Zardnaar
Legend
Yeah, 3.5 came too soon, but from what I was seeing in my area 3.0 sales had rapidly dropped off after the first two years of 3.0 (basing that off of two local conventions - year 1-2 of 3.0 there were about 50 games being played, afterwards I was the only one attempting run D&D games and couldn't get enough players to run an event. 3.5 had a small bump that lasted less about a year).
Yeah 3.0 sales being heavily front loaded has ben known about for years.
One reason 3.5 was rushed out the door. One of three editions I count as a cash grab.