Atlanta, GA, [Friday, June 16th, 2006] —DriveThruRPG announced today that Wizards would be making a huge selection of its Dungeons & Dragons® roleplaying game titles available as eBooks on www.DriveThruRPG.com.
“Based on the response to the eBook tests we have run with DriveThruRPG over the past year, we have decided to release almost the entire library of current Dungeons & Dragons titles, over 90 game titles, into the eBook format." said Scott Rouse, Brand Manager for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast.
“By providing current 3.5 edition material in eBook format, Wizards is allowing Dungeons & Dragons fans to easily and legally get official D&D products in digital format,” said Steve Wieck of DriveThruRPG.com. "We are pleased to take this big step toward our goal of having all roleplaying game titles: past, present and future, available digitally, 24/7, around the world."
Wizards has elected not to make the three core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons available as eBooks at this time, but almost every other current Dungeons & Dragons title will be available from DriveThruRPG. New titles are scheduled to release one each weekday on DriveThruRPG: Some of the titles to be released first include: Races of the WildTM, Book of Vile DarknessTM, Heroes of HorrorTM, Arms and Equipment GuideTM, d20 ApocalypseTM, Champions of RuinTM, Complete ArcaneTM, Unearthed ArcanaTM, Masters of the WildTM and Book of ChallengesTM.
With the ability to search for specific rule text, to cut and paste passages onto character sheets or adventure notes, or to take an entire RPG collection with you to the gaming table, the e-book format has become increasingly popular with gaming fans as an adjunct to the traditional printed format.
"Whether they want to copy a monster from Monster Manual II into their adventure notes, transfer a spell from a class guidebook like Defenders of the Faith on to a character sheet, or just read the latest Eberron title from a laptop during their next trip out of town, roleplaying game fans will finds lots of ways to use the wealth of digital content Wizards is releasing," added Steve Wieck.
Launched in June, 2004, DriveThruRPG.com is the premier site for digital content from major roleplaying game publishers. The site features extensive catalogs from companies such as Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons & Dragons), White Wolf (World of Darkness, Exalted), Mongoose (Paranoia, Conan), Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu), Dream Pod 9 (Heavy Gear), Eden Studios (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Fantasy Flight Games (Midnight), Fan Pro (Shadowrun, Classic Battletech), GDW (Traveller, Twilight 2000), Guardians of Order (Big Eyes Small Mouth, A Game of Thrones), Holistic Design (Fading Suns), Malhavoc Press (Ptolus, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved), Necromancer Games (Wilderlands of High Fantasy), Pinnacle Entertainment (Deadlands) and many more. DriveThruRPG.com offers both new titles and hard-to-find classics.
Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop roleplaying game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many others, such as the recently released Duel Masters® Trading Card Game, games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website at wizards.com
“Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Races of the Wild, Book of Vile Darkness, Heroes of Horror, Arms and Equipment Guide, d20 Apocalypse, Champions of Ruin, Complete Arcane, Unearthed Arcana, Masters of the Wild, Book of Challenges, Monster Manual II, and Defenders of the Faith are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in the USA and other countries.”
Last edited by Morrus; 16th June 2006 at 08:16 AM..
__________________ Bring on the Funk.
Talk hard. My internet connection sucks. Wanna run a game? Try EN World's own PbP boards! It's loads of fun. Here are my games so far.
Other stuff:
Spoiler:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kemrain
- Kemrain the Medicated for Your Pleasure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kemrain
I pity the thread that talks about Mr. T.
- Kemrain the Sigged.
Manamana.
Hey Houston EN Worlders! Interested in Getting together? Let's meet up and have lunch or something!
Last edited by Jdvn1; 16th June 2006 at 09:42 AM..
I would've thought that whoever makes these kinds of decisions for WotC might learn something since last go.
What were the results of the last try?
/M
__________________ iAltdorf. An interactive map of the capital of the Empire in WFRP! Download today! Can be used in any fantasy campaign!
http://altdorfer.blogspot.com - Check out the Altdorf Correspondent! A WFRP blog about life in the Imperial capital.
"All editions of D&D are awesome." - Fifth Element (EN World Forums, 2008)
”The tendency to confuse personal taste with objective quality is nearly universal.” - Robin D. Laws – Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering (Steve Jackson Games, 2002)
Admittedly it would cost me less to scan it myself legally. As an example, buy FC1 at Buy.com for $17, scan it in 3 minutes, and ocr it in 15 minutes....still cheaper than buying at full price. Remember to scan in the receipt (w/your name and the product on the receipt - basically watermark your pdf) My scan though would not be as small nor as good a copy as drivethrurpg's though.
What does annoy me about drivethrurpg's offer of wotc books is the pdfs are still DRM. I can't stand DRM. I'd rather have watermarked. I already write my name in my books so they don't get confused at the gaming table. I do not have a problem with my name on every page. I have already had to change computers twice...DRM does not make that easier.
Yeah well apparently they haven't figured out cheaper is better for PDFs.
Somehow I figure that WotC wouldn't do this if the trial run they did wasn't sucessful enough to support this strategy.
Unless someone else has any numbers to back it up, I'm taking this move as an indication that the initial trial release of WotC D&D books through Drivethru was successful. Even with DRM and the price level.
Otherwise I fail to see why WotC would do it again without changing the parameters.
But if anyone has any other figures, numbers, or results about the first trial run that indicates that is was a qualified failure, I'm willing to listen.
As I said in another thread, I'm not buying because of the DRM (I would consider it if the files were Watermarked), but the fact that they are releasing more books using the same strategy as before indicates to me that enough people did buy them to make it worthwhile for WotC.
/M
__________________ iAltdorf. An interactive map of the capital of the Empire in WFRP! Download today! Can be used in any fantasy campaign!
http://altdorfer.blogspot.com - Check out the Altdorf Correspondent! A WFRP blog about life in the Imperial capital.
"All editions of D&D are awesome." - Fifth Element (EN World Forums, 2008)
”The tendency to confuse personal taste with objective quality is nearly universal.” - Robin D. Laws – Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering (Steve Jackson Games, 2002)
In that, I heard about the history of this from someone on these boards, a while back. And that's what I was basing my comment on. My bad.
As I (or rather, as 'they') recall, WotC apparently tried the same thing at the same place, and it failed dismally. I think the first part is true.. I'm just not sure about the last.
I agree that logic would dictate not repeating an obvious error.. without a darn good reason. Therefore, as they are going over the same ground, it must've been at least partly successful. As you say.
I agree that logic would dictate not repeating an obvious error.. without a darn good reason. Therefore, as they are going over the same ground, it must've been at least partly successful. As you say.
Well, it is conceviable that they are losing money on the venture, but are putting it down as advertising, or research or whatever.
/M
__________________ iAltdorf. An interactive map of the capital of the Empire in WFRP! Download today! Can be used in any fantasy campaign!
http://altdorfer.blogspot.com - Check out the Altdorf Correspondent! A WFRP blog about life in the Imperial capital.
"All editions of D&D are awesome." - Fifth Element (EN World Forums, 2008)
”The tendency to confuse personal taste with objective quality is nearly universal.” - Robin D. Laws – Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering (Steve Jackson Games, 2002)
There was a big stink about the pricing of the original books they placed on DT as well. WotCs response was that they didn't want to undercut the book market and if you didn't like it don't buy.
I thought the resonse was funny being that I could get the books much cheaper on Amazon.
Are they still electing to use DRM on these? I know the earlier ones are still only DRM. Oh well..... Two reasons I won't be buying them.
Somehow I figure that WotC wouldn't do this if the trial run they did wasn't sucessful enough to support this strategy.
Unless someone else has any numbers to back it up, I'm taking this move as an indication that the initial trial release of WotC D&D books through Drivethru was successful. Even with DRM and the price level.
Otherwise I fail to see why WotC would do it again without changing the parameters.
But if anyone has any other figures, numbers, or results about the first trial run that indicates that is was a qualified failure, I'm willing to listen.
As I said in another thread, I'm not buying because of the DRM (I would consider it if the files were Watermarked), but the fact that they are releasing more books using the same strategy as before indicates to me that enough people did buy them to make it worthwhile for WotC.
/M
Well, I don't think there is much chance of losing money on a venture like this. All we are really talking about is storage space on a hard drive. Heck I got my 500GB hard drive for $200. No, even at those prices it can only be a win/win situation for both companies.
Well, I don't think there is much chance of losing money on a venture like this. All we are really talking about is storage space on a hard drive. Heck I got my 500GB hard drive for $200. No, even at those prices it can only be a win/win situation for both companies.
Well... except if it costs WotC any substantial amount of money just to have their PDFs hosted there. I think that might be so. Therefore, there's still a possibility - as far as I'm aware - that they could lose money this way.
I'm unsure as to whether they made money, lost money, or broke even in the past. I have no idea what will happen this time, either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggan
Well, it is conceviable that they are losing money on the venture, but are putting it down as advertising, or research or whatever.
And yeah.. true. Always a possibility when you're talking about a large company.
DRM is Digital Rights Management. In the case of Adobe's method of DRMing PDFs, you register your PDF. The first time you open the PDF it registers on the Internet. This usually is not a problem since you just downloaded it. It links the PDF to your accout [passport] and that PC. If you take the PDF to another pc, you will need access to the internet and have to register that computer to open the pdf. I can't remember what the max number of pcs is..... I know I use 3 computers myself, my work, my home and my pda. Their is no problem opening the PDF offline as long as you registered the file once and are on the computer you registered it on.
The problem comes in if you ever lose your account information and change pcs. You can not then register the PDF. The big question for me is will I be able to open these files in 15 years. I can still open my books in hard copy in 15 years, but there are very few files I access easily from 15 years ago or 1991. I was still using DOS 3.3 in 1991.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
