Posted by Jer at 5:07 AM on
Monday, May 14, 2007
Regarding the posts for the last few days, Paul commented via e-mail:
Ah, fourth edition D&D -- that elusive beast that has been both desired and dreaded by D&D fans since, well, since the release of third edition, actually. I think the first messageboard thread about fourth edition that I noticed came up around a year after third edition came out. The release of the revised (or 3.5) edition quieted down the edition upgrade conversation -- for about a year. It's now reached the point where EVERYTHING is a possible indication of an impending 4th edition.
For the record, I don't think a 4th edition is coming any time soon. And by soon I mean "before 2009". At this year's D&D Experience there was no announcement of a fourth edition, and indeed people were outright told that there was no 4th edition coming in the forseeable future (which I take as corporate-speak for "not this year"). If a 4th edition is coming down the pike, I imagine the earliest it would get announced is at the next D&D Experience -- next January or February. And they'll want to have a year to hype it up, because that year of hype worked amazingly well for the third edition release. So the earliest I think 4th edition gets released is 2009.
But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that even 2009 is too soon. Wizards has a lot invested in this edition -- the miniatures aspects especially seem to turn a tidy profit for them. And Wizards is just now figuring out new ways to exploit some areas that both they have shied away from in the past. Wizards got into the minis business hard, they've branched into things like the Dungeon Tiles sets to support those minis, and they've once again started releasing adventures. All of these are indications to me that Wizards is trying to keep the game profitable and push the release of a new edition off for a few years. I suspect that we might even actually end up with another "revised" edition (v 3.75?) instead of a full-blown 4th edition, but that might not be economically feasible.
Any talk at all of new edition of D&D is bad, considering I just bought 3.5 sourcebooks after four years.
Ah, fourth edition D&D -- that elusive beast that has been both desired and dreaded by D&D fans since, well, since the release of third edition, actually. I think the first messageboard thread about fourth edition that I noticed came up around a year after third edition came out. The release of the revised (or 3.5) edition quieted down the edition upgrade conversation -- for about a year. It's now reached the point where EVERYTHING is a possible indication of an impending 4th edition.
For the record, I don't think a 4th edition is coming any time soon. And by soon I mean "before 2009". At this year's D&D Experience there was no announcement of a fourth edition, and indeed people were outright told that there was no 4th edition coming in the forseeable future (which I take as corporate-speak for "not this year"). If a 4th edition is coming down the pike, I imagine the earliest it would get announced is at the next D&D Experience -- next January or February. And they'll want to have a year to hype it up, because that year of hype worked amazingly well for the third edition release. So the earliest I think 4th edition gets released is 2009.
But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that even 2009 is too soon. Wizards has a lot invested in this edition -- the miniatures aspects especially seem to turn a tidy profit for them. And Wizards is just now figuring out new ways to exploit some areas that both they have shied away from in the past. Wizards got into the minis business hard, they've branched into things like the Dungeon Tiles sets to support those minis, and they've once again started releasing adventures. All of these are indications to me that Wizards is trying to keep the game profitable and push the release of a new edition off for a few years. I suspect that we might even actually end up with another "revised" edition (v 3.75?) instead of a full-blown 4th edition, but that might not be economically feasible.
Labels: d20, dungeons and dragons, fourth edition
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