Kichwas
Half-breed, still living despite WotC racism
I read the situation very differently. I've met Mike Mearls, not a very in depth conversation, but he's probably the only poster on here I've met personally, and gamed with. (Although that was admittedly a demo.)
He really is a straightforward guy. He is not allowed to talk about certain things, due to corporate policies, but he really tries. He seems pretty confident that Wizards is committed to putting out D&D the tabletop RPG for the foreseeable future.
So what is my theory on what is happening? 4th Edition sales are below expectation, and declining as the amount of crunch has grown overwhelming.
But wasn't Mearls just a complete outsider d20 hobby guy until he had a few writing successes and was then brought on board WoTC to write for 4e (and maybe late 3e - I don't know). Ie: he's not a leader there, just a contracted writer who may now be an employee.
Point there being that he might have no more clue than anyone else as to what their plans are. And in fact might have less - American companies are notorious for keeping their own employees in the dark.
Is 4E doing poorly?
Is it just doing poorly for the expectations of an agency like Hasbro, or is it doing poorly by gamer standards?
(unconfirmed example of this being the Marvel 'stones' game that came out a few years ago. I had -read- at the time that it was the best selling adaptation of Marvel ever, possibly one of the best selling super games ever; but it was canceled by Marvel as they were used to the sales figures they got out of licensing to movies and video games. Of course I'd only 'forum read' that and it might be patently untrue - but it did feel right for how this things can go when a larger industry touches into a fringe industry and fails to adjust expectations.)
I've been out of touch with gaming for a while now. I think my last login here was in 2009. Just came by looking for a random other topic and saw this thread. So I have -no idea- how things are going and am only commenting in reflection of what I've quoted...
