Where this becomes interesting is that WotC effectively costs Hasbro USD29 million per annum before anything happens. That's USD29 million in costs before you start paying salaries, rent or any other overhead.
Actually no.
Hasbro already paid for
Wizards of the Coast.
Hasbro reports profit according to accounting rules that treated
Wizards of the Coast as if it cost $29 million each year through 2009. In fact there is no cash that goes out the door in 2009 towards that $29 million. Tax laws are a little different but
Hasbro may get a tax writeoff in 2009 from the amortized expense.
I don't mention PHBs as D&D is a joke as a real business (I suspect that D&D would be lucky to make the company USD1-2 million pa and the bulk of that is probably due to the novels).
I seem to recall a press release that
Wizards of the Coast reached the 1/2 million mark (500,000) in units sold of the 3rd edition
Player's Handbook. That would be ~$7 million for just one book or approximately $1 million per year all by itself before they sold their first copy of the
Dungeon Master's Guide;
Monster Manuals 1, 2, 3, and 4;
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting;
Eberron Campaign Setting;
Star Wars Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Revised, and Saga Edition;
Savage Species;
Sword & Fist,
Defenders of the Faith,
Tome & Blood,
Song & Silence,
Masters of the Wild, and the Complete Series clones of each splat book;
Psionics Handbook and Expanded version;
Manual of the Planes;
Deities and Demigods;
Draconomicon; all the other 3rd edition and v.3.5 roleplaying books.
For a while
Wizards of the Coast produced 2-3 roleplaying supplements every single month. Over the coarse of eight years from 2000-2008 that amounts to almost 200 products (including
D&D Dice).
Reality check: if 200 products sold
only 15,000 units each for $10 (to
Wizards) thats $30 million. Most
Dungeons & Dragons books cost $30 or even $40 which would fetch $15-$20 for WotC. I also find it laughable that
D&D RPG products averaged less than even 30,000 units sold.