Why pay more for less (from What you like about MGT)

[dmccoy1693]

That's pretty consistant with my finding as well. ~4 years ago, I was a major fan of Exalted and started an online map of other Exalted players (sign up as you wish, etc). Average age was younger than me (and I was less than 30 at the time) and I found that it was most popular in rural locations. Easiest time I ever had joining a group since college was on a 3 week business trip to a town outside of Indianapolis. 3 weeks of quality gaming. More than a few of the others were in HS.

 

[far-trader]

Traveller is popular... That popularity is thanks to Mongoose.

Yeah, nooobody else had a hand in setting the plate for Mongoose :nonono:

(you need to broaden your knowledge or limit your pronouncements )

So I would say that CT -at first- was very popular...

I'll concede the possibility. Like I said I haven't seen the numbers.

Try these "Gold" sellers then:

Basic Traveller (LBBs1-3) - 20 print runs, 136,730 units
LBB 4 Mercenary - 23 print runs, 103,849 units
LBB 5 High Guard - 17 print runs, 100,638 units

Compiled Basic Traveller (The Traveller Book, Deluxe Traveller, Starter Traveller - each being LBB1-3 plus extras) - 18 print runs, 111,855 units

As I quipped elsewhere, let me know when Mongoose Traveller sells 100,000 copies and I'll party

 

[dmccoy1693]

Yeah, nooobody else had a hand in setting the plate for Mongoose :nonono:

(you need to broaden your knowledge or limit your pronouncements )

How popular was THero? Or how about T4? Were they any less Travller? What was different with them?

CT sold 136,730 over 32 years. That comes out to 4273 per year. MGT had it's 1 year anniv. since publication. I do believe it has greatly passed its yearly quota to meet that same goal in the same time frame.

 

[mike wightman]

Not quite, CT sold those numbers in the years before it was replaced by MT. They stopped producing it and so you shouldn't average over the years since 1987.

 

[far-trader]

CT sold 136,730 over 32 years. That comes out to 4273 per year. MGT had it's 1 year anniv. since publication. I do believe it has greatly passed its yearly quota to meet that same goal in the same time frame.

No, I believe those numbers are for the years in print. 1977 through 1983. Call it 5 years. So 27,346 per year averaging (which really isn't the way sales work, but I'll give it to you). What's Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook sales for the first year then?

EDIT: OK, I'll even grant you Mike's numbers, but I'm going to add all the LBB1-3s up So call it 245,585 units over 10 years, for 24,858 per year. And ignoring your own contention that the game is more accessible and there are more people playing than way back then, just even numbers, and I hope Mongoose could be so successful and sustainable over it's own 10 year run. But I don't think they are there yet. Again, do you have the numbers for Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook sales in the first year? Otherwise it's just so much speculation.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Not quite, CT sold those numbers in the years before it was replaced by MT. They stopped producing it and so you shouldn't average over the years since 1987.

Fair enough. But like I said before. The market has fractures substantially since then causing sales of individual books to decline substantially. I remember an interview of a d20 company owner saying that anyone can sell 3000 copies of an RPG book back during the d20 boom of 2001-2003. Now I hear that 300 is a good number.

If you have 1 company selling 100,000 copies in a given year and later 10 companies selling 12,000 copies of a book in that same time frame, has the market grown or shrunk? Grown. It can support 120,000/ year. Individual sales are down dramatically, but the market as a whole is up. But no one company sees it since all they see is their own sale being almost 90% less than what that 1 company use to sell.

 

[aramis]

Actually, you forgot to include the consoidation editions in the math, too.

248585 units of CT counting both CT boxes and CT Deluxe/Starter/TTB prior to 1989; it was still available from GDW in 1988, in parallel to MT (and T2300).

that's averaging 22,598 or so per year of the 11 years in print.