the SG are indeed in a cycle, and the "bean counters" would be the best place to look. As a publicly traded comapny they have to ensure $X.00 in revenue to the shareholders. If something does not match the minimums in terms of sales, it gets axed/pushed to the side. SG games as a whole do quite well in the great scheme of things, but only as a whole. individually they cannot support themselves against the formula. I think they need to generate somewhere near a million a year in sales to be kept in line. I remember BFG being the last one to leave the "main" range. when it did we were told because it fell below the mark in sales.
LOTR does
MUCH better than you think it does. Yes the sales are way down from the peak when the movies were out, but they are still WELL above the mark. I remember it being aboput 10% of the sales in the US a few years ago. Last report I saw about a year ago it was near 13%. This does not count the Euro/UK market were it still holds closer to 20% if I remember the charts i saw. At the end of the day its the cleanest 28mm skirmish rule set they have (probably why its now western, pirates, etc for WH Historicals LOL). We'll see what the War of the Ring brings in April (mass combat). Looks like a bit of 28mm Warmasterish type of play (WM being another better ruleset).
But I digress.....as per the cycle of SG games see this link...
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40102
