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<blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 5436720" data-attributes="member: 957">Exactly right.I've made the point before that I'm certain DDI is making really good money, but if we as fans are really interested in how popular a game is then everyone should hope that the DDI subscription is just a part of the tip of the iceberg.Now people have moved on to saying that the decline in book sales is simply because of DDI subscriptions.&nbsp; Well, that would mean that the total number of people playing has plummeted.Subscription and online business models are great.&nbsp; I support the idea of both and look forward to more evolution in that direction.&nbsp; And, from a business sense, (assuming the same cost either way) total revenue is all that matters.&nbsp; So we can easily say that 4E/DDI is a financial success.However, despite DEFCON1's insistence of total cluelessness, I feel that there is a very reasonable ground for saying that the steady stream of circumstantial data points, combined with highly numerous anecdotes, provides a reasonable approximation that need not be absolute certainty to still be fairly comfortable.&nbsp; And as a gaming fan who has no skin in WotC's actual profits, WotC making a lot of money by using a great business model and fewer fans is not equal (to me) as WotC making a lot of money by having a massive fan base.And I also am left to wonder just how huge they could be with the DDI business model AND the huge fanbase of systems past.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BryonD, post: 5436720, member: 957"] Exactly right. I've made the point before that I'm certain DDI is making really good money, but if we as fans are really interested in how popular a game is then everyone should hope that the DDI subscription is just a part of the tip of the iceberg. Now people have moved on to saying that the decline in book sales is simply because of DDI subscriptions. Well, that would mean that the total number of people playing has plummeted. Subscription and online business models are great. I support the idea of both and look forward to more evolution in that direction. And, from a business sense, (assuming the same cost either way) total revenue is all that matters. So we can easily say that 4E/DDI is a financial success. However, despite DEFCON1's insistence of total cluelessness, I feel that there is a very reasonable ground for saying that the steady stream of circumstantial data points, combined with highly numerous anecdotes, provides a reasonable approximation that need not be absolute certainty to still be fairly comfortable. And as a gaming fan who has no skin in WotC's actual profits, WotC making a lot of money by using a great business model and fewer fans is not equal (to me) as WotC making a lot of money by having a massive fan base. And I also am left to wonder just how huge they could be with the DDI business model AND the huge fanbase of systems past. [/QUOTE]

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