Kal Lin wrote:
>Right, I was mistaken about TSR holding these trademarks.
>WotC could still roll up the whole mess and sell it.
In fact, I would not be surprised if WotC DID sell D&D if it fails to take
off. My best estimate is that they get about $1-2 bucks after costs per PHB,
and that has to cover advertising, sales, development, etc. as well as
profit...so very large quantities of 3e will have to be sold in order to
make it worth their while.
Now, I know that the goal is to make it back on the supplements, which will
be priced higher in comparison to the development and printing costs, so the
profit margin will be higher. But if 3e doesn't sell a million or so copies
in its lifetime, then there won't be enough of a player base to make the
supplements sufficiently profitable. WotC has about 45 full-time developers,
who probably cost them about (say) $1.8M in salary, benefits, etc. Not only
do those people have to pay for themselves but they have to cover all the
ancillary staff. I'd say that WotC needs to reliably move print runs for
supplements of 100,000 copies, so they have to have a solid fan base.
All of these are back-of-the-envelope financials, so I might be wrong on a
lot of the numbers. But I am comfortable with saying that WotC needs to sell
a lot more 3rd edition stuff then they sold 2nd. Remember, you're not just
having to be profitable, you're having to prove to Hasbro that the same
designers wouldn't be more profitable designing Magic cards (or for that
matter, cutting the designers and using the money to make Dancing Jar-Jar
toys).
_____________________________________________________
Kevin J. Brennan, Fourth Millennium Line Developer
[EMAIL PROTECTED] / http://www.fourth-millennium.com/
"I hate all boets and bainters."
--Only recorded English-language statement of King George I
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
