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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5622042" data-attributes="member: 22424">Yes. If 5e is significantly different from 4e, then pretty much all the existing tools would become useless. Only the VTT would survive largely intact. Of course, that seems to be WotC's primary focus at the moment...Well, that's the crux of it right there.As far as I can see, there are three possible reasons for doing a 5e:1) To get the sales bump that comes from new versions of the PHB/DMG/MM. Of course, this only works if people buy those new versions, and anything that impedes that is a bad thing.2) To clean out the accumulated "junk options" from the game. A goal that is defeated if those options remain in play through the DDI.But the big one:3) To try to win back people who left D&D at 4e; that is, to win back the Pathfinder converts.If I were WotC, I would consider the existence of Pathfinder as a commercial venture (not to mention the relative sales levels) to be a major failure. 99% of those players should have moved to 4e. And they represent probably the biggest and easiest untapped market for expansion of the D&D brand - genuinely new players are hard to attract, the efforts to win back lapsed players with the Red Box seem to have failed, that that group...However, to win back the people who rejected 4e, 5e will have to have big and obvious differences from 4e. Just slapping a new coat of paint on the same system will not work. By and large, people who quite 4e for Pathfinder did so for a reason, and whether that reason is 4e or WotC, to win them back WotC have to show that they've changed.(And all of that ignores Mearls' likely desire to really put his stamp on the game, which will also likely mean changes.)So, I fully expect any 5e to be significantly different from 4e, and thus to get a whole new DDI suite. (And I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the DDI effort is actually, secretly, going towards those new tools. It really would explain a lot about the online CB and MB at release.)Of course, if 5e requires a new DDI (and perhaps even if it doesn't), I fully expect the old stuff to be promptly removed. Both because WotC have never supported two editions in parallel (and wisely so, IMO), but also because of the costs inherent in hosting and maintaining tools for an edition they'd rather see fade away in favour of the new hotness.</blockquote>

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