AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Fundamentally this same scenario has played out with ALMOST every RPG company, including TSR! You get a bunch of game enthusiasts, generally with little business acumen. They get into an industry where making ANY money at all is ALMOST impossible, and being successful, like REALLY successful has happened about 3 times, ever.White Wolf pouring gasoline all over itself and setting itself on fire at the turn of the century is both very meta and incredibly weird. To this day, I'm not 100% sure what they were thinking.
So, you bust your butt, you build the game that was in your heart, and then you start losing money. Heck, maybe you actually strike gold and FOR A WHILE you make money, but inevitably the 20 hour days, limited pay, and necessity to chose between what will sell and what you would actually like to do (which usually only overlap a little bit) grinds you down. Then you figure out that your business dealings are basically a shambles and selling that mess is a giant swamp. If some other nerd hasn't backstabbed you by that point, you just basically walk away. This is the Circle of Life RPG Game Company Version. WotC and Games Workshop are pretty much THE ONLY shops that ever escaped that, along with SJG. Literally nobody else has done so, though a few shops are still muddling along at any given moment. Some have come close, WW, GDW, FGU, Flying Buffalo, Chaosium. Close, but no cigar!