D&D 5E What happens if other gaming companies don't have time for WoTc?

[Iosue]

Kickstarter is a fine thing. But it is not a sure-thing, silver-bullet for game publishers. We don't know exact numbers, but the anecdote is that a really successful game product sells 10,000 units. Unless it is WotC, and then is sells 100,000 to a million units.

Exactly. At Ryan Dancey's panel at last year's PAX East, Luke Crane noted that one of his games (Torchbearer, I think?) sold 5,000 units, and this was considered a great success. Evil Hat's numbers indicate that the whole of its FATE line has sold a little less than 100,000 units lifetime, that's from one of the industry's top successes behind D&D and Pathfinder.

Kickstarter (and similar services) are great for small RPG publishers because it removes much of the risk and uncertainty that has historically gone along with being an RPG publisher that doesn't publish D&D. They can accurately gauge interest in a product. They get a hefty chunk of a product's revenue up front. They can match production to interest, indeed to pre-orders, so that unless something goes wrong on the production side, at the worst they break even. But for all that, they are still small publishers, and the revenue they can get from doing a project with D&D -- and note that these jobs are not just any run of the mill adventure, but rather major tentpole adventures, timed not to compete with any other WotC D&D offering -- is generally going to be more lucrative than most, if not all, other products they put out.

 

[DEFCON 1]

After the great buzz created in 2014, the outsourcing of GenCon game play to Baldman Games (BMG) resulted in a situation where hundreds of people walked away wondering if they would ever attend again and many wondering if they will every spend another dime on the product again..

Apparently you do not realize that Baldman Games ran last year's D&D events at GenCon too. As they have done for every GenCon for goodness knows how many years.

If this is how you wanted your introductory post to EN World to go... you could have at least tried a little harder to get your facts straight.

 

[unnatural 20]

Wizards, let Keith Baker kickstart Eberron! He could write the whole thing himself!

 

[CapnZapp]

This will never ever become an issue.

The number of hopeful rpg writers happy to work for nearly free is endless (and chances are, you're one of them).

 

[delericho]

The number of hopeful rpg writers happy to work for nearly free is endless (and chances are, you're one of them).

How many of those are able to produce content to a quality WotC would be willing to publish, and to the timescales WotC would require?

 

[Zardnaar]

They're not. WOTC is right now.



Right now, they are.



Only two systems really rank right now...all the rest, including older ones, are much MUCH less popular than those two.

This stuff is kept track of, by fairly objective measures.



But they didn't. We're a year in, and D&D is still well on top by a wide margin.



I will ask again - why don't you have this same worry about Paizo, who also leans heavily on freelancers?

Paizo is still king probably in terms of RPG player numbers and online and probably at Gencon. Organized play would also be another indicator. Its a mature system. WoTC is outselling them because it is new and if some of the numbers posted here are reliable Paizo is still bigger in terms of players, WoTC is bigger in current sales.

WoTC is not the undisputed RPG champion. If Paizo releases Pathfinder 2 in 2017/18 I would expect sales of that to be bigger than whatever AP WoTC is releasing that month. Hell 5E may not even be published in 3 years time, one could say the same thing about Pathfinder as well I suppose.

 

[Celtavian]

Paizo is still king probably in terms of RPG player numbers and online and probably at Gencon. Organized play would also be another indicator. Its a mature system. WoTC is outselling them because it is new and if some of the numbers posted here are reliable Paizo is still bigger in terms of players, WoTC is bigger in current sales.

WoTC is not the undisputed RPG champion. If Paizo releases Pathfinder 2 in 2017/18 I would expect sales of that to be bigger than whatever AP WoTC is releasing that month. Hell 5E may not even be published in 3 years time, one could say the same thing about Pathfinder as well I suppose.

If Pathfinder released a new, streamlined product, I'd definitely give it a shot because I do enjoy Paizo's material. Their RPG team is great.

 

[Neptune]

Apparently you do not realize that Baldman Games ran last year's D&D events at GenCon too. As they have done for every GenCon for goodness knows how many years.

If this is how you wanted your introductory post to EN World to go... you could have at least tried a little harder to get your facts straight.

Oh, I know they did and I attended last year too, but WOTC had not abandoned the convention until this year and they were VERY involved last year with seminars, supplying swag, displays and other support. Believe me, I know what went on and I got my facts straight.

 

[Zardnaar]

Mike Mearls said they are concentrating on PAX over GenCon and that is at the end of the month. They want to market D&D more to the press than to the fans who will likely buy in regardless.

 

[MerricB]

Mike Mearls said they are concentrating on PAX over GenCon and that is at the end of the month. They want to market D&D more to the press than to the fans who will likely buy in regardless.

Mike also said that they had real trouble filling seminars at GenCon - people went there to play games - while at PAX they got 800+ people. This change is actually driven a lot more by the attendees!