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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Sales of D&D vs. AD&D vs. AD&D 2nd Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7850095" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>I don't think purely monogamous fans were the problem so much as the fact that each product cost money to produce and needed to occupy shelf space at stores, which cost the stores money. This creates more customer confusion and fragmentation. For instance, TSR made an effort to bring Greyhawk back after having rolled out Forgotten Realms in the aftermath of Gygax's departure. The 2E Greyhawk material is indeed <em>very</em> good (edit: well some of it is, anyway, they had their stinkers too), but it didn't sell as well as the Realms, so they had to lines competing with each other.</p><p></p><p>All that said, evidently what finally destroyed TSR was over-investing in hardcover novels and Dragon Dice in 1996. When the hardcovers had an unusual number of returns and Random House demanded their payment (as per the contract), TSR fell into bill lock, although the other market conditions they'd built meant the conditions were right for it to happen. They had some other issues, such as money essentially being diverted to Buck Rogers royalty payments (made to Lorraine Williams' family!), making foolish calls on what could have been lucrative video game deals, and other mistakes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7850095, member: 6873517"] I don't think purely monogamous fans were the problem so much as the fact that each product cost money to produce and needed to occupy shelf space at stores, which cost the stores money. This creates more customer confusion and fragmentation. For instance, TSR made an effort to bring Greyhawk back after having rolled out Forgotten Realms in the aftermath of Gygax's departure. The 2E Greyhawk material is indeed [I]very[/I] good (edit: well some of it is, anyway, they had their stinkers too), but it didn't sell as well as the Realms, so they had to lines competing with each other. All that said, evidently what finally destroyed TSR was over-investing in hardcover novels and Dragon Dice in 1996. When the hardcovers had an unusual number of returns and Random House demanded their payment (as per the contract), TSR fell into bill lock, although the other market conditions they'd built meant the conditions were right for it to happen. They had some other issues, such as money essentially being diverted to Buck Rogers royalty payments (made to Lorraine Williams' family!), making foolish calls on what could have been lucrative video game deals, and other mistakes. [/QUOTE]
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