Ok, Dungeons and Dragons is the "forefather" of RPGs and lots of fun can be had with its many editions. I agree that 4th edition might work as a miniature game / dungeon hack game -- a much narrower scope than its predecessors, even if it was done by design. It might even work as a solo game, after all, everything is so well determined that you can easily randomize some encounters and have fun.
However, when I read about the announcement of yet another "reboot" of Dungeons and Dragons, this time allegedly with "input from the players" my first thought was, "don't reboot it, just shut it down for good." I mean, come on Wizards, you already have product lines that perfectly fit the needs of showing increasing sales figures to shareholders. The market of RPG books is a niche one that doesn't grow really fast. To achieve that with RPG books, you have to continuously release new, "rebooted" editions to try and force your player base to buy them all over again. That is, until you burn out your audience or maybe the whole market. Keep your boardgames and novels and maybe license the IP to videogame companies, rather than trying to emulate videogames with pen and paper.
Edit: found this awesome quote, from page 7 of the Player's Handbook (2008): "This is the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Game ... It builds on what has gone before, and firmly establishes D&D for the next decade of play." Yeah, right.
