bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
This isn't true. You've repeated yourself so you feel it is true. But that doesn't match reality.No, now you're making assumptions. You're assuming people were let go before the workload tapered off. The workload tapers off WAY before the product hits the shelves. I am sure managers at WotC knew exactly when they no longer needed to pay a lot of people. Since most editions of D&D come out in the fall, the layoffs are often timed to coincide with Christmas the year before.
But the last large layoffs to hit D&D were after 5e went out of playtest, not before it.
Also, since the public changes to the publication dates and the efforts of the playtest were stretched out we know the work wasn't done.