Not exactly news, since we already knew that WotC canceled three books scheduled to launch this year, but it looks like the makers of D&D have finally realized that pumping out a book or two a month is just not a sustainable business model--especially given that most of those books released new feats, classes, and powers. Combine that with the monthly issues of Dragon magazine, and maintaining game balance amounts to a herculean task.

Third edition became so bogged down with supplemental rulebooks that running a vanilla character from the Player's Handbook would be laughably underpowered relative to what you could make with access to all the rulebooks. I welcomed 4th edition as a fresh start--but now, a couple years in, we're once again getting bogged down.

WotC is reflecting on the business model of past editions of D&D (and the developer, TSR), when there was a much greater emphasis on settings and adventures rather than character options.

Only good things can come of this.

...maybe I shouldn't say that.