparked a creative outlet with third-party publishers, but on the other those publishers rushed the doors with competiting and overlapping products.So where can Hasbro/WotC go?  Obviously minis are a big part of plan - they've proven to be great "legs" for the brand and reuse of IP.  Everything in Eric's first posting makes sense that the company SHOULD build the next edition around the minis.  But selling off the brand would be penny rich and pound foolish.  Besides, there's so much talent out there willing to be a part of the brand that they can drive down labor costs by bringing wanna-be game developers into the fold.  Look at Marvel and DC in the 1970s, essentially bringing in "fans" and firing the older professionals asking for pensions and health insurance.  Look at EA today, where they can bring in new programmers, work them for low wages and long hours until they get burned out, but hey, the new version of Madden 2007 continues to bring in millions of revenue.If Hasbro does anything, it is dictate to WoTC what the next business plan will be, based on revenue targets and costs.  WoTC will make the internal changes to execute the plan and pray to God they hit the revenue targets.  If not, Hasbro can either shelve the brand or put it on automatic pilot until it gets the right signals from the market.</blockquote>

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