WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

[Mark]

Erik, I just waited five minutes even to pull up a product page. Is there any recourse for someone who buys a pdf and who simply isn't able to download it before the deadline?

Might want to grab these while you can and while waiting for the Paizo servers to thin out a bit -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/154448-free-adventure-path.html

 

[Mouseferatu]

Wow. Just... Yeah. Wow.

I've got a large collection of classic TSR stuff in PDF, many of which were purchased on the spur-of-the-moment for research while writing 3E and 4E stuff.

I think, by now, everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of 4E, as both a writer and a gamer. I've rarely been critical of WotC's decisions; a few details here and there, but rarely on any given subject across the board.

But this is just the wrong reaction, pure and simple. As others have said, it's not going to deter piracy, but it's definitely removing a lot of options from legitimate customers.

My hope is that WotC will decide to sell these themselves, rather than keeping them off the market entirely. But until/unless that happens, yeah, count my vote amongst those who are very disappointed.

 

[Branduil]

Pretty stupid decision. If the person making this decision is also responsible for the DDI they should have been fired a long time ago. Hopefully they'll lose their job soon.

 

[Derro]

End of the day, the pirates will get whatever they want, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Period. Any attempt to inconvenience the pirates is strictly an inconvenience to your customers.

Hear here.

It just seems so arbitrary and capricious. Even if this is the first steps to WotC establishing their own on-line store the perceptions created in the community by such a grand, blundering maneuver can only alienate people. Nobody likes to be punished for something they didn't do. In this day of e-com piracy is a reality. Find some way to deal with it that doesn't screw the people who have been loyal.

 

[Voadam]

I've got four in my cart and wanted to grab six more but for the last 20 minutes or so the pages are just coming up blank.

I don't think I'll be able to get any more.

 

[lmpjr007]

OK, can someone please explain to me how pulling all PDFs of previous editions helps WOTC 4E sales?

I'd love to own a piece of Paizo right about now...

This seems like another way to help strengthen Paizo position in the market. Wow, WOTC must actually be run by monkeys. I keep asking myself, what are they going to do next to upset their customer base?

 

[catsclaw227]

Pretty stupid decision. If the person making this decision is also responsible for the DDI they should have been fired a long time ago. Hopefully they'll lose their job soon.

This isn't fair. DDI has been awesome, and it's far more than paid for itself already. The DDI is the one thing good that WOTC has going for them in the digital arena.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I've got four in my cart and wanted to grab six more but for the last 20 minutes or so the pages are just coming up blank.

I don't think I'll be able to get any more.

As soon as i saw
paizo was getting shut down i went and grab 8 or so of the pdf's that i've ben waiting for the extra cash to pick up. I wouild have got more but i really could afford more right now(not that i really should have got what i did.) Anyway, i'm glad i didn't wait because now it sounds like some people might buy stuff and not be able to get it downloaded by the time the deadline hits, and seems unlikely to me that WOTC will be cool and make allowances for these technical issues.

 

[mach1.9pants]

This isn't fair. DDI has been awesome, and it's far more than paid for itself already. The DDI is the one thing good that WOTC has going for them in the digital arena.

That is so true! The character builder is worth the subscription on its own. If there is another game system out there which has something on par to the CB and I can still get PDFs and books, please tell 'cos my loyalty to 4E has been badly damaged by this fiasco.

 

[Glyfair]

Seeing this as evidence that 4e and DDI sales are low is cherry-picking evidence. Anything that agrees with the theory is clear evidence that the theory is right, and anything that disagrees is irrelevant or not conclusive.

I agree. In an anger management session at work (that was part of the standard "classes" rotated through every year), one of the things they point out is to never try to be a mind reader. When you say "they were doing this because" you are just setting yourself up to have anger issues, often when you were incorrect in your assessment.

Yeah, as a legitimate PDF customer, I'm really annoyed at this - even to the point of probably putting my money where my mouth is and canceling my DDI subscription.

I have to admit, I hope that because of this a boycott is organized and initially costs WotC sales. They have clearly been making a lot of decisions lately that seem to be coming from those with no interaction with the customers. If one of these decisions clearly leads them to a noticeable loss of sales, maybe the customers (especially online customers) will be considered more when WotC makes such decisions, and how doing such things affects their decision.

Now, I have purchased a number of the older D&D products. The new D&D products weren't on my radar (at least at the price points they choose). So, this effects me very little. However, this has degraded WotC significantly in my view.

I will probably not stop buying D&D products right now. However, I am definitely going to reduce the products I buy from WotC. None of the non-D&D products I would normally buy or consider will be purchased (that's at least a couple of hundred dollars in purchases in the last year). The ones I would consider borderline decisions are likely gone as well. For example, the DMG2 was a likely buy, now I am going to wait and not buy it unless the reviews say it's something I feel I should have for my D&D campaign.

Still, WotC probably won't "get it" unless there is an active boycott. By that I mean a large enough group of people stop buying products, and show up at their regular game stores (those who still have them) and let them know they have stopped buying WotC products (all or a subset) because of this decision. I don't even know of those who this effects are even a large enough group for WotC to consider it (clearly the sales of these products weren't enough for WotC to be concerned with losing them).