Quote from: AosI do think, though, that if I were in charge of launching a new edition of D&D, I'd time that release with the Holliday shopping season. I'm certain that there is a reason this wasn't done, but it is beyond me.

Quote from: WarthurI am reasonably sure that Wizards of the Coast aren't going to go belly-up just because of the 3.5 market slowing down over Christmas. D&D isn't the only iron they have in the fire; I suspect even at its best it isn't even their most profitable one. It should be noted that they are slowing down their D&D release schedule - and making more of the products they put out system-independent, like the Grand History of the Realms - in order to account for this slowdown. It's not as if they haven't done this before with 3E.

If anything, this should be - in the short-term - good for the rest of the market. Remember, White Wolf managed to become as big as they did when AD&D was going through a very low patch indeed; historically speaking, whenever TSR/Wizards' sales have dropped, the sales of other RPGs have tended to rise as gamers spend their money on other games. In the long term, of course, D&D sales will spike again when 4E comes out; the question is how much, and how long the increased sales can be sustained.