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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Transformer" data-source="post: 5997959" data-attributes="member: 70008">I already said in my most recent post that some RPG companies support multiple systems at once. They do it with very small staffs which only make a few of the most lucrative possible supplements for each system. So certainly it can be done, but that system is nowhere near as stable or as lucrative as making hundreds of supplements for only one system which 70% of all RPG players play. No doubt it isn't lucrative enough for Hasbro, and so Wizards has no real options but to try and unite everyone with one system again.Besides, this isn't a thread about supporting multiple systems. This a thread specifically about supporting every past edition of D&D at once. That is a fool's errand. TSR-era editions have no market share; no amount of continued support or new advertising would bring back anywhere near enough people to justify continued support for them.As for supporting only 3rd and 4th edition, that's marginally more plausible. But the fact of the matter is, most people who might've regularly bought new 3rd edition books have moved on to Pathfinder and are uninterested in Wizards' products. Just supporting 4th edition would almost certainly be more lucrative, and evidently just supporting 4th edition for a few more years was deemed not lucrative enough. So no, supporting 3rd and 4th at once isn't a viable option either.No one said they simply don't have the staff or resources. The question of whether they could physically manage, with existing cash flow, to support 2 or 6 different editions at once for a year is totally irrelevant. The question is whether they could do so and churn out a profit that's reasonably close to what they saw in the 3rd edition era, the profit they and Hasbro want. The answer is no; the only thing that can manage that is a new edition which unites the fanbase.Now, if 5th edition fails to unite the fanbase, then Wizards may have to settle for supporting multiple systems going forward (5e, renewed support for 4e, and a third new D&D system perhaps). But it would, in fact, be a matter of settling. If they want one last shot at the kind of profits they used to have, a new edition is their one and only choice.I mis-typed. I only meant to say that it's not possible to make a single RPG which is backwards-compatible with every edition of D&D. I don't know about Call of Cthulu.</blockquote>

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