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Whither the Ultimatum?
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 5807781" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>Per Ryan Dancey's <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/315975-wizards-coast-dungeons-dragons-insider-d-d-4th-edition-hasbro-some-history.html" target="_blank">follow-up</a> to the Escapist article, he revealed that Hasbro divided its properties into "Core" brands and "Non-Core" brands. Core brands made more than $50 million annually and had a growth path towards $100 million; Non-Core brands did not. Core brands would get financing help from Hasbro, Non-Core brands would not, and might even be mothballed.</p><p></p><p>The uptake from this was that 4e and the DDI were an attempt to bring D&D over the $50 million mark, and into Core brand status. The conclusion many seem to have drawn from this is that if Wizards had not done this, D&D was in danger of being mothballed.</p><p></p><p>So now we have 5e. And the read seems to be that we have 5e because 4e didn't make that $50 million mark. But this suggests a question: if 4e was a roll to Save against $50 Million Ultimatum or die, why do we have 5e? Is D&D really in danger of being mothballed?</p><p></p><p><a href="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?609762-Could-someone-please-show-some-evidence-of-4E-s-failure/page30" target="_blank">Over on RPG.net</a>, there was an interesting exchange between posters Cargo Culture and Polaris over who owns the D&D IP, and what exactly Hasbro can do with it (the conversation basically runs from page 30 to 33 or so). I am not at all sure which is correct, although Cargo Culture's arguments seemed to me more convincing.</p><p></p><p>At the least Cargo Culture's arguments presented a plausible explanation for a 5e despite 4e not making $50 million. The $50 million goal was something that Wizards, as a subsidiary of Hasbro, could aim for, but even not reaching it Wizards still retained the ability to market the IP on its own merits, even without Hasbro's proactive support (cf. Dancey's post, "[Non-Core brands] would be allowed to rise & fall with the overall toy market on their own merits without a lot of marketing or development support.") In other words, IP owned straight out by Hasbro might be mothballed, but D&D would not be, since Wizards, not Hasbro, directly owned the IP.</p><p></p><p>Another possibility might be the return of the D&D video game license from Atari. Might not revenue from the license push D&D over the $50 million barrier? Could this be why 4e was announced at a convention, but 5e was announced with a full out marketing blitz, including NYT, CNN, and Time?</p><p></p><p>Just some idle speculation. I'm just having difficulty with the idea of "$50 million or mothballs" and the new edition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 5807781, member: 6680772"] Per Ryan Dancey's [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/315975-wizards-coast-dungeons-dragons-insider-d-d-4th-edition-hasbro-some-history.html"]follow-up[/URL] to the Escapist article, he revealed that Hasbro divided its properties into "Core" brands and "Non-Core" brands. Core brands made more than $50 million annually and had a growth path towards $100 million; Non-Core brands did not. Core brands would get financing help from Hasbro, Non-Core brands would not, and might even be mothballed. The uptake from this was that 4e and the DDI were an attempt to bring D&D over the $50 million mark, and into Core brand status. The conclusion many seem to have drawn from this is that if Wizards had not done this, D&D was in danger of being mothballed. So now we have 5e. And the read seems to be that we have 5e because 4e didn't make that $50 million mark. But this suggests a question: if 4e was a roll to Save against $50 Million Ultimatum or die, why do we have 5e? Is D&D really in danger of being mothballed? [URL="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?609762-Could-someone-please-show-some-evidence-of-4E-s-failure/page30"]Over on RPG.net[/URL], there was an interesting exchange between posters Cargo Culture and Polaris over who owns the D&D IP, and what exactly Hasbro can do with it (the conversation basically runs from page 30 to 33 or so). I am not at all sure which is correct, although Cargo Culture's arguments seemed to me more convincing. At the least Cargo Culture's arguments presented a plausible explanation for a 5e despite 4e not making $50 million. The $50 million goal was something that Wizards, as a subsidiary of Hasbro, could aim for, but even not reaching it Wizards still retained the ability to market the IP on its own merits, even without Hasbro's proactive support (cf. Dancey's post, "[Non-Core brands] would be allowed to rise & fall with the overall toy market on their own merits without a lot of marketing or development support.") In other words, IP owned straight out by Hasbro might be mothballed, but D&D would not be, since Wizards, not Hasbro, directly owned the IP. Another possibility might be the return of the D&D video game license from Atari. Might not revenue from the license push D&D over the $50 million barrier? Could this be why 4e was announced at a convention, but 5e was announced with a full out marketing blitz, including NYT, CNN, and Time? Just some idle speculation. I'm just having difficulty with the idea of "$50 million or mothballs" and the new edition. [/QUOTE]
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