Midnight 2.0 PDF on sale now...for $50!!!!

So after a long wait, we can now get Midnight 2nd edition in PDF format....if your willing to shell out $50.00 to DrivethruRPG.

So, am I the only one who thinks that price is more than a little bit freakin nuts?! Why in the world would I pay another $50 for a PDF copy of a book I just paid $50 for?!

Why can't publishers offer some form of discount to people who bought the physical copy? How hard is it to create a PDF file from these books? An hour of work tops?

My suggestion, put a code in the book. Allow the customer to insert said code into a website and download the PDF copy for $5.00 (or maybe 1/10th the cost of the book). Sure, some people would just pluck the code out of a book on the shelf, but they'd still have to pay their $5.00 and that's $5.00 more than the publisher gets if they download it illegally, which let's be honest, can't really be stopped.

Yowser! $50 sounds a bit steep in my book, but then perhaps they're going to WotC route in that they're only providing the pdf to those that don't have access to the books in their country, for example. WotC sell their pdfs at RRP.

Pinotage

Yeah, that is a bit steep.

I guess the argument is probably that their intention is for those who can't get the book can at least get the .pdf.

Maybe they will drop the .pdf price once the book has been out a while.

I already paid the high (but justifiable) price for the print version. I would absolutely get use out of the pdf, but I wouldn't spend more than $10 on it. $50 is really high compared to other pdf's of similar place in the market. The World of Warcraft pdf is the closest thing I can think of off the top of my head, is a much larger download, and it sells for $28 as a pdf.

DaveMage said:

I guess the argument is probably that their intention is for those who can't get the book can at least get the .pdf.

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Ok, but how can any company justify full price for a PDF? They don't have to pay printing costs, and the end product simply isn't as useful in most people's eyes.

Do these things really sell that well at such outrageous prices?

I could well be wrong, but I can't believe selling this book at $50 will make more money than selling it at $10. Sure, you get less profit for each exchange, but you might get 100 sales at $10 where you'd only get 10 at $50.

The other folks over at Against the Shadow scoffed at the $50 price tag, and we are the most hardcore Midnight fans you'll find.

As much as I like FFG's work, I just think that's way too high.

Holy .

Ashrem Bayle said:

So, am I the only one who thinks that price is more than a little bit freakin nuts?! Why in the world would I pay another $50 for a PDF copy of a book I just paid $50 for?!

Click to expand...

I don't think they expect you to buy both!

As far as I know, most of the established print publishers can't undercut the print versions with cheaper online PDF versions even if they wanted to. The retailers and the distributors have a lot of influence in these things. From there POV there are only two choices - sell the PDF online at the same price, or don't sell it at all.

They choose to sell it online at the same price for those people who are interested in that deal. I don't think they expect everyone to be, or mind particularly if you're not.

The pricing of PDFs is more complicated then you think. If they offer the PDF at to cheap a price, it is possible their distributer will be really upset with them. And that could be very costly. Also, I imagine getting a PDF up and running takes a bit longer then an hour but it really depedns what they offer as a PDF like books marks, and other PDF only options.

They aren't the first company nor will they be the last to offer expensive PDFs. In the end these companies are book companies and ot PDF companies.

Shouldn't we be more concerned that FFG raised the price of the second edition by $15 over the first edition? That's just insane. Did costs really rise that much in the two years between 1st and 2nd edition?