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Dec 17, 2012 -- 10:03AM, AbdulAlhazred wrote:

WotC released 10 SKUs all at one time under the Essentials line and stated at that time they would all remain in print and no more would ever be added.

     This is the sort of statement that is so obviously false it doesn't qualify as a lie.  If Essentials had been successful, there would have been large numbers of additional entries.  WOTC is a business, and not corcerned with the mystic number 10.  If #11 looked like it would sell well, it would have hit the stores no matter how much WOTC had said there would only be 10 entries.  Unfortunately it was a dud, and so any plans for additional volumes died.

Dec 17, 2012 -- 11:32PM, Arcane_Guyver wrote:

Dec 17, 2012 -- 6:43PM, DavidArgall wrote:

This is the sort of statement that is so obviously false it doesn't qualify as a lie.  If Essentials had been successful, there would have been large numbers of additional entries.

Well, it's true when you consider Essentials is the limited list of 'evergreen' products (Red Box, DM Kit, two player manuals, Monster Vault, Rules Compendium, three tile sets, and dice set). The splatbooks, adventures, and tile sets published afterwards were not technically part of that line. Not that it matters any longer, but I thought it was a decent - if ill-timed - plan for such an expansive game.

That was the stated intention, just that it was a fixed 10 SKU product, compatible with 4e but stand-alone. The idea was that a book or toy store which would probably not have a person familiar with the product could put those 10 items on a stand, sell them, and keep it stocked. They'd have a complete line of a product that would be self-sufficient and because evergreen you'd never be stuck with overstock of some items and short others.

As for the "well, it is only capped at 10 SKUs because it failed", they said BEFORE they released ANY of Essentials it would never be added to. HoS, HotEC, and HotFW don't have the Essentials name on them and are obviously hardcovers, so clearly there's a bit of a distinction there. Obviously they might have continuted to release similar books if they'd wanted to, but they aren't evergreen and I'm sure if you had a reseller/distributor catalog they're listed as 4e SKUs, not Essentials ones.

Of course the whole "convenience of the book stores" kind of reasoning for Essentials WAS part of the problem. They were trying to solve a business problem more than trying to serve the customer bases needs. I can see why they did it, but it was still a mistake.

"window.parent.tinyMCE.get('post_content').onLoad.dispatch();" contenteditable="true" />As for the "well, it is only capped at 10 SKUs because it failed", they said BEFORE they released ANY of Essentials it would never be added to. HoS, HotEC, and HotFW don't have the Essentials name on them and are obviously hardcovers, so clearly there's a bit of a distinction there. Obviously they might have continuted to release similar books if they'd wanted to, but they aren't evergreen and I'm sure if you had a reseller/distributor catalog they're listed as 4e SKUs, not Essentials ones.

     Such "promises" are made to be broken.  Say they sell 100,000 Essentials items.  Now what?  They can insist on keeping their word and maybe sell 10,000 a year thereafter, or they can add an additional item each year or so, sell 10,000 copies of the new item and 10,000 of the old ones.  The choice is obvious.  The only reason not to make the 11th item is that the first 10 sold poorly.
     We look at books and movies, and we see sequels of the successful stories no matter what promises or statements were made.  [The classic case was a romance novel where the second banana died in the story, but a number of readers really liked him and wanted him as the lead in the next book.  The author protested "But he's dead!  I killed him in the big scene."  The publisher answered "So?"  The next book started out   "While recovering from his grievious wounds..."]
     Statements that there will only be X items in a series are meaningless.