dmccoy1693
Adventurer
I'm sorry Charles, but I have to disagree sharply with your post.
Here you appear to counter your own argument. If the must successful OGL product is "only the tiniest blips on the WotC sales radar" then why do they care if a 3PP makes a product "that compete directly with WotC's Products"?
The numbers out of GAMA a few years ago is that RPGs represent something like 5-10% of the Comic and Game Industry. FIVE TO TEN PERCENT. You cannot built a thriving business solely on five to ten percent of a niche industry. It is not Green Ronin's fault if a game store does not diversify sufficiently into other areas. It is not Mongoose's fault if a store does not offer services and products that Amazon cannot. That is simply a poor business model, and those stores that do not adapt to a changing business market will not survive.
You mean except for the part where you have to stop selling old product of a product line and the part where they can never publish this product under the OGL even after the license terminates. Oh, and the part where WotC can change the terms at any moment and the part were WotC doesn't even have to send up a mass email notifiying their registered licencees that the license has been updated. And don't forget the part that all court cases, win, lose, or draw with WotC result in the 3PP paying the behemoth's lawyer fees. And then there's ...
What I observed is that WotC left holes in the marketplace, and many 3PP, rather than exploit those holes, chose to make products that competed directly with WotC's products.
Is this because WotC fears the competition? No. The most successful OGL products of all time made only the tiniest blips on the WotC sales radar.
Here you appear to counter your own argument. If the must successful OGL product is "only the tiniest blips on the WotC sales radar" then why do they care if a 3PP makes a product "that compete
Consumers and retailers are confused about which products to buy, so they dabble in a range and end up with a lot of stuff that doesn't sell. Huge amounts of revenue is tied up in dead product--revenue needed to order new product or simply pay the bills. Shops close (nearly half the core hobby shops in the US shut down over the past five years--admittedly, there are other causes, but the RPG glut was a very real contributor);
The numbers out of GAMA a few years ago is that RPGs represent something like 5-10% of the Comic and Game Industry. FIVE TO TEN PERCENT. You cannot built a thriving business solely on five to ten percent of a niche industry. It is not Green Ronin's fault if a game store does not diversify sufficiently into other areas. It is not Mongoose's fault if a store does not offer services and products that Amazon cannot. That is simply a poor business model, and those stores that do not adapt to a changing business market will not survive.
Charles said:So WotC changed the terms of 3PP compatibility with D&D, and made it more restrictive. Insofar as it controls the glut and keeps 3PP focused on products that players actually want and don't get (or don't get enough of) from WotC, more restrictive is good for the RPG business as a whole, it's good for WotC, and frankly it's good for the third-party publishers.
You mean except for the part where you have to stop selling old product of a product line and the part where they can never publish this product under the OGL even after the license terminates. Oh, and the part where WotC can change the terms at any moment and the part were WotC doesn't even have to send up a mass email notifiying their registered licencees that the license has been updated. And don't forget the part that all court cases, win, lose, or draw with WotC result in the 3PP paying the behemoth's lawyer fees. And then there's ...