WotC drops more 3E support :(

[teitan]

I'll bet when the FLGS and online stores bought their most recent shipments of 3.5, whenever that happened to be, they were expecting that WotC would be supporting that edition for a bit longer. It's rather abrupt. I would have expected a sell through period of at least three to six months after the new edition.

Actually no. In the store I worked in until April, we had begun winding down 3.5 orders about 3 months or more before so we wouldn't have much stock. I would speculate that a lot of retailers slowed down on their 3.5 orders when before the last 3.5 product came out and went special order only. Anything else would be suicide, we KNEW WOTC would drop 3.5 support as they did the same thing to 2e when 3e came out, Dragon and Dungeon had a sharp change of content. One of the things that hurt TSR was that they were continuing to publish 1e products well into 2e's release and even sold unused core books.

 

[Mark]

Any retailer who would be surprised, announcement or not, that WotC would stop answering essentially Sage Advice question on 3.5, is a retailer who isn't very good at what they do. Sorry, I just fail to see the problem. And I suppose we also must disagree on the meaning of "abrubt" in this context.

Retailers, whether they meet your personal opinion of being good at what they do or not, should be able to fully expect a publishing or game company to support what is currently being sold through channels. As to the definition of "abrupt," I am quite satisfied that I used the word properly in the context in which I introduced it, your disagreement and spelling notwithstanding.

 

[Mark]

Actually no. In the store I worked in until April, we had begun winding down 3.5 orders about 3 months or more before so we wouldn't have much stock.

I'm used to stores (around the Chicago area) that sell through 3.5 stock weekly (core and elsewise), and who will likely continue to sell and reorder 3.5 material for as long as there are customers for it and for as long as it remains in distribution channels. They would be foolish to not cater to customers who wish to spend the money, and would only otherwise drive those customers to other stores, online or b&m.

 

[sjmiller]

Surprise me with an actual example of a rpg company that actively supports an older version of one of their games.

Steve Jackson Games supports all the games they have ever produced, including the OOP ones. If you find errata for an old edition of GURPS, for example, and you send it to them they will post that errata on the appropriate book page. Steve Jackson Games has always supported their products, even when they have moved on to new ones.

 

[Henry]

I'm used to stores (around the Chicago area) that sell through 3.5 stock weekly (core and elsewise), and who will likely continue to sell and reorder 3.5 material for as long as there are customers for it and for as long as it remains in distribution channels.

Then I would advice those stores to order as much 3.5 as they plan on selling, because I'm willing to bet that the vendors will be getting NO MORE 3.5 product from WotC after June. When they announced the GSL rules back in April, Scott Rouse made it pretty clear they were hitching ALL their wagons to 4e, and leaving none behind for 3.5.

 

[Scribble]

How long did the support 2e for or 3e after the 3.5 switch?

 

[Mark]

(. . .) because I'm willing to bet that the vendors will be getting NO MORE 3.5 product from WotC after June.

Well, perhaps someone from WotC will post in this thread to verify that they will pulp whatever 3.5 stock they have left rather than sell as much of it as the market will continue to purchase.

 

[CleverNickName]

Considering some of the answers I have read from customer service I don't think that this is that big a deal. You are more likely to get the correct answer to your questionby asking in the EN World Rules Forum.

This. And not just for 3.x either, but for just about every edition ever released. Rest assured, you are not the last person on earth who still enjoys an older edition. So enjoy all those heavily-discounted 3.0 and 3.5 books!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A question on support:
How much requests does WotC get?
How much requests do the Rolemaster Creators get?
How much requests does Steve Jackson Games get for OOP products?

And furthermore - how are the requests "processed"?

I wouldn't be surprised if requests for WotC products are more common, and that the processing produces a lot more overhead, so much that it might simply not be efficiently done when trying to support more then one edition.

Though if I was them, I'd probably continue customer support, but put a warning that requests will take longer to process - 4E questions being processed faster. (Though what might even be better: Post a link to the EnWorld rules forum. )

 

[Teflon Billy]

He has a point.

Heh, yeah I recall a few years back keeping a running tally of who gave more correct answer, Skip "The Sage" Williams or the Rules Forum's own Caliban.

Caliban by a mile. I mean it wasn't even close.