5e actually has been holding up very well AFAICT - it has great 'legs', which seems to have been part of the (Mearls-led) plan 2012-14. While I don't think Crawford's recent messing around with 5e has helped sales, I doubt it has impacted sales much either. I don't think his more Woke recent material has sold particularly well, but I don't think that has harmed the overall bottom line very much yet either. While a grognard like me gets upset over the removal of racial attribute bonuses, I don't think that kind of thing has any impact on new players.
I do think that Woke makes everything dreary and that this ultimately has a repellent effect on the mass market. But 5e was not particularly Woke at inception, and has a lot of momentum. I think Crawford has helped initiate a very slow gradual decline, I don't think stuff like Strixhaven is selling very well, but I would not expect to see a big drop off for several years on current trajectory. If Crawford pushes Woke too hard then the 2024 re-release may not do as well as expected. But whether Hasbro will push a course correction even then, I don't know.
I do think that compared to a mass market corporation like Disney, a large proportion of WotC's customers are likely more accepting of Woke elements. But still, there are very few SJWs in real life, and people play D&D at the table to have fun, not to virtue signal. So it can certainly go too far even for WotC.
This is correct.
IMHO 5e has not
quite hit its peak.
It took Dr. Who about 10 years from its
ratings peak to get to the state where nobody watches the show anymore. It took Marvel and DC comics a similar timeframe to put themselves in the gutter from their relative highs.
(This was gone over in past threads.)5e is in an interesting place in that its latest stuff has not sold as well as past material, and it is far enough in its edition cycle that a little bit of a decline is to be expected. Yet we know that the 50th is two years out and that will be a big deal for D&D.
5e will enjoy a bit of a bump before the decline resumes. And as the current Devs continue to slowly turn up the woke dial they will both hasten the decline, and IMHO; render themselves unable to properly service their core fanbase.
The interesting parallel to track right now is the Fate of WoW / Blizzard. WoW was the undisputed MMO king for years, but has recently been overtaken by the Final Fantasy MMO...
WoW is not as far along in its journey to ignominy as superhero comics and Dr. Who, but the parallels in company behavior between the D&D devs, and WoW devs are very interesting...
...
I mean what is so fucking hilarious about this thread is people who routinely claim, "Get Woke Go Broke" is a real thing are simultaneously trying to argue that WOTC - which has done INCREDIBLY well in recent years, far better than Hasbro itself - is also too woke and going broke because of it.
I don't even think you fuckers keep track of which positions you take anymore.
Being a disingenuous Liar again...
You know full well that the trajectory of "get woke, go broke" is an
arc, not a sharp fall off a cliff, from our debates where you were taken to school.
I can post links to refresh your memory.
But I realize that this will be par for the course going forward, as having chronic selective amnesia, and willfully misrepresenting peoples positions are the only arrows you have left in your quiver...