I find it interesting that WotC is acting like 4E is a software project. "Development Kits" for 5 large ($5,000.00)!?
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=215976Could have some blowback, but it is does provide some market protection for publishers, small and large, to release with 4E. It's the smallest publisher that doesn't have access to 5,000.00 dollars that might be offended, or the garage writer/gamer/DM that gets slighted.
But, hey, I'm a capitalist, so if the smallest publisher wants out of the unwashed masses and enter the big money world of D&D supplement and module writing, with all of the rights and fame thereto, maybe $5,000.00 is a fee worth "ponying up." It puts you in a group of people that is serious about the game and, at least, on the radar of WotC... maybe even a person worthy of soliciting opinion. If I was playing D&D, and not Warhammer, invested in its success, etc., I might do it.