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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5301090" data-attributes="member: 80487">There is probably more profit to be made from one &quot;dungeon module&quot; that sells 100,000 copies than from 10 modules that sell 10,000 copies each.If the difference in profit per unit were, say, 2:1, then it could be a wash if your 10-module line doubled sales to 20,000 each. However, that seems unlikely if -- even before accounting for economies of scale in printing, etc. -- you're putting in 10 times as much in development costs.Unless development has become so much more efficient, cutting costs generally means cutting quality.If each of 100,000 DMs buys 10 modules, and there are only 10 modules for sale, then each module sells 100,000 copies. If each DM still buys only 10 modules, but there are 20 equally popular modules for sale, then each sells only 50,000 copies. If you have a sufficiently growing market of new DMs and players, then you can keep selling 10 old modules. However, to get old DMs to buy an 11th module (if they will at all) you probably need a new module (rather than expecting them to buy the same thing again).Likewise, if you are going to sell to new customers who don't like some of your 10 old modules, then you need some new ones to get them even up to 10 apiece.Somewhere in all this is as close as you're going to get to maximizing profits. I suspect that TSR could have done well even with a very suboptimal solution in this aspect, if not for serious problems elsewhere.My impression is that WotC's directors are more interested in maximizing corporate profits. I don't think Hasbro does a lot of &quot;micro-management&quot;, but such big and globally mobile financial capital tends not to have much reason not to go wherever there is the most money to be made.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5301090, member: 80487"] There is probably more profit to be made from one "dungeon module" that sells 100,000 copies than from 10 modules that sell 10,000 copies each. If the difference in profit per unit were, say, 2:1, then it could be a wash if your 10-module line doubled sales to 20,000 each. However, that seems unlikely if -- even before accounting for economies of scale in printing, etc. -- you're putting in 10 times as much in development costs. Unless development has become so much more efficient, cutting costs generally means cutting quality. If each of 100,000 DMs buys 10 modules, and there are only 10 modules for sale, then each module sells 100,000 copies. If each DM still buys only 10 modules, but there are 20 equally popular modules for sale, then each sells only 50,000 copies. If you have a sufficiently growing market of new DMs and players, then you can keep selling 10 old modules. However, to get old DMs to buy an 11th module (if they will at all) you probably need a new module (rather than expecting them to buy the same thing again). Likewise, if you are going to sell to new customers who don't like some of your 10 old modules, then you need some new ones to get them even up to 10 apiece. Somewhere in all this is as close as you're going to get to maximizing profits. I suspect that TSR could have done well even with a very suboptimal solution in this aspect, if not for serious problems elsewhere. My impression is that WotC's directors are more interested in maximizing corporate profits. I don't think Hasbro does a lot of "micro-management", but such big and globally mobile financial capital tends not to have much reason not to go wherever there is the most money to be made. [/QUOTE]

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