D&D 5E I don't think Wizards is looking at the whole picture.

[RedShirtNo5.1]

Hold on, you guys are being too harsh on Corpsetaker. We need to remember, as Ben Franklin once said, "even a broken record is right once per day."

 

[Jester David]

No telling without doing the research.

But, how many brand-new players are playing AL vs playing in someone's home campaign? Probably a whole lot of 'em. You're just more likely to find out about and drop in on Encounters than be invited into an existing gaming cabal.

Maybe. But a lot of people join home games run by their friends. Being introduced to the game by friends in the know is probably a lot more common than just wandering into a store.

AL already does change what's available over time.

It adds a book and options. It doesn't change the races or options. Half-orcs aren't suddenly unavailable.

For a new player learning FR is no different from learning Greyhawk or whatever.

IF the setting is as close to traditional fantasy as Greyhawk. If it's Ravenloft or Eberron it's suddenly more complicated, and if it's Dark Sun or Al Qadim it's even more tricky.

But if you're just doing Greyhawk, you don't really need to change settings for the AP, since the Realms content and adventures is easy enough to adapt. Almost zero effort.
At which point you have to ask why they're even changing the setting since it's pretty much a lot of work just to shift some nouns around without really affecting any adventures.

If it's one SCAG-like setting book a year, with an adventure path in the same setting that'd hardly seem out of line. You've got the whole year that one is playing out to do the next. Besides, they farm this stuff out.

A good setting book takes a really long time to write. Even farming it out is tricky, since they still need to find someone who can do a 256-page AP and a 300+ page hardcover in the same six-month window.
Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press has expressed reluctance to do a 5e version of the Midgard setting since they just finished The Southlands and wanted to wait a couple years before doing another setting hardcover. Talking a licensed world would mean shelving his own world and related products for the better part of a year.
I doubt there's that many studios they could even hire to produce a full campaign setting...

I couldn't make a guess as to either figure (beyond what Dancey said about how big they wanted to grow the business at one point). But, the point is that it's not the 90s anymore, and a compelling setting isn't the killer app that moves a TTRPG system anymore.

WotC seems to think it's now the Adventure Path, the 'Story.' No reason that story has to always be set in the same place.

No reason it has to stay the same place, no. But also no reason it has to change worlds.
There's LOTS of room in the Realms for all kinds of different stories, without even moving to such slightly different regions as Al Qadim or Kara Tur.
"Because you can" isn't a great business reason.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hold on, you guys are being too harsh on Corpsetaker. We need to remember, as Ben Franklin once said, "even a broken record is right once per day."

Do you mean "even a broken clock is right twice a day."?

 

[delericho]

I'm not entirely sure settings really ever sold that well. They sold well enough for TSR...

I'm not entirely sure that's true...