I'm going to express my frustration with ICE now.  But I'll try to keep the volume low.

Okay, fine, spend two years rereleasing RMC go ahead.  But geez guys, throw everyone else a bone and at least put out some new material that we can use too.  Because I and many other people with hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of RMSS product are not going to buy in.  And so instead of uniting the fan base, you're neglecting a large portion of it and failing to sell them anything (and they were your active, product purchasing portion of the fan base when you re-booted I'll note).

Ah well, here's what I'd do from where they are now.

1 - Find a damn impressive setting and support it with MERP style modules and novels.  Ideally what is needed is a hobbyist with a flare for fiction, because you can sell fiction and setting materials to non-ICE gamers.  It might be possible with the right liscenced property, I'd go with Dennis McKerrin's Mithragar for sheer audacity and irony.

2 - Get product out regularly and at least quarterly.  Have a blog that updates daily with lots of cool tidbits.  Or even better a web comic.  The smaller scope of MERP style modules should help.

3 - On uniting the fanbase.  I don't believe a new fourth edition will do it.  Nope, I think the underlying fractures are too large.  Instead I'd push HARP.  What?  Dave you hate HARP!  Yes I hate HARP!  Get over it, pick and stick, the monster stats are pretty interchangable from system to system.  HARP is more approachable and the other 2 RMs are pretty much complete.  Sure I'd love an RMSS War Law / Sea Law, but let's face facts.  It will never happen.

Its interesting to note that basically for the last 8 years or so, WW's market percentage has been in a steady and precipitous decline.  They might not even be no.2 anymore, but it seems pretty obvious that if the trend continues pretty soon they won't be, anyways.  So that means that someone else will take their place. The likely contenders seem to be SJG, Green Ronin, or Mongoose.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Nicephorus;256523I'm not sure how much market share FASA ever had.
 

This press release from Microsoft should give you an idea of FASA's size. At the time MS bought FASA Interactive (1999), the video game sales alone were over $70 million dollars.

Based VERY loosely on those Sales charts that I used to post it used to shake out as : #1 = Wizards of the Coast, #2 = White Wolf,  and #3 kept changing pretty often as to who had that pot. Sometimes it was SJG, sometimes it was Palladium or some other company. SJG would bump up the chart usually just after they would release a new GURPS book or supplement.


- Ed C.

Quote from: RPGPundit;257004The likely contenders seem to be SJG, Green Ronin, or Mongoose.

I was under the impression that SJG's bread and butter is more the Munchkin games than GURPS these days, and I see less and less print GURPS material. So in terms of RPGs, I find SJG in doubt.

OTOH, I still see good penetration of WW material (nWoD, Exalted, and Scion) of game store and book store shelves, so while I'd agree they're not the powerhouse they once were, I think they've still got some market staying power.

Quote from: JongWK;257046This press release from Microsoft should give you an idea of FASA's size. At the time MS bought FASA Interactive (1999), the video game sales alone were over $70 million dollars.

It's good to have the rare hard data.  But how did their rpg money compare?

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;257053I was under the impression that SJG's bread and butter is more the Munchkin games than GURPS these days, and I see less and less print GURPS material. So in terms of RPGs, I find SJG in doubt.

OTOH, I still see good penetration of WW material (nWoD, Exalted, and Scion) of game store and book store shelves, so while I'd agree they're not the powerhouse they once were, I think they've still got some market staying power.

I wonder if their fortunes dipped a bit when the goth subculture (which was more literary - at least, as far as I could tell) got supplanted by the emo subculture (which were more musical - at least, as far as I could tell).

But I do wonder why they aren't taking more advantage of the rising popularity of those newer vampire-themed novels (the one with the movie coming out soon, though by my understanding the market there is largely young girls).  HBO also has that new vampire-themed series (not that I've watched it).

I freely admit I may talking out my ass here - as I am now middle-aged, the culture of the youth is strange and impenetrable to me.  

QuoteIts interesting to note that basically for the last 8 years or so, WW's market percentage has been in a steady and precipitous decline. They might not even be no.2 anymore, but it seems pretty obvious that if the trend continues pretty soon they won't be, anyways. So that means that someone else will take their place. The likely contenders seem to be SJG, Green Ronin, or Mongoose.

While WW's sales may be in decline, I haven't seen anyone taking away their shelf space in retail book stores.  Walk into a waldenbooks, BN, booksamillion, etc.  What do you see?  Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf.  Once in a while you'll see some GURPS book (but almost never everything you need to start playing), a Rifts book, Firefly RPG, or Mongoose Traveller.  

Pundit- who do you think has a product (and a company behind it) that would do well in a retail market if they had the opportunity?  Rifts has done well there before but Palladium is having issues of their own that seem to have severely cut into their presence in chain bookstores.  Firefly has niche appeal (I say so as a big fan of the show), the new Traveller comes across as a very technical, rulesy book- something that might be fun, but I don't think will grab someone who has never played an rpg before- same goes for GURPS.  

I'd say the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition could do well.  It's cheap, it's got lots of art, it's got solid rules.  It's expandable, but you can start playing with just one purchase.

I see WW in decline as well, I just don't see anyone moving up to take their place.  As someone "on the inside" I don't really care.  I can get what I want online.  But lets say someone played a friends copy of 4th Ed D&D.  They liked the rpg idea but wanted to do something different.  When they go to the bookstore to look around, there usually aren't too many options other than Star Wars (run on basically the same rules as D&D) or pretending to be a Vampire.

In america? I have no idea. Possibly SJG.  In the U.K.? Cubicle 7.  If they do well enough with their Doctor Who RPG, they could even overtake wizards, in theory.

RPGPundit

Currently, I think the #2 single game is probably vampire or Shadowrun.  WW being, clearly, the #2 company.

Quote from: Mcrow;257253Currently, I think the #2 single game is probably vampire or Shadowrun.  WW being, clearly, the #2 company.

Shadowrun?  Really?  I always thought that game was on a bit of a downturn.  Again, that could be local/personal experience only.