Has anyone noticed the similarity between WoTC's latest incarnation of their Dungeons and Dragon product mix and the demise of other companies such as Avalon Hill and TSR? Just prior to the demise of Avalon Hill and TSR, each spread their product lines accross board games, RPG, and Computer Games. Each dedicated a great deal of resources in terms of time and cash toward developing computer games derived from or branded with their pen and paper board games. Each did this in response to what they perceived as a declining market for their games and the demand for computer games. Funny how after both moved down this path each soon was out of business and were purchased by Hasbro. Hasbro in turn has been able to republish or sell rights to many of the games that were successful for each company. I wonder if had both focused on their core competency which was board and RPG games if they would still exist.
Hasbro may be following the same path to destruction. They have placed their bets all over the board for 2008. The Dungeons and Dragons brand will be applied to video games, an online gaming site, print RPG, and miniatures. It already appears that the digital iniative may be failing as there were recently posts put on the site for a lead developer position and no release date for the DI to go live.
It actually be more accurate to say that WoTC has put all their chips on 4.0 and spread it's distribution among a number of channels. Of course some of these are more costly then others.
Anyway I'm just going to sit back and watch this unfold. If your intersted check out the entries on Wikepedia for Chaosium, Wizards of the Coast, Avalon Hill, and many of the other gaming companies that no longer exist.
I'm sorry, I just can't comment on the subject, until the mispelling in the title of this thread is "repeared".
Hasbro may be following the same path to destruction.
Hasbro is a megacorperation it would take much, much more then even the complete and utter failure of Dungeons and Dragons to even begin to affect thier stability as a company. D&D isn't even realy one of Hasbro's major products when looked at from a realistic perspective. I am positive that if it started to trun into a major money drain (or even a minor one for that matter) the "suites" would have no problems with pulling the plug on the whole thing.
If your intersted check out the entries on Wikepedia for Chaosium, Wizards of the Coast, Avalon Hill, and many of the other gaming companies that no longer exist.
uhm... form the wiki page for chaosium (not that wiki is even remotely reliable anyway):
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence.
Thank you for someone catching the Chaosium reference there, otherwise I was about to go on a tirade. I *love* Chaosium, and it is a company which remains excellent despite years and years of product being available.
Now as for will Hasbro or even the Wizards of the Coast go under if 4th edition tanks? I don't think so. I think the most we'll see is sales being less than expected, and that's if the system is itself awful. If it's good, then I think the profits will come rolling in.
As for Wizards spreading themselves too thin, it's debatable. Points to consider:
The Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO was released much earlier, and while still being supported it's already out there and was released during the life cycle of 3.5
As far as video games go, many Dungeons and Dragons titles have actually sold very well. The Baldur's Gate franchise (as well as, to a lesser extent, the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance line) did quite well. I can't really comment on R.A. Salvatore's Demonstone as I never played it, but it seemed passably fun.
The same can be said for the Dungeons and Dragons board game. I don't think it's still being produced at this point, so I wouldn't really count that as a profit or loss.
The Miniatures game continues to sell well, both as a tie-in product and also for the miniatures themselves which are mostly of fair to good quality. I don't know what the tournament scene is like for it, but it might be going well.
So it seems to me while they are in a lot of different venues, none of them are selling reasonably poorly. As for the failure of TSR towards the end, a lot of things lead to their downfall, far more than simply trying out a new medium or two for the product. They were cranking out settings and products faster than could be believed, sometimes with little concern for whether or not they would sell.
I don't think we'll see the company fold, and I think that 4e will do fine once it's out in player's hands and no longer under the purview of the marketing department. But that's just my two cents.
But they might nevertheless manage to hurt the D&D brand so bad that they'd eventually toss it for someone to pick up once it is not profitable enough anymore. They'd go back to their core business of TCG and Minis.
I don't think a company of Hasbro's size is going to fold just like that; I suspect that it would take an ENRON sized scandal (or maybe what might have happened to the French bank Societe Generale, had they not discovered their level of risk in time) to wipe Hasbro out.
How about a toy box full of lead paint coated toys? When the lawsuits hit on that, it won't be pretty.