ICv2 Reports On RPGs Growth This Year

ICv2 has published its latest quarterly hobby channel game rankings for Spring 2022. The Top 5 contains D&D twice (once from WotC, and once from third parties Goodman Games and Darrington Press/Critical Role), along with two licensed Hasbro (owner of WotC) properties, plus Pathfinder.

"RPGs are the story of the year so far," a hobby distributor told ICv2. "D&D’s king by leaps and bounds, don’t get me wrong, but the number of RPGs that were [significant contributors to] sales was 40 different brands."

The chart is based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. As always you can see the compiled chart going back to 2004 here.

RPGs the 'Story of the Year'

Explosive Growth in Players, Sales

icv2.com

 

[Reynard]

The OGL might be one of the most astonishing Judo moves in the history of intellectual property: giving away tons of stuff to competitors, which benefits competitors and e courage them to make products compatible with your own products...without being in the least anti-competitive? Genius.

Hobbling it for 4E was probably WotC's single biggest blunder in their history as stewards of D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

Hobbling it for 4E was probably WotC's single biggest blunder in their history as stewards of D&D.

I mean, the genius of Innis subtle enough that I understand why somebody got upset about it and wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. Glad they brought it back.

 

[Morrus]

@Morrus Do you know which podcast episode @TrippyHippy might be referring to that talks about D&D as a monopoly of dominant market force?

I tried to search but was coming up empty.

Haven't the foggiest. Sorry!

 

[Reynard]

Haven't the foggiest. Sorry!

Dang. It actually sounds like a really interesting discussion.

 

[Reynard]

I mean, the genius of Innis subtle enough that I understand why somebody got upset about it and wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. Glad they brought it back.

I honestly wonder if whoever made that decision got fired after Paizo announced Pathfinder....

 

[Morrus]

I honestly wonder if whoever made that decision got fired after Paizo announced Pathfinder....

The primary architect of the OGL was Ryan Dancey, then VP of WotC. I’ve interviewed him more than once on the subject. Short answer, no he didn’t.

 

[Reynard]

The primary architect of the OGL was Ryan Dancey, then VP of WotC. I’ve interviewed him more than once on the subject. Short answer, no he didn’t.

No, I mean whoever decided to NOT use it for 4E.

 

[Retreater]

While I'm thankful for the licenses for 3.x and 5e, I wish we'd gotten a good OGL for 4e. The industry could be in a very different place right now, especially for crunchier games.

 

[Reynard]

While I'm thankful for the licenses for 3.x and 5e, I wish we'd gotten a good OGL for 4e. The industry could be in a very different place right now, especially for crunchier games.

Literally all the mountains of 3rd party Pathfinder support would have gone to 4E -- just like it is now going to 5E instead of PF2.

 

[payn]

Literally all the mountains of 3rd party Pathfinder support would have gone to 4E -- just like it is now going to 5E instead of PF2.

lol, I remember the threads about Paizo's announcement. "Damn, I love Paizo but they will be out of business in 6 months without supporting 4E"