I would expect Pathfinder to go with incremental edition change. Maybe more than Call of Cthulhu, but much less radical than D&D - that can be sold to fans while (mostly) maintaining product compatibility between editions.

Spoiler

Or maybe their MMORPG will become the new Warcraft. :rolleyes:

Quote from: Melan;641281

Spoiler

Or maybe their MMORPG will become the new Warcraft. :rolleyes:

Hahaha!

Quote from: Melan;641281I would expect Pathfinder to go with incremental edition change.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where abandoning this model would be a good business decision, particularly with WotC soon to be breathing down their neck with D&DNext.

Quote from: Melan;641281I would expect Pathfinder to go with incremental edition change. Maybe more than Call of Cthulhu, but much less radical than D&D - that can be sold to fans while (mostly) maintaining product compatibility between editions.

Possibly. But there doesn't seem to be any strong motivation for it.

Motivation #1 would be that there's a commercial reason for doing it -- i.e., selling more books. But Paizo's business model is based on selling subscription adventures and support material, not rule supplements. Awhile back I also did a calculation based on the number of 3.5 rule supplements that were released and the pace at which Paizo was releasing rule supplements. My conclusion was that Paizo won't reach WotC's saturation of the splatbook market until 2017 or 2018 or something like that.

Motivation #2 would be that there's a game design reason for doing it. But PF's current customer base, by its very nature, has already affirmed its basic satisfaction with the mechanics. There are some problems that Paizo might want to fix, but they would require a massive overhaul of the system and it's not clear that there's any strong motivation for this.

Paizo definitely won't take any action until after they see the reaction to D&D Next. And unless D&D Next has a serious impact on their revenue, Paizo won't be motivated to change anything about what they're doing. Either way, I'd bet hard currency that we won't see a new edition of Pathfinder published before 2017.

Of course, if D&D Next actually resembles D&D in some way shape or form, than it should be possible to use Paizo's adventures for it without too much work...a big win for Paizo unless WotC figures out how to write worthwhile adventures themselves.

The new star wars game hasn't even been released. (Fuck only knows why not, fFG seem intent on milking it for all it's worth.)

Well maybe this is significant from an industry point of view, in as much as roleplaying games qualify as an industry.

From the player point for view all this says is that D&D is in position number 1 and number 3 which is precious little comfort to those of us who don't much care for fantasy. But plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose and all that.

Quote from: Melan;641281I would expect Pathfinder to go with incremental edition change. Maybe more than Call of Cthulhu, but much less radical than D&D - that can be sold to fans while (mostly) maintaining product compatibility between editions.

Spoiler

Or maybe their MMORPG will become the new Warcraft. :rolleyes:

Ryan Dancey is involved with the game.

'Nuff said.

From a profit standpoint, I wonder whether it's better to be #1 or 2 in sales for books that are being published on an ongoing basis.  Or number 3 in sales, based mainly on reprints of old editions.

Also, I suspect that a lot of the money they drew in from 4e (and continue to draw in) comes from paid DDI subscriptions rather than books.  I've always been curious about how many people passed on buying the splat books, knowing or expecting that the same material would be available through DDI.

Quote from: Saplatt;641367From a profit standpoint, I wonder whether it's better to be #1 or 2 in sales for books that are being published on an ongoing basis.  Or number 3 in sales, based mainly on reprints of old editions.

Also, I suspect that a lot of the money they drew in from 4e (and continue to draw in) comes from paid DDI subscriptions rather than books.  I've always been curious about how many people passed on buying the splat books, knowing or expecting that the same material would be available through DDI.

One reason nearly every FLGS owner I know really dislikes 4e and generally don't run events.

On the upside, if 4e was an experiment in modern marketing and product management I hope the data has sent them a nice clear message loud enough that they could hear it with their heads up their asses.

It's like when Jay Leno pointed out that NBC is now not only below Fox but fifth in the US behind Univision.
"Now The Biggest Loser isn't just a primetime show, it's our network motto!"

JG

So the reprints weren't the second coming of D&D?  How can that be?  The interwebs told me that all would be well once the holy word of Gygax was back in print!

WotC should get used to 3rd place because its doubtful that 5e is going to do much for them. The Edition That Pleases No One isn't going to save the company's bottom line.

Quote from: Melan;641281I would expect Pathfinder to go with incremental edition change. Maybe more than Call of Cthulhu, but much less radical than D&D - that can be sold to fans while (mostly) maintaining product compatibility between editions.

Quote from: Bobloblah;641292It's hard to imagine a scenario where abandoning this model would be a good business decision, particularly with WotC soon to be breathing down their neck with D&DNext.

Agreed.

Ladies and gentlemen, edition change threadmill is not bad per se, the problem is when editions follow one another too fast.

Quote from: Spinachcat;641505So the reprints weren't the second coming of D&D?  How can that be?  The interwebs told me that all would be well once the holy word of Gygax was back in print!

WotC should get used to 3rd place because its doubtful that 5e is going to do much for them. The Edition That Pleases No One isn't going to save the company's bottom line.

We'll see. I don't know if D&D5 will be a resounding success, but I bet it will be better than D&D4, and even if D&D4 was a fiasco, it just went from 1st to 3rd place. WotC only needs a decent enough version of D&D, not great, just decent, to get back to the 1st place.