WotC, really? No...really? You can't maintain a publishing schedule?

[JoeGKushner]

Well, Erik should look on the really positive side. If Paizo tied D&D last year, it's going to cream it this year. Basically no releases versus Beastiary 2, Paths of the Damned 2, and several APs and other goods?

 

[Wayside]

Newsrooms across the world can maintain regular schedules with fewer writers than WotC has at its disposal, including papers as small as one person.

It's not a manpower issue.

Well, first, sure it is. Journalists don't have to worry about balanced mechanics or playtesting. Hell, for the bulk of their work, they don't even have to worry about research or fact-checking. They just run with whatever comes over the wire.

But second, and more importantly, news agencies cancel and rearrange stories all the time. Far more than WotC or the DDI do, in fact. You just never see it because they don't distribute calendars of the coming month's stories in advance.

 

[caudor]

I'm a little confused by how releasing more board games is considered an even exchange for cutting some of the books. ...unless the intent is to take 4E in more of a board game style format...?

Board games. Board games! We don't need no stinking board games!

Clue with Bugbears? Monopoly with gold pieces? Trade my Class Compendium for Chutes and Ladders with Elves?

No, there has to be something else going on behind the scenes they can't talk about yet.

 

[mudbunny]

My guess (and this is completely a guess) is that we will find out more information at DDXP.

 

[The Little Raven]

Unless they've been cancelled or repurposed, we still have the Shadowfell boxed set, Monster Vault: Nentir Vale, Champions of the Heroic Tier, (Heroes' Builder was a separate book), Neverwinter Campaign Guide, and the Madness at Gardmore Abbey boxed set coming this year, in addition to any new products they throw onto the schedule. There's also the Ravenloft boxed set which is only kind of a 4e product, since it's also sorta Gamma World-like.

Like mudbunny, I expect to hear more at D&D XP, particularly a little more detail on how we'll receive the content of those three canceled books.

 

[the Jester]

Wow.

My feeling (and it is an uncomfortable one) is that the stuff from the cancelled books will end up fluffling up DDI a bit.

But it's too little too late imho; the dwindling content, the lack of even minimal house rules support in the CB making it useless, the broken Monster Builder- ugh. The attempt to make 4e Super-Digital! almost worked, but just when they had it almost right they threw out their progress and started over at square one. Aargh. Now the actual print products are drying up, and a DDI subscription is no way to rope new players. Aargh.

 

[Windjammer]

That they removed Mordenkainen's Emporium means to me that Essentials failed full on. The magic item system in the DM Kit does not even work without a proper amount (and, ideally, a list) of magic items - and no such thing exists in Essentials. There are hardly any items in Essentials, and none of them reference the older Adventurer's Vaults books (for good reason, as the items therein are geared to the PHB 1 and 2 class builds, and don't sync nearly as well with the new classes). I'm serious - Essentials without a book of items is basically a non-functional version of D&D. The whole product line is full of omissions (no rituals etc) but this is the final nail in the coffin.

As for removing the monthly compilations: it's clear to me they are once more removing their own PDFs to further fight piracy. PDFs are something you can distribute and retain easily, so they are removing that format. Same change to the character builder, moving to web-based only.

As an added bonus, fans no longer have direct perception of reduced amount of material. If total contents for Dungeon in March 2011 is 50 pages, instead of the 110 it used to be at its peak in 2009, who can tell? It'd be a pain to collate all the web pages and try to see.

 

[Echohawk]

That they removed Mordenkainen's Emporium means to me that Essentials failed full on. The magic item system in the DM Kit does not even work without a proper amount (and, ideally, a list) of magic items - and no such thing exists in Essentials. There are hardly any items in Essentials, and none of them reference the older Adventurer's Vaults books (for good reason, as the items therein are geared to the PHB 1 and 2 class builds, and don't sync nearly as well with the new classes). I'm serious - Essentials without a book of items is basically a non-functional version of D&D. The whole product line is full of omissions (no rituals etc) but this is the final nail in the coffin.

I'm struggling to see how the cancellation of ME leads you to conclude that Essentials has failed, or even that Essentials is not usable without a book of magic items. The online Compendium seems to list "Common/Uncommon/Rare" for all items published to date (although it could use a rarity filter), so surely a DDI subscription would fill the alleged gap in published items for Essentials?

As for removing the monthly compilations: it's clear to me they are once more removing their own PDFs to further fight piracy. PDFs are something you can distribute and retain easily, so they are removing that format.

This does not compute. Almost all the individual articles are first published as PDFs. Removing the compilation does not equate to removing PDFs from circulation.

As an added bonus, fans no longer have direct perception of reduced amount of material. If total contents for Dungeon in March 2011 is 50 pages, instead of the 110 it used to be at its peak in 2009, who can tell? It'd be a pain to collate all the web pages and try to see.

I don't think it is very much effort to add up the number of pages in 20 or so individual article PDFs. Nor do I think that page count is all that matters. I'll take 50 pages of excellent articles over 100 pages of mediocre articles any month.

 

[Walking Dad]

...

As for removing the monthly compilations: it's clear to me they are once more removing their own PDFs to further fight piracy. PDFs are something you can distribute and retain easily, so they are removing that format.

This does not compute. Almost all the individual articles are first published as PDFs. Removing the compilation does not equate to removing PDFs from circulation.

...

Yes, because they do no 'hard' update on the articles. The finished pdf was a finished product. So they remove the updated / errated pdfs from circulation by updating them irregular. That could work, but is another annoying step for paying customers. I don't ting they will address the changes in their monthly update / errata.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I wonder how that's going to effect cover art for the 'magazines' if there are no more comiplations.

Maybe they'll go back in time like Pyramid and everythiing will just be HTML articles.