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[The Lost Muse]

I'm sorry to derail, but you have the most wonderfully distracting avatar I've ever seen.

QFT.

 

[PoeticJustice]

I wonder how many books there was in the initial 3.5 print compared to initial 3.0 print..

Congratulations!

You win the awesome prize (consisting of 100% awesome) of awesomeness by identifying the 64,000 dollar question.

I only wish everyone could learn to read between the lines as you have today, sir.

While omitting a mention of the print run for the last edition, as opposed to its 5-year-old reboot, isn't disingenuous, it prompts questions that invalidate the PR.

Enjoy your prize, Jack. It's pure awesome.

 

[eyebeams]

The 4e run is larger than the 3.5e run, according to Mike Mearls.

On the other hand, Hasbro makes a considerable amount of its money through the book trade. The book trade uses returns. The *retailers* are buying books to sell, so the question is how much of this stock is going to take the form of returns further down the line.

Now it's likely that much of the demand is driven by discount retailers online. This is good because returns are less likely. It is not so good because it generates downward pressure on pricing. You may like that, but it drives down the margins and thus, the game's profitability.

The final answer? There isn't one. It could be great! It could be not so great. Time will tell. I think the PDF will bite into the set of people who buy D&D because they used to play it and are curious, but probably won't be starting a group. On the other hand, I have a feeling that Hasbro would like to show this older, non-participant demographic the door, so to speak. So I don't think it will really affect long-term sales.

One way to boost the game is to buy it from a retailer that doesn't do returns or impose discounts. Buying from your LGS makes a more definitive economic statement, if that kind of thing matters to you.

 

[Mouseferatu]

For those who wondered, the following is a quote, copied-and-pasted without alteration, from Mike's blog:

Print run size:

3.0 < 3.5 < 4e

 

[Mark]

This is good news for WoTC.

Wishing for the top company to fail in our hobby is self-defeating, IMO.

Indeed.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

For those who wondered, the following is a quote, copied-and-pasted without alteration, from Mike's blog:

I would have expected 3.5 to have a smaller print run then 3.0. Though in all 3 cases, we're talking only about initial print runs. This probably tells us more about the initial sales expectations from WotC.

 

[Mistwell]

It just hit #4 on Amazon Bestseller List.

Moving up just one place at those ranks means a huge amount. This is doing VERY well.

 

[DaveMage]

Now the question becomes, when all those people see the ad for the DDI in the back of the book and then click on it on June 6 - what will they see?

 

[Mistwell]

In case this didn't make it into the thread, Mearls confirmed that 3.0 was the smallest of the print runs:

http://mearls.livejournal.com/150306.html?thread=1647906#t1647906

Print run size:

3.0 < 3.5 < 4e

 

[mcrow]

I have access to engrams sales numbers and they have sold roughly 3K copies of the Gift set so far. They also list this as a "backordered" item.

engrams supplies bookstores and online retailers, but not gaming stores generally.

I managed to get some sales numbers from another publisher, one of the next biggest RPG publishers, and it works out that roughly 10-15% of RPG sales are supplied through engrams.

So I'd guess that the D&D 4E gift set has sold in the neighborhood of 25,000 to 30,000 copies with back orders of roughly 5,000 copies already in the works.