Time for WotC to start officially supporting older editions?

[darkseraphim]

If only they had a way to figure out which old edition projects would sell, and to get an idea of what old school players want ...

They're sitting on thousands of developed products that they could sell as .pdfs for a profit. They could track what sells and what doesn't and how much, and figure out whether it would be profitable to issue hardcopy reprints or invest development resources into creating new product.

Unfortunately they often seem to be their own worst enemy when it comes to reactionary decisions. That's what caused me to stop being a since-1993 WotC customer in the first place. But hey, it looks like they're actually finding their way and if they could move in this direction, they'd regain a lot of goodwill.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Return of the PDFs? Certainly.

New materials for old games (including 3.X)? Not so much.

VTT support for older systems? If it is financially viable, heck yeah!

Online program for the conversion of monsters/NPCs to new/old editions? Again, if financially viable.

The Auld Grump

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I just want the PDFs back really.

 

[Corathon]

I'd love to see support by WotC for older editions in the form of new products, but I consider it to be as likely as rolling up a characters with 6 straight 18s.

 

[Desdichado]

New materials for old games (including 3.X)? Not so much.

That's what I'd like to see, although I'm in the camp that firmly believes it'll never make any kind of fiscal sense for WotC.

Then again, there's already a third party pdf marketplace for that, so I guess I can't really complain. And not just for 3e; with the retroclones, there's a really a third party pdf marketplace for every past edition of D&D except the soon to be obsoleted 4e (and even then, I imagine someone could reverse engineer the SRD to make a 4e clone, if they really wanted too to.)

I imagine from WotC's perspective, they've gotta ask--why bother releaseing new stuff, or even reprinting the rulebooks? That market's already well served by OGL clones and whatnot.

 

[Treebore]

We do not need WOTC to support the old editions. The OSR companies are doing just fine as is, and with the internet, and communities out there, if anyone wants to find OS products, that are new, and good, they can. Been buying tons if it myself.

All I am interested in is cheap and easy PDF's for what I do own. Otherwise, I will make my own, I have a good scanner.

In fact, if anyone has anything that is "falling apart" but is still complete and scannable, and your willing to sell very cheap, I'll buy. If I can break it down into pages it makes scanning much easier and faster.

 

[Dragon Snack]

I still have people coming into my store looking for older edition D&D books. Believe it or not, there are people not on the internet that still want to play older editions of D&D and want books, not PDFs. Sure, they won't sell as quickly as the new shiney, but I wouldn't mind having the older core books on my shelves for those looking for them (I do sell used, but you can't count on that for supply).

They would probably outsell third tier RPGs, there was a time at my store that 2E was my best selling RPG for a couple of months - and I only opened 3 years ago (and it is currently in the lead for January, but then sales were slow last week and it's only leading 2-1). Nobody has traded in any 3.5, so that has never had a chance here (and I have had interest in it - not everyone is satisfied with PF).

As for new content, that would be more hit or miss. But then some of the 4E new content has been hit or miss already and we have a long way to go before 5E makes it's official debut...

 

[The Shaman]

New products for older editions? No

The OSR's got this covered already.

Return of pdf's? Absolutely.

Yes, please.

DDI support? Not only Yes, but I think this is a necessity. DDI is the future for sustained revenue.

DDI could be the real umbrella under which disparate gamers cluster, not another edition.

 

[El Mahdi]

Can't give XP at this time...

...DDI could be the real umbrella under which disparate gamers cluster, not another edition.

Absolutely.

I don't play 4E, even though I've stolen quite a few parts as houserules. But I would absolutely love to see DDI subscribers number in the hundreds of thousands, rather than just 66K.

That would truly be awesome!

 

[TheYeti1775]

Would love support of older editions.

New Product? No not necessary.

OGL to allow 3PP to provide new product? Sure would love it.

Licensing to allow 3PP to apply to make new product? More likely and profitable as just necessary to write it up and than have their set charge.

DDI Support? Would be great. Personally I know I would love DOWNLOADABLE Character Builders for prior editions with a way to add our own customizable stuff.

PDF Sales? Yes, this is the quick way to profits again. Pirates have already released every PDF they could already. And proved even when they pulled them the next book took less than a week to hit the servers fully.

And as another poster said, I still associate D&D with TSR not WotC, and I've been playing 3E since it came out. Brandwise that isn't a good thing.