Do you think its a good or bad thing that WotC only sells one RPG?

Why or why not?

It's a good thing, both if you like D&D5E or not. If you like it, then you know they're concentrating their best (ok, only) RP writers on that RPG, not splitting them amongst several lines. And if you don't like 5th Ed, then at least they're not spamming a dozen equally dire games into limited phase space (either cash, time or "reach"). It's a win-win for everyone!

EDIT: I'm in the first group, by the way!

Bad thing. Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, and Star Frontiers were fun, and being official TSR made it easier to find players. I think the sole focus on a single brand is an overreaction to the lessons learned from TSR, when they spread themselves too thin during 2nd edition. One and only one? That's overkill. Mars doesn't just make Snickers candy, AMC doesn't just show The Walking Dead. There's a difference between producing different settings in the fantasy genre that all compete with each other, and having different lines that might appeal to different players, or the same players at different times. Variety is good.

Though it's only a mild bad because there's a wealth of games available from other companies. We're not suffering. And from a corporate standpoint, it seems to make sense. Hasbro probably doesn't care much about D&D, the game. They're probably more interested in the brand, and this maximizes their return while minimizing their effort. Having a diverse line takes work.

They could do another Gamma World.  Thats been redone almost as much as Spiderman.

Because not even top-selling properties like Star Wars can make enough to justify diverting resources from the 80,000-lb. monstrosity that is Dungeons & Dragons.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1101872Do you think its a good or bad thing that WotC only sells one RPG?

Why or why not?

Corporate ownership believes they should do whatever will produce the most profitable return on their investment.

Well, that was one of the reasons for the d20 system back in the early days of WOTC. They realized they were just competing with themselves with other systems.

Quote from: JeremyR;1101908Well, that was one of the reasons for the d20 system back in the early days of WOTC. They realized they were just competing with themselves with other systems.

Which they learned really and catastrophically fast was false.

Quote from: Razor 007;1101901Corporate ownership believes they should do whatever will produce the most profitable return on their investment.

Also they can barely produce D&D.

I for one am glad they only do the one. More competition and more room for more creative people.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1101872Do you think its a good or bad thing that WotC only sells one RPG?

Why or why not?

Hasbro has WOTC on a tight leash even now after the monumental screwups of 4e and the total botch of handling 4e D&D Gamma World. Which was made during the tightening of the leash.

WOTC has done little to show Hasbro they can safely handle things so they either outsource stuff to other publishers, or just have not been granted funding yet for any other products. And considering just how much WOTC has botched handling various small IP they have acquired. yeah... keep the leash tight Hasbro.

Keep in mind that D&D and more importantly, WOTC is a rather troublesome IP for Hasbro. Much as a few other IPs they acquired are. Due to mishandling of those IPs in the past in ways that are not feasible to deal with.

Quote from: JeremyR;1101908Well, that was one of the reasons for the d20 system back in the early days of WOTC. They realized they were just competing with themselves with other systems.

They also learned that you can not make money selling adventures.

Quote from: JeremyR;1101908Well, that was one of the reasons for the d20 system back in the early days of WOTC. They realized they were just competing with themselves with other systems.

So the d100, 2d6, 3d6, opend6, etc games cut on the sales of D&D?

I think evidence points to the opposite being true. Just in this forum you have many d20 players who also buy/enjoy games with other underlying systems. How many of those games might not exist if WotC kept publishing their other games?

Corporate incompetence is the most likely explanation, They have to maximize profit while reducing the cost, if you don't need to have 3-4 different teams developing games/modules/worldbooks for 3-4 different games you're cutting your costs by 3/4. Risk/benefit analysis is a thing on corporations, unlike oneman bands who can publish different stuff because they are the only owner they need to answer to the share holders. Unless they can be sure a d100 game will sell like gangbusters they won't spend a single dime on it.

And since they left all the rest of the spectrum for other publishers now they have to compete with what has become the default in different genres.

It sells only one RPG simply because the market is smaller for Tabletop RPGs than the other brands.

They have the following brands

* Magic: The Gathering
* Avalon Hill
* Transformers (Card Game)
* Duel Masters (Imported Game)

So, you have diverse games--a few CCG (which is WoTC speciality, that was always the bigger brand and what allowed them to buy TSR), and a board game brand.

In the business sense, they really don't need to diversify their games.  They are on the top, and since they already have a diverse portfolio it doesn't make sense to diversify the RPG.  This is unlike the TSR days when it was much smaller and there were different marketing forces.  This is the actually the best way to diversify--diversify product lines, not just a genre of product.

We don't actually need more products, if we will just use our own imaginations.

Quote from: Razor 007;1101937We don't actually need more products, if we will just use our own imaginations.

Thats a great idea.
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Imagines WotC making more products.
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Imagines WotC cocking it up.


Oh, Gawd damn it!