You guys are aware I was speaking of TSR in the past - 1980-90 timeframe.
The market numbers looked a lot different then than they do today. The only
stores within 30 miles of where I lived at the time that sold roleplaying
materials were bookstores, and they only carried TSR.
Faust
> > decided differently. IMHO, it is unlikely that a judge would find that
>TSR
> > constituted a monopoly, under traditional antitrust interpretations, in
>any
> > relevant market (whether RPGs or games in general - the market in one's
>own
> > product alone [D&D] clearly would not be a relevant market for the
>determination
> > of monopolist status as copyright law permissibly grants a monopoly in
>that
> > product).
>
>Agreed, and besides, WotC is nowhere near having a monopoly. The best
>market
>data I've been able to dredge up shows them to have about a 40% chunk of
>the
>RPG market. It's better than the closest competitor (White Wolf, with about
>25%, followed by Palladium of all things, with around 15%) but a long way
>from a monopoly. The market structure is actually pretty much the norm for
>a
>mature market.
>
>To build a good anti-trust case, (IMHO) you'd have to show that WotC was
>able to shut competing products out of the market, perhaps by being in a
>position to strong-arm distributors into not carrying other products. I
>doubt that the OGL/D20 licenses qualify.
>
>That said, I question whether many people will choose to make use of the
>OGL
>in practice. The D20 license makes more sense if you're looking to tap into
>the larger D&D/etc. market.
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