Cost of RPGs vs Board Games

Is it really?  Big, hardcover books are expensive–the Pathfinder core rulebook is $50, and the 5th edition D&D core rulebook set is 3 $50 books.

Plus, playtesting RPG's is really tough, since PC's are so highly customizable, and GM's need a lot of guidance.  Tabletop games are meant to be tighter since they don't make a Rule Zero assumption, but the possibility space is finite.  D&D comes out with "crunchy" books (as opposed to "fluffy" settings books, which are 95% prose and art) at about the same rate as some tabletop games (like Dominion) come out with expansions, but they have a development team of a dozen core members, numerous freelancers, and an army of playtesters, and tabletop games are designed by usually only a couple of people with a few friends as playtesters.

The two examples you're citing, though, are literally the two biggest dogs on the rpg block.  Compare that to Savage Worlds (which sat among the top 5 best-selling rpgs for quite a while), which has a $10 price point for the digest-sized corebook.  That's the entire rules-set:  character creation, powers/spells, enemies, the whole deal.  They price at that point because Pinnacle (and their third-party contributing companies) make their money off of the "fluff" books–setting books and plot point campaigns that don't necessarily alter the core rules beyond adding a few setting-specific variants.

In terms of staffing, the vast majority of rpgs are much as I am–the proverbial "one-man army", with a few freelancers chipping in.  The ones that are commercially successful–Pathfinder, D&D, Star Wars, and Savage Worlds–do have a full staff behind them, but even those are small.  Despite being in business since 1994, Pinnacle's listed staff is at 19 total, with the number of "Full-time" employees at around half of that.  Evil Hat (the guys behind FATE and its offshoots) are in much the same boat.

Shipping is the other big issue.  With rpgs, the use of PDFs (primarily through drivethrurpg) cuts down cost massively.  You don't have to ship a pdf, you don't have to worry about freight from china or production errors.  Someone found a typo?  A quick alteration to the master pdf and a few minutes to re-upload, and you've fixed it.  Printing books–especially ones not in full color or not in hardcover–is significantly cheaper than many board games, with a ton of indie games still going for $10-$20.

I'm more than eager to discuss this topic further, but we're already derailing the thread as it is; mods, can we move this one?

Then the comparison hinges heavily on the type of products >G is planning on producing.  A "core rulebook" could easily be a mere two or three times the size of the starter kit's rulebook and cost $10-$15, if the character creation and adventure guidelines are vague and simple, and if it doesn't cover every single SotM hero's archetype and character sheet, or it could be a $50 heavyweight if it contains copious pages of specific ability options, adventure design constraints and suggestions, character sheets, pregenerated villains and other enemies, and above all else, setting details.

We have even less idea what they have planned for supplements.  We know one will be a history book (which they've already done most of the heavy lifting for, and its size depends on the level of detail they're planning on), and of course there will be a potentially infinite line of adventure modules (which are potentially quick, if they're no more aggressive with their playtesting than they were in the starter kit), but that's it.  Will they be withholding character creation rules for heroes not in the core rulebook?  (Magic, a la Argent Adept, and nonorganic heroes, like Omnitron-X, seems like strong possibilities.)  Otherwise, I don't have any idea what type of supplements they're planning on.  Maybe they're hoping they can keep selling adventures (which seems like a very bad idea to me, as sales for a continuing story will have diminishing returns).  So we'll see.