I agree with what BascWiz and JoePublic said. I think Laurie sums it up very well. You can have a family of figures. I don’t know much about the males but the female Generation 3 figures provided some compatibility in terms of textures and morphs, ditto Generation 4. The other alternative, truly separate figures is ideal in terms or versatility but it comes at the cost of separate wardrobes, morphs, converters etc. That means more expense, more files, more work, and more figures vying for a limited market. Despite its shortcomings and whether or not it succeeds, Genesis is a another vision. No matter which strategy one prefers, it does take money and a professional organization to have the best chance of it working long term.

There are certainly enough talented creators out there to do it. Some entity like Renderosity may have the financial resources – note learn from DinaV. Having a company with employees or contractors would ease the cat wrangling. I don’t count the (non Antonia) WM project only because it is building on the foundation DAZ created. Make sure that, as others have said, you have content ready to go; don’t run it up the flagpole and wait to see who salutes. Of course, Apollo is, by all accounts, a great figure, and IIRC had a fair amount of stuff early on and got some commercial support. Even doing everything right isn’t going to change the basic gender equation; but at least you have a fighting chance.

There’s a conflict between wanting variety and wanting support. The more unique figures there, the less support for each one. Yes, you can convert or tweak some things, but I still believe that each extra step sheds customers. I don’t know how many male figures the market can support – maybe no more than two or three with a reasonable amount of content. Even amongst Mike, David, Apollo and Hiro, people still feel a lack of content exists – and that’s given the generally smaller requirements of the male wardrobe. Put them all in a room and let them cut cards, play rock-paper-scissors or duke it out – crown whoever comes out king. The king gets all the clothes, hair, ethnic choices etc. The rest will just be naked White guys.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken