Repeating the Mistakes of the Past

[Zardnaar]

Depends on the higher-up and date.

Mike Mearls is a fairly reliable source, although, like all WotC he can drift into Talking Head territory. It is a company heavy with spin. But if he said it back in 2009, well, he wasn't in charge of the brand then and might not have access to the full figures.

The CEO, Greg Leeds IIRC, is much less... well... reliable. I don't want to call him an outright liar but... um... no comment. He's crammed with doublespeak and half of his interviews seem like reiteration of talking points while not actually saying anything.
He did say something similar to "we're satisfied with 4e sales" after they had just slashed the schedule of books and started work on 5e. You can almost feel the asterisk in his sentences. "We're satisfied with 4e's sales*."
*For a game product we're ending.

He said something like early sales of 4th ed outsold 3E in an equivalent amount of time. That would have been 2008/2009. Mearls is also on record as saying they drove away their own player base in 2010. 4E sold well on release probably because of the D&D name and the good will 3rd ed had. Sales plummeted in 2010 it seems. Amazon also was not really around that much in 2000 when 3rd ed landed.

 

[trancejeremy]

IMHO, the BEST video game implementation of 3.x rules was, oddly enough, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

No one played it, but I think the best 3.x implementation in a video game was D&D Tactics for the PSP.

 

[Zardnaar]

No one played it, but I think the best 3.x implementation in a video game was D&D Tactics for the PSP.

Shining Force II in the 90's on the Sega also felt like D&D to me. It is kind of like an early tactics type game. You had basic D&D tropes, wizards, priests, fighters, paladins etc and SFII even had prestige type classes you could change to if you had a certain item (basically requirements).

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I often wonder, if 3e hadn't gone through, if WotC put out an adventure or two per year, would they still be making money today? I wonder if a little company could have made enough money all these years that way...

I'm sure you do know, but you do know they make more than D&D, right? That other product of their's is still making them money today. It's (probably) what put them in position to take D&D.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm sure you do know, but you do know they make more than D&D, right? That other product of their's is still making them money today. It's (probably) what put them in position to take D&D.

Sorry your right, I need to be more presice... would the D&D division still be profitable...

 

[Rygar]

Consider how many D&D video games were released after 3rd Edition that still used AD&D 2nd Edition rules, and they were absolute hits. So yeah, I think you are definitely correct, here.

I think we need to qualify that a bit. There were 2 D&D video games that may have been released after 3rd edition still using the second edition rules, they were released in June and September of the same year 3rd edition was relased. 1 expansion pack, Throne of Baal, was released after 3rd edition released. Icewind Dale 2 was released after 3rd edition released with a modified 2.5 set of rules, and it also didn't sell very well from what I recall former Interplay employees stating.

Since 2000, there have been exactly 0 games released using 2nd edition rules. to my knowledge there were 0 3rd edition games released when 4th edition was in print, and I believe there were 0 4th edition games released.

So I'm going to have to question how correct the assertion is, the only games we're talking about are 2 games released the same year, and since I can't find a month for 3rd edition's release it's entirely possible one or both of them released before 3rd.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I think we need to qualify that a bit. There were 2 D&D video games that may have been released after 3rd edition still using the second edition rules, they were released in June and September of the same year 3rd edition was relased. 1 expansion pack, Throne of Baal, was released after 3rd edition released. Icewind Dale 2 was released after 3rd edition released with a modified 2.5 set of rules, and it also didn't sell very well from what I recall former Interplay employees stating.

Actually, taking a quick look at release dates:
The 3e PHB came out in August 2000

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
September 24, 2000
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
2001
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
June 21, 2001
Icewind Dale: Trials of the Luremaster
September 7, 2001
Icewind Dale II
August 27, 2002

IWD2 came out late enough that they sort of felt they had to apologize for having the wrong ruleset by doing that 2.5e thing with a bit of 3e mixed in. It was as if they had basically finished the game and someone told them to go back in and hack as much 3e as they could into the game as quickly as possible.

The rest were likely in production long before 3e came out. Most of them were expansions anyways. Though BG2 technically came out after 3e.

to my knowledge there were 0 3rd edition games released when 4th edition was in print, and I believe there were 0 4th edition games released.

Since 2008 two expansions to NWN2 came out:
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
November 18, 2008
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate
April 29, 2009

Since 4e has come out the only other games released were:
Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale
Heroes of Neverwinter
Neverwinter

They all technically claim to be 4e games. Though one is a facebook game and one is a MMO. They all use rules that are only superficially 4e, however. The abilities you use in all 3 games bear the names of 4e powers without working exactly the same as the 4e powers actually do. Though the races and classes are more in line with 4e than 3e.

 

[jodyjohnson]

What 'entire slate' do you speak of?

The retread of the PHB book after essentials? Which got posted a class at a time because they didn't think a retread book would sell.

DMG3? Really? Between Mike Shea at SlyFlourish and Chris Perkin's articles I think we got enough material to give Epic a boost. No need to compile it and sell content we already had for a $40 book.

I'm going to disagree with the notion that being a 'successful' edition means we need PHB 4, DMG 4, Martial Power 3, Arcane Power 3, etc.

Pathfinder is fine with a 'slow' release schedule because your entire 3.5 library is supposed to be compatible. With the Advanced Advanced Players Handbook coming out at only the 5 year mark.

To answer my own question for completeness:

Hero Builder's Handbook - cancelled
Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell - material posted on the website and in Dragon
Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium - released at a later date
Player's Handbook Races: Humans - cancelled

Not sure if those qualify as 'entire slate' but by Spring 2014 standards that would be a huge amount of cancellations.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ro3/20110221