Fate of the (New) Red Box

[Stormonu]

Does anyone have any information on how well/poorly the Essentials red box set did?

I bought a copy of it back when it came out and was going to spring it on my son, but was rather disappointed with its presentation. I also remember seeing a couple copies sit for seemingly months at the local Books-A-Million and the only copies I saw in other stores (our local Target) were hidden in the CCG aisle that no one would see unless they were specifically looking for it (such as I was). All the copies seem to have finally sold or otherwise been gotten rid of, and I haven't seen them replaced at either location.

I also haven't heard hardly a word on the boards about it. It seemed to quietly pass along and have been forgotten like the other starter set attempts of the past few years.

Or have I simply missed all the actual talk about it?

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I just did searches for "essentials red box" and "dungeons and dragons" on the target website and it didn't show up. I was surprised to see 24 items actually come up for dungeons and dragons, including some 4e books.

I've never seen anything in the store other than the red box myself, so I wonder if these are web only offerings.

 

[DaveMage]

I haven't seen anything to indicate the success (or lack of same) for this product.

 

[Stormonu]

I just did searches for "essentials red box" and "dungeons and dragons" on the target website and it didn't show up. I was surprised to see 24 items actually come up for dungeons and dragons, including some 4e books.

I've never seen anything in the store other than the red box myself, so I wonder if these are web only offerings.

I couldn't find it on Target either, but funnily enough, it's available through Walmart's website.

Considering the lack of responses, it doesn't sound like many folks here bought a copy or care much for it?

 

[Dragon Snack]

It sold at a pretty good pace when it was first released. It helped get D&D back into the top spot for sales at my store for about a month. Since then sales of it have been pretty slow, which is to be expected when it's no longer being pushed as the "new release".

As you noted, it suffered from a lack of depth and no real replay value. It also had the problem of older players thinking that it was a 1E reprint and being annoyed when they found out it was for 4E.

I'm pretty sure it did better sales at the local Wal-Mart than at my store (they stocked it heavy and restocked at least twice), although I wonder if the 1E/4E confusion did more long term damage than good. I was able to point out that it was 4E, I'm sure nobody did that at Wal-Mart. I never picked up any customers who bought it there - and they never carried anything past the red box.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I heard mediocre things about it - the limit to 2nd level did not help, nor did the fact that you could not really do a 'real' 4e character. (Too stripped of options, I guess.)

It did not do well at the local stores, which surprised me - I had predicted that it would be a big seller. Done properly, I still think that it could have been.

I also expected Essentials to do better - the low price looked to be an excellent entry point, and the rules seemed no worse than standard 4e to me. Heck, if I were to buy any 4e it would likely be Essentials. I just do not understand what went wrong there.

The Auld Grump

 

[Maggan]

Considering the lack of responses, it doesn't sound like many folks here bought a copy or care much for it?

I bought it, like it, but can't really draw any conclusions as to its overall success based on that.

I can pull something out of my donkey, if you wish?

Ahem ... D&D Red Box (the new essential one) did extremely well, and surpassed all internal goals set by WotC. Or not. Or something in between.

/M

 

[ahayford]

I heard mediocre things about it - the limit to 2nd level did not help, nor did the fact that you could not really do a 'real' 4e character. (Too stripped of options, I guess.)

It did not do well at the local stores, which surprised me - I had predicted that it would be a big seller. Done properly, I still think that it could have been.

I also expected Essentials to do better - the low price looked to be an excellent entry point, and the rules seemed no worse than standard 4e to me. Heck, if I were to buy any 4e it would likely be Essentials. I just do not understand what went wrong there.

The Auld Grump

I own these books, and like them, but I don't really see them as a very good intro to the game of DnD. They are very intimidating and dense. I can't really see a new player, the intended market, picking them up and deciding from them that DnD was something they wanted to play.

 

[Stormonu]

I can pull something out of my donkey, if you wish?

Ahem ... D&D Red Box (the new essential one) did extremely well, and surpassed all internal goals set by WotC. Or not. Or something in between.

/M

Yeah, that's what I gathered.

'Round here, all copies of the red box are gone, and haven't been replaced for a few months. From what I'd originally read, the Elmore cover was going to be a "promo"/"collector's" cover, and thne future printings would have used the artwork on the cover of the included player's guide. But I never saw a restocking, nor that alternate cover on the box, so I wondered if WotC had once again changed plans -perhaps due to sales.

 

[Beginning of the End]

I also expected Essentials to do better - the low price looked to be an excellent entry point, and the rules seemed no worse than standard 4e to me. Heck, if I were to buy any 4e it would likely be Essentials. I just do not understand what went wrong there.

If you run the actual math, it turns out that Essentials was more expensive than buying the PHB/DMG/MM. It was significantly more expensive if you actually bought the Starter Set and everything else WotC told you to buy (instead of just the books you actually would need to get a complete set of rules).

Combined with a very confusing product line-up (with inconsistently overlapping content), conflicting information from WotC about which books you actually needed to buy, and a Starter Set that suffered from the same problems that every pay-to-preview boxed set has suffered from for the past 20 years the result wasn't pretty.

It didn't help that the entire product line was designed for retailers ("these are the essential books you should stock") instead of consumers ("these are the essential books you should buy").

WotC had an opportunity. They squandered it.