D&D 4e was suffocated inside the company by a cultural backlash against the Open Game License. Certain factions within Hasbro were apparently convinced that thi

D&D 4e was suffocated inside the company by a cultural backlash against the Open Game License. Certain factions within Hasbro were apparently convinced that third parties like Paizo were raking in the fat buxx from supplementary D&D content that they rightfully deserved. So 4e was released initially without any third-party licensing at all; when it eventually came about, it was unacceptably restrictive. By that point most of Hasbro's third parties had done what they were asked and gotten the fuck out of the business of D&D licensed content anyway. Hasbro ended up doing a pretty shitty job providing content for 4e in the long term. They released two semi-compatible reboots of the system within a couple of years, neither of which actually fixed any meaningful issues (they tried to make character creation simpler, while 4e's biggest issue was the lack of rules for quickly resolving minor combats). Very little supplemental content was released in 4e's lifetime, including for most of the first-party settings (Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Spelljammer, etc.) that D&D fans were looking forward to. ... They even managed to fuck up Forgotten Realms! (signed, a genuine and disappointed fan of 4th edition)