D&D 5E Greg Leeds talks about D&D

[Mistwell]

No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying, there's no financial information about how well D&D is doing in this interview really and we have a previous interview with the same group where basically Greg Leeds flat out gave out misinformation about how well D&D was doing.

You view that as me spinning by pointing out obvious potentially truthful meanings to his statement, you're the one who has a deadset viewpoint...

What flat out misinformation are you referring to?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Out of curiosity - is there anything you like? You repeatedly spin everything about anything we discuss on this site into a negative. Do you have anything positive to say about anything?

Yup. When I've noticed it, it usually seems to be Pathfinder.

 

[Jester David]

I suppose there was something meaningful in that interview, but the language was all marketing buzz words that made my head swim. I think he said something like, "People like being engaged in the story so we're releasing denser products at a slower pace to allow our customers time to enjoy that before launching a new one." Oh, and something about digital...

It's about all you'll ever get from him. He's a marketing business guy. Archetypal suit. Hasbro manager for years before he got this CEO gig. He's likely unable to view D&D as anything but numbers on a spreadsheet and report summaries.

 

[Jester David]

I hate to be "that guy", but correlation doesn't equal causation. It's possible that 5e is just so damn good that it's selling that much better.

(Important note: I said 'possible', not 'likely', and definitely not 'certain'.)

That said, there's almost certainly some sort of D&D equivalent of the Laffer Curve - if they don't release any products then their net revenue is obviously $0; if they release an infinite number than it's also $0 because the cost to produce is too high, and between the two extremes there is one or more points where net profit is maximised. And so from any given point the 'right' thing to do might be to release more product or to release less product. (And, as with the Laffer Curve, it's invisible so you can't actually ever know for certain - and, yes, it does look like they've found one of the "sweet spots".)

Agreed. But it's still nice to hear it's working for them.
Still, they might have some idea. They've published adventures before, so they can compare sales numbers and interest, see what percentage of the fanbase is buying adventures and if that's changing.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Now I know whose responsible for the slow D&D release schedule and who I hope gets fired so D&D can be properly supported.

Low blow dude. This is a real life human being you're talking about here.

 

[MechaPilot]

All this does is reinforce my desire to see a good license for 5e, so I can actually get some material that I might like instead of more FR.

 

[mflayermonk]

You're right - in the text you quoted the one instance that says "net profit" should read "net revenue" instead. Fortunately, that doesn't change my argument.

This could easily be the result of clever offshare taxation rules, especially with intellectual property.

 

[delericho]

How many copies of all the 3rd and 4th edition books have sold next to 5th edition? Let's say the 5th edition sold 100,00 and the 4th edition sold 50,000. Well the Martial 1 could sell 25,000 while the Arcane sells 40,000, while the primal sells 30,000.

Getting solid numbers is hard, but the few we have indicate that the "Psionics Handbook" from 3e (one of the very best selling supplements of that edition) sold about one tenth as many copies as the PHB.

(The details are in this post, which itself links to the sources of that data.)

Edit: also, here's sales figures for the 1st through 3e PHBs.

 

[mflayermonk]

Out of curiosity - is there anything you like? You repeatedly spin everything about anything we discuss on this site into a negative. Do you have anything positive to say about anything?

You're an owner of an internet message board asking people why some poster doesn't have something positive to say.

You have to step back for a second and laugh.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Well I honestly can say I really have no idea what he said! I do need that double-speak course!

But hopefully it is positive?