Hobby Game Market Strong, RPGs Deeply Troubled

No specific data, but a clear conclusion that in the hobby channels, D&D is increasing market share.


Perhaps you are not aware of what "hard" mean when it comes to data and conclusions, and without the data to back up the assertion, it is neither "hard" nor "clear" unfortunately. It would certainly be nice to finally see some data, and I had hoped that we would, but not today.
 

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Well, as far as it goes, the data they do show I trust (ie the order of sales). I'm not sure about the conclusions they draw, but I've got no real reason to doubt them entirely.
 

Given that Hasbro's owned WotC for a decade now, and hasn't done a whole lot of that tying in, I'm not sure where you get the idea that they're interested in it.

Since Hasbro acquired WotC in 1999:

1) they've produced 2 movies and are apparently working on a third.

2) there have been 26 computer games or computer game expansions based on the D&D license, and 7 "collections" of those games have been released as well. Of those, I'm sure each of the core game releases earn Hasbro more $$$ annually than D&D does (due to the purchace + subscription business model).

3) the revival of the minis wargame in the form of Chainmail. Already a good game, after rebranding it as the D&D Miniatures game, sales trended upwards. The game's content was more closely linked to the game, which made it more saleable to D&D players. The name change, however, brought in people who had no idea what a minis wargame was, simply because of that "D&D" logo. Even though it may never challenge Warhammer for the top spot, it did help change its market share in comparison to very similar games like Confrontation.

That tie-in to D&D also occurred with M:tG, and is currently being used with Heroscape.

Add to that the rebirth of the Dungeon boardgame as Dungeons & Dragons: The Fantasy Adventure Board Game.
4) the revival of the periodicals Dungeon and Dragon through licensing with Paizo. Once readership reached heights not seen for a decade or so, WotC/Hasbro elected not to renew their partnership with Paizo, and instead launched the DDI.

5) the DDI launch, like it or hate it, represents a new business model. Tying it into the world's #1 RPG to see how viable it is just makes sense. If this particular test balloon works, look for the model to get expanded to other Hasbro products.

6) even if the whole RPG market goes south, the name of the #1RPG will still have marketing value, if for no other reason than it has a large installed base to which Hasbro can market.

7) Sales of D&D related merch continue to do just fine.
 
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I knew that Dark Heresy was #2. The big surprise for me was that Warmachine and Hordes sells better than Warhammer Fantasy. Holy crap. That's an impressive amount of sales by Privateer Press.
 

1) they've produced 2 movies and are apparently working on a third.

What are you talking about? There's never been a Dungeons & Dragons movie. *sticks fingers in ears and begins whistling*

2) there have been 26 computer games or computer game expansions based on the D&D license, and 7 "collections" of those games have been released as well. Of those, I'm sure each of the core game releases earn Hasbro more $$$ annually than D&D does (due to the purchace + subscription business model).

To be fair, D&D's always been popular grist for video games. I count 45 officially licensed games from 1981-1998 and 8 collections in the same time frame. Source: List of Dungeons & Dragons video games - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5) the DDI launch, like it or hate it, represents a new business model. Tying it into the world's #1 RPG to see how viable it is just makes sense. If this particular test balloon works, look for the model to get expanded to other Hasbro products.

Erm... I don't really see what other properties this model would be viable for. There are a few subscription-based Magic websites out there run by third parties, but that's about it. Hasbro has few properties which can be meaningfully expanded by a PDF or other electronic document alone; pretty much everything requires physical artifacts of some variety.
 


I'll second this and more. It is all Hasbro. And I mean ALL. ALL of it, every single part.

ALL.
OF.
IT.
IS.
HASBRO.

HASBRO IS THE ALL.

borg_picture.gif

What HASBRO may look like.
 


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