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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8633347" data-attributes="member: 59082">I'm not a business person, but with my limited knowledge, I'm fairly certain that when you come out with a new iteration of anything, if sales aren't significantly better than the previous iteration, it is deemed an economic failure - or at least, disappointment.So it may be that [USER=67338]@GMforPowergamers[/USER] is technically right, that the 4E core rulebooks outsold the 3.5 or 3E core rulebooks, but it may not have been by much - which would be viewed as disappointing. And more to the point, it didn't bring in a new generation - it only really lost some of the older generations.Furthermore, while core rulebooks are the biggest cash-cow, ongoing sales are important, too. And here it seems very likely that 4E fell behind 3.X. Again, I don't know the actual figures, but I can remember the overall temperature of the D&D community back in the early-to-mid Aughties vs 4E era. The 3E community was strong and robust, while the 4E community was limping from the start - and Essentials in 2010 was a bit of a Hail Mary that got intercepted, which led to WotC ending the edition and beginning work on 5E (they continued publishing, of course, but 2011 saw half as many products as 2010, and 2012 had just a few remaining trickles, and at least a couple cancellations).I feel like I have to repeat a disclaimer, because of the possibility of misinterpreting what I'm saying as an indictment of 4E as a game - that isn't at all what I'm saying, and really making no value judgments either way on the worth of 4E as a game (except in saying that it was innovative relative to previous iterations of D&D - and "innovative" is generally a positive thing). But as far as economic success--and reception by the D&D community, both existing and in terms of drawing in new fans (or inability to do so)--I think the proof is in the pudding.</blockquote>

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