Well, even with a “larger” publisher like Paizo, Cubicle 7, Catalyst, etc… who do sell print runs in the low thousands, you have to pay artists, designers, spend time in playtesting, etc. There are significant expenses that non-game books don’t incur even at a similar page count.
If you look at Troll Lord Games, for example, their last Kickstarter sold about 1300 copies for $169,000. That’s not very much when you consider paying salaries… and that’s considered a successful Kickstarter. No one is getting rich selling RPGs except maybe Hasbro… but only because of the volume.
From what we've seen over the years, I doubt even Hasbro is getting rich selling RPGs. Seems one of their issues all along has been D&D doesn't bring in revenue to match it's brand recognition/cultural impact.
Part of the problem though for the rest of the industry is that Hasbro sets price expectations for RPG books and their break even price is likely much lower than anyone else, due to size of print runs.
They're making a lot of money. MTG cards being worth more than their weight in gold helps eh? But also, the fact that they're clearly pivoting to digital (much as that _really_ upsets a lot of people, it's very obvious what they're doing) because profit margins on distributing a PDF are better.
Hasbro is. Wizards might be. But how much of that is from selling D&D books (physical or pdf)? As opposed to MTG or even licensing the D&D brand?
Hasbro == WoTC Cocks clearly thinks there's something to it.
WotC is a division of Hasbro. Hasbro owns lots of other things that make money. Even within WotC, it's not clear the D&D section is what brings in the money. Even within D&D, it's not clear that selling books is what brings in the money.
It's a brand, the distinction is meaningless. Oh, MTG will for sure bring in more money. They don't call it cardboard crack for nothing! But is D&D profitable? I think yes. Not the best margins, (print sales right?) but they have described it as "under-monetized" hence the gambling partnership.
That's basically what I've been saying. I'm sure it's profitable, but not as much as it should be. D&D's name recognition is out of proportion to its actual profits. This confuses the execs. :) Thus trying to figure out a way of properly monetizing it.
But even D&D isn't at a revenue point where they could pay the creative teams what they should and still be profitable - though I believe they do pay better than most. It's not just about corporate greed oppressing the workers. It's a hard business to make money in, structurally.
Definitely agree here. Wizards actually does pay a better rate per word than most of the industry according to reputable freelancers like Teos Abadia. But I agree what designers/artists should get paid would make most RPG books almost double in price. They’re just not a very profitable product.
Print runs get pretty cheap per unit when you're operating at Hasbro scale. 😆 "salaries" Wages.
There’s a floor, you know. Like after a certain volume, it doesn’t get any cheaper and Hasbro still has to do inventory management, distribution, direct fulfillment, etc. Point being, whether you are Hasbro or Paizo, the profit margins are terminally small for physical books.
Even if there's a floor for print run pricing, increased volume still lets you spread out the creative costs over more sales.
Really. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
You pay a couple of history of art grads, an editor for a coffee table book, you're done. The big expense would be the rights to the art. Also, you aren't going to be solely responsible for warehousing and shipping. Book sellers will take some of them and sell them in shops. Not risk free!