D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[darjr]

Here is a graph of the hardcover releases. (Note: I counted the Spelljammer and Planescape sets as "one" hardcover.)

Thank you!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Colville seems to have idealized how things were done at WotC when he was there as The Way to Do Things. But...thst was a failed business strategy...?

I have no inside knowledge, but based on my experience with 3e splat books, I'd say yes.

 

[Echohawk]

Thank you!

And here's a graph showing the total number of game releases (and novels) each year.

 

[Staffan]

not sure you end up with higher sales overall... I can see something like 100k sales for the one AP they publish in a year vs 60k for each of three APs published in a year however.

Right. And the cost of making each of those books is approximately fixed, so you'd be spending 3 times the money for 1.8 times the income. And at this point we run into two different kinds of approximation:

1. How many books is optimal for generating the biggest absolute profit?

2. How many books is optimal for generating the biggest return on investment?

Because even if doubling the release schedule would increase the total profit by, say, 75%, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Perhaps you could spend the money you'd spend on writers/artists/etc. on something else entirely and make even more profit.

They told you that, did they?

I count 65 products BY WoTC for D&D 5e that I can currently buy from my distributor. Paizo has 35 available for Pathfinder 2e.

That sounds it has to be a comparison of apples and oranges, and/or some things going OOP. PF2 has been out for about 4 years now, which means 48 products just counting adventure path volumes. And that's in addition to the core rules, the GMG, various rules expansions, as well as all the setting books they've done – I'm counting 36 of those over at Paizo's site, which makes for a total of 84. Given the periodical-adjacent nature of the adventure paths, it's very possible that some of them have gone OOP, but certainly not that many. As a comparison, when I look at the Legendary Bundle at D&D Beyond, it has about 40 books in it when not counting minor digital exclusives which are more like what used to be Dragon articles back in the day.

So what I think is going on is that your distributor includes all sorts of other D&D products under the D&D heading – things like D&D-branded dice sets, maps, and so on. It might also include alternate covers. Meanwhile, the equivalent offerings from Paizo get put under a different heading, probably because those lines are still the same as they were in PF1. Or maybe they're separating Pathfinder 2 from Pathfinder Adventure Path, which still maintains a continuous numbering scheme from first OGL/3.5 and then Pathfinder 1 – that would make the number make sense, as 35 matches the 36 I found on the website pretty well. Either that, or your distributor just sucks at getting Paizo things.

 

[Autumnal]

There are no new editions in Ba Sing Se.

Ba Sing 5e, surely.

 

[Staffan]

IS it a average release schedules? every other RPG developer ive seen and talk too are a fraction of the size of this game, and publish a lot more, and support their games more,

In my experience, most game publishers these days have a much more relaxed release schedule compared to the heyday of the 90s, likely with an eye toward quality over quantity. It's pretty much just Paizo and some of Modiphius's game lines that are getting the fire hose treatment.

 

[Morrus]

IS it an average release schedules? every other RPG developer ive seen and talk too are a fraction of the size of this game, and publish a lot more, and support their games more,

They certainly release more each year for 5E than we do for A5E.

 

[mamba]

Right. And the cost of making each of those books is approximately fixed, so you'd be spending 3 times the money for 1.8 times the income. And at this point we run into two different kinds of approximation:

1. How many books is optimal for generating the biggest absolute profit?

2. How many books is optimal for generating the biggest return on investment?

agreed, and we do not know the answer to 1), in my example we know the answer for 2)

I assume WotC increased the release schedule slightly because they too are looking for that answer

Perhaps you could spend the money you'd spend on writers/artists/etc. on something else entirely and make even more profit.

or you spend it on something else and make less, like a movie, the risk of being a business

 

[jasper]

What? Are you saying there are ads with five chapters?

No the book is a tie to BG3.

 

[jasper]

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