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Why won't WOtC let another company publish...
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<blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3284989" data-attributes="member: 13966"><p>I figure the main reason they wouldn't is so as not to dilute the market of D&D players. Folks that normally don't have a lot of money to spend on RPGs may put their gaming dollar into a Planescape, Al-Qadim, Spelljammer, Kara-Tur, Maztica, or Mystara book by another publisher if they had the choice, instead of spending it on a Wizards of the Coast generic D&D book like Complete Scoundrel, Tome of Magic, or Planar Handbook.</p><p></p><p>While WotC might still make some money off of it through licensing, they'll make a lot more if folks are just buying books made directly by WotC for its own profit. A lot of folks love certain older settings, and would much rather buy new books for those lines than the latest Generic WotC D&D Complete/Races of/Tome of/environment/creature-type/Monster Manual Book #428.</p><p></p><p>But they may settle for something WotC instead and pay for it, if the real deal isn't available but the WotC book is kinda close (Planar Handbook instead of a true, full-blown Planescape hardcover/box set, for example). Cityscape may be a halfway decent substitute for a book on Sigil itself, likewise. But if another company was licensed to actually produce Planescape and a Guidebook to Sigil, frex.</p><p></p><p>So far WotC has only allowed two widely-recognized and liked settings, Ravenloft and Dragonlance, to be supported in 3rd Edition by other publishers. That's a perfectly reasonable bit of licensing to make more D&D players happy and stick with 3rd Edition (thus buying 3E books rather than sticking with their old OD&D/BD&D/1E/2E books).</p><p></p><p>Then WotC has its own three supported settings; Forgotten Realms has always been a good seller, and Greyhawk is marginally supported by most generic 3E books, a bone thrown to the grognards and folks that don't like the absurdly-high-magic of FR, and Eberron as a newer marketing gimmick and an attempt to draw in younger audiences (and give older players a feeling of new-ness and different-ness to keep them around). WotC doesn't want to spread its marketshare too thin or anything.</p><p></p><p>Cynical much? Yeah, maybe just a little. But reasonably so.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arkhandus, post: 3284989, member: 13966"] I figure the main reason they wouldn't is so as not to dilute the market of D&D players. Folks that normally don't have a lot of money to spend on RPGs may put their gaming dollar into a Planescape, Al-Qadim, Spelljammer, Kara-Tur, Maztica, or Mystara book by another publisher if they had the choice, instead of spending it on a Wizards of the Coast generic D&D book like Complete Scoundrel, Tome of Magic, or Planar Handbook. While WotC might still make some money off of it through licensing, they'll make a lot more if folks are just buying books made directly by WotC for its own profit. A lot of folks love certain older settings, and would much rather buy new books for those lines than the latest Generic WotC D&D Complete/Races of/Tome of/environment/creature-type/Monster Manual Book #428. But they may settle for something WotC instead and pay for it, if the real deal isn't available but the WotC book is kinda close (Planar Handbook instead of a true, full-blown Planescape hardcover/box set, for example). Cityscape may be a halfway decent substitute for a book on Sigil itself, likewise. But if another company was licensed to actually produce Planescape and a Guidebook to Sigil, frex. So far WotC has only allowed two widely-recognized and liked settings, Ravenloft and Dragonlance, to be supported in 3rd Edition by other publishers. That's a perfectly reasonable bit of licensing to make more D&D players happy and stick with 3rd Edition (thus buying 3E books rather than sticking with their old OD&D/BD&D/1E/2E books). Then WotC has its own three supported settings; Forgotten Realms has always been a good seller, and Greyhawk is marginally supported by most generic 3E books, a bone thrown to the grognards and folks that don't like the absurdly-high-magic of FR, and Eberron as a newer marketing gimmick and an attempt to draw in younger audiences (and give older players a feeling of new-ness and different-ness to keep them around). WotC doesn't want to spread its marketshare too thin or anything. Cynical much? Yeah, maybe just a little. But reasonably so. [/QUOTE]
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