Pathfinder 1E If Paizo bought Greyhawk could they make their money back?

[Emirikol]

If Paizo bought Greyhawk could they make money their money back?

jh

 

[Ulric]

The obvious answer is that it depends on how much they buy it for....and how much creativity and future support they put into it. The potential is there, but is the will?

 

[Emirikol]

I can't really see any reason why Wizards would want to hang onto it. It's not like they've made any money off of it since when?

jh

 

[philreed]

I can't really see any reason why Wizards would want to hang onto it. It's not like they've made any money off of it since when?

I thought Hasbro was known for sitting on IP.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Sure they could, but it would require an infusion of enthusiasm and an effort to really play up the strengths of the setting in comparison to others.

One of the things I've heard recently about Greyhawk from actual players I've met face-to-face is that they've tired of it due to one of two factors. One is the use of Greyhawk by the RPGA. The other is Greyhawk being the "default" setting in 3e. The "canon" of the former and the "generic" feel of the latter has caused the setting to feel stale for these players.

I'd say that it would require any potential revivification of Greyhawk to go back to the setting's roots, and to dispense with a lot of the "canon" material that makes the setting tedious and overdeveloped. Yes, I know that a lot of RPGAers may like that stuff, and that's cool. They'll still have a lot of already existing material to use. It would be wise to make any new Greyhawk material reasonably accessible to these enthusiasts in terms of not invalidating the old canon, but that doesn't mean being slavish to it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

WotC wouldn't sell GH, heck, I doubt they'd even license it except under very specific means of use.


I mean heck, you really think WotC would go through and rename all the Tensers, Bigby's and Wee-Jas' entries just to make a cut of Paizo's products?

That aside, I doubt the products would sell enough to make them profitable. Not because "greyhawk sucks" since I like Greyhawk well enough, but because of the scale of operations. I could of course be wrong, given that Dragonlance is still going, but I think Greyhawk would entail quite a bit more work from WotC in any licensing scheme.

 

[Maldin]

Could Paizo make money off a Greyhawk license?? If the licensing deal was REASONABLE, absolutely yes! All you need to do is look at the continuous interest in Greyhawk you see on these and other boards despite the fact that its received absolutely no support over the past 7 years. More proof? Look at the setting leading this poll over at Paizo...
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/dnd/pollWhatsYourFavoriteCampaignSetting
Not '"doing well against the well supported giants"... LEADING.

What? You say you need hard business proof? The editor-in-chief of both Dragon mag and Dungeon has said flat-out (and I quote) "Whenever we publish Greyhawk, it sells". Hard to argue with that.

The big question is "would WotC ever license Greyhawk" in the first place. For "business" reasons that can only be attributed to internal politics, as far as I'm concerned, the answer so far has been "absolutely not". And the top of the food chain there (at least the previous personages, there are new people there more recently) have flat out said that publicly. But things change. You never know for sure if that will remain the state-of-affairs.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
=====================================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!

 

[Erik Mona]

Oh, I'm sure we would make loads of money off a Greyhawk product or product line. A significant portion of our audience really seems to favor that setting over others. Staff enthusiasm would not be a problem.

I don't anticipate this happening, though. We've raised the issue before, and it's always been a non-starter.

--Erik

 

[Maldin]

The editor-in-chief of both Dragon mag and Dungeon has said...

... and here he is now! ;-)

Denis, aka "Maldin"
=====================================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

 

[Sir Elton]

Oh, I'm sure we would make loads of money off a Greyhawk product or product line. A significant portion of our audience really seems to favor that setting over others. Staff enthusiasm would not be a problem.

I don't anticipate this happening, though. We've raised the issue before, and it's always been a non-starter.

--Erik

It depends on how badly you want to publish Greyhawk, Eric. IF you desire it badly enough, you will be able to publish a Greyhawk line.