Quote:
Originally Posted by dungeonguru
New versions do make money, but I don't think 3.5 should count as a different version from 3.0 - after all 3.0 and 3.5 WERE so compatible, you had to look at the version number on the inside of a book to determine which one you were looking at. Plus, all 3.0 material didn't have to be converted to play 3.5 - or even Pathfinder for that matter meaning that 3.0/3.5 has lived much longer although Paizo took it over. It is possible another company could do the same for 5e.
Recalculating your average then would put 8 years of 3/3.5 and 4 to 6 years of 4.0 meaning the average lifespan is closer to 6.5 years ([8+5]/2).
You can look at wikipedia and see that the list of books for each version and can tell that 3.0/3.5 was rivaling 2nd edition in bloat in a shorter time. 4e had a book a month plan and it was almost impossible to avoid a D&D Insider subscription to keep up.
5e is a calmer, slower beast. If they decided to go to 6th edition tomorrow to steal thunder from PF2 it would surprise me considering they haven't milked 5th edition profit from the online tools enough yet. |
It wouldn't surprise me if they announce 6E in 2 years though, that will get through the milking phase more or less.