WotC WotC can, and probably should support multiple editions of D&D.

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why compete with every other serious RPG maker with one product when they can compete with 3 products?

Because Hasbro thinks too small and is mostly focused on quarterly profits. To get to Purina or Nabisco levels of hegemony would require much more long-term thinking and more investment than Hasbro has ever shown any inclination to do.

Look at how they are, arguably, killing the golden goose with MTG, just so they can have good stuff to report in quarterly earnings calls.

So, yeah, DMs Guild and (formerly) licensing stuff out to Goodman Games is as good as you're going to get.

 

[Morrus]

Why compete with every other serious RPG maker with one product when they can compete with 3 products?

Because when you divide your customer base like that, you are multiplying your print costs by 3 and dividing the audience for each by 3. Your profits vanish into a black hole. It’s about economies of scale and print run costs which reduce by volume.

tl;dr—You don’t compete with yourself.

 

[Osgood]

I just don't see it. It would be on par with the 90's era fumble of publishing settings thta diluted their own markets. The best case scenario that I could see would be producing some rules-free material, like campaign settings that are edition neutral... but I wouldn't bet any money on that idea.

 

[Osgood]

Because Hasbro thinks too small and is mostly focused on quarterly profits. To get to Purina or Nabisco levels of hegemony would require much more long-term thinking and more investment than Hasbro has ever shown any inclination to do.

That's not a Hasbro thing, that's an every corporation thing! I'd be absolutely shocked if Purina or Nabisco (both subsidiaries of major conglomerates) thought past quarterly profits. That's that nature of being traded on the stock market.

 

[payn]

You just described what killed TSR. Just swap the word ‘edition’ for ‘setting’.

It’s terrible, terrible advice.

They provide older editions and all the support material in PoD format on DTRPG. There’s enough there to last a lifetime!

QFT

 

[Deset Gled]

People complain a lot because D&D is by far the biggest name in the RPG industry. So big that it overshadows most 3rd party and indie stuff. Do you think any of the anti-WotC crowd would be happy if WotC tried to enter their niche market? No, they'd just complain that WotC killed [insert sub genre here] and took it's stuff.

The only way Hasbro will ever to promote a product that cannibalizes their main brand is if you can prove on a spreadsheet that the new income is more than the loss to the main brand, in both the short term and the aggregate. You can get away with that with specialty products that cater to an existing fan base, like My Little Pony. You can't do it with old editions.

 

[DarkCrisis]

OSR and Pathfinder has that all covered.

I mean yeah Id have loved for like AD&D to continue officially but eh OSR got it all handeled.

 

[billd91]

Visit the pet food, potato chip, soda, cereal and toiletries aisles in your local grocery store.

"Competing with themselves" is what's made much bigger corporations than Hasbro very, very wealthy.

Those are all consumables - in the sense that the product is literally used up and goes away as it is used. Picking up a bag of salt and lime corn chips one week, plain salted the next week, is a matter of little effort. And the scale of the companies makes it a relatively inconsequential choice (because you can be pretty sure they'll ruthlessly cut a product line if it's not performing up to requirements - how many cereals can you name that aren't around anymore?). Not so with RPG companies, even the 800 lb gorilla of WotC. D&D may be more successful than it has ever been, but it's still not on the scale of Post, Coca-Cola, or Lays.

 

[Umbran]

Visit the pet food, potato chip, soda, cereal and toiletries aisles in your local grocery store.

"Competing with themselves" is what's made much bigger corporations than Hasbro very, very wealthy.

Hold on there. You have to establish that, in market dynamics, production and consumption, that these products are at all similar to RPGs. And guess what? They ain't.

For one thing, everything you mention there is consumable. You buy it, you use it, it gets used up, and you have to go buy it again, at which point you may make another choice. All those items are also fairly low cost most of the time, so that buying something you end up not liking so much isn't a big deal. So, clearly consumption patterns are different.

The market sizes are also not comparable - there's about 140 million pet dogs and cats in the US. They all need to be fed every day. In the US, pet food is a $50+ billion industry. Snack foods for humans are a $60+ Billion dollar market. So, yes, those market can support many varieties.

For all that, Frito Lay doesn't have a multiple new flavors out on the shelves every month.

So, I call nonsense on that analogy. There may be an argument that WotC would do well splitting its production over several product lines, but this isn't it.

 

[overgeeked]

Visit the pet food, potato chip, soda, cereal and toiletries aisles in your local grocery store.

"Competing with themselves" is what's made much bigger corporations than Hasbro very, very wealthy.

Exactly. Don't like this flavor of D&D, cool...here's another flavor you might like.

The major problem is...

No way. They don't have enough designers for 5e work. It just isn't ever going to happen.

Plus, other than 4e, drivethru and dmsguild more than fill this role. More than.

this. They don't have the workforce to actually do it and 3PP have already filled that niche. WotC could easily beat anyone and everyone else in the market for those products if they'd only try. But they won't. Mostly because they can't.