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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7402421" data-attributes="member: 37579">Looking back at 4e, they immediately changed gears with Essentials in 2010, with work on that having to begin in the fall of 2009. So a year after launch and they were already considering relaunching and revising the game. And prior to even that, in the spring of 2009 they pulled sales of PDFs for piracy concerns, suggesting they were blaming digital file sharing for low sales.  And in 2011, right after Essentials, the creative head of D&D left, likely not by choice. Meanwhile, three or four produces were cancelled, with the one almost being almost finished instead being released for free on the website. All the while, the D&D team was shedding staff like crazy, laying off a couple big names every year.While they likely weren’t losing money, these sudden and heavy change suggests a sharp decline in sales. None of that suggests a healthy game line. Was the brand broke? Okay, probably not as a whole. And probably not even on a book-by-book basis. They probably always recouped expenses. After all, companies like Paizo were making money selling Pathfinder before it passed D&D. But it likely wasn’t performing up to expectations. And with sales declining over time, it was likely inevitable that eventually they would release a book that lost money.I do wonder why WotC gave them another chance. There probably was talk about ending the line. I imagine the name recognition of the brand and potential for licensing helped. And MtG makes so very, very much money that the investment costs of development and publishing a new edition likely made the endeavour low risk. After all, MtG was making an order of magnitude more money than D&D. It likely cost them two weeks of Magic profits to make 5e, with the knowledge if it did poorly they’d at least recoup the expense, and if it did well they’d turn a profit. They would lose nothing in the attempt and could just cancel the line later if it failed. And if it did well...</blockquote>

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