Dear Wizards of the Coast blog post...

[I'm A Banana]

Besides, if I pay for a book I want a book, dammit, not a file that I then have to turn around and print out (and bind) myself.

Well, POD prints and binds and does all that for you. As far as the consumer is concerned, it's just like ordering a book from Amazon, only potentially more flexible.

Just like we've got the iPad, the iPad2, Intel i7 Quad-cores, AMD Hexacores, and all the various accessories for them.

With D&D, the calculus is necessarily different: new editions aren't just like the older editions but better. Part of the quoted argument was that, when a new edition comes out, it doesn't convert those satisfied with the older edition, who then become effectively fired as customers, since they don't see the value in the "upgrade" and they're not being sold to anymore.

It would be kind of like if, when the new Die Antwoord album came out, they stopped selling the old one.

Back in the day, in publishing, this was necessary, because you couldn't keep a backlog in print in any sort of economical fashion: you have to sell a certain amount to be profitable.

That's not true if you go Print On Demand. You don't need to do print runs of 10,000 books (or whatever) and then hope to sell them all. You print them as there is demand for them, so you're never stuck with unsold stock, and you never pay for prints you never sell.

It's not necessary to fire a chunk of your customers anymore.

And, to respond to another thread of the conversation, if the sales of your old edition cannibalize the sales of the new shiny hotness, your new shiny hotness probably isn't actually that great, but all the money you're still making from your old stuff probably is great balm for that burn.

 

[Kinak]

As a matter of fact, I think gaming is one of the few industries that doesn't have multiple versions of similar products on the market simultaneously from the same company.

It seems strange, doesn't it?

I mean, Apple sells an endless variety of iPhones. But they try to keep everyone on the same version of iOS. And you can get hundreds of kinds of HDTVs, but they all use the same handful of standards.

It's almost as though there's a strange double-standard... like industries provide all the options they possibly can, while maintaining compatibility.

And, if I needed four people with the same version of iOS around to use my phone, I'd hope that Apple would think twice before spreading different versions around willy-nilly.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[patrick y.]

And why would you assume they are telling the truth about that when every other qualification they claim is just as backed up? I'm not about to assume it's a woman either. Statistically though, it's probably a guy.

0_o

...right.

 

[nnms]

TSR sold more products but fewer numbers of each than they otherwise would have diluting their investment. Wizards is leaving money on the table by not selling things that otherwise would sell to folks who are not currently customers.

The problem is that now those customers are well supported by other game makers.

Paizo produces tons of content for those who like 3.x. And there's lots of others doing 3.x/PF support as well. There's also no shortage of new stuff compatible with OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, etc.,.

I'm not sure WotC can pick this money off the table anymore. I think 4E might have relegated D&D to a minority position in the RPG industry for the first time and now WotC has to scramble to get market share back by trying to be all buddy-buddy with the player base through a marketing campaign disguised as an "open" playtest.

 

[nnms]

That's not true if you go Print On Demand. You don't need to do print runs of 10,000 books (or whatever) and then hope to sell them all. You print them as there is demand for them, so you're never stuck with unsold stock, and you never pay for prints you never sell.

It's not necessary to fire a chunk of your customers anymore.

Excellent point. There's also nothing wrong with taking preorders and doing a print run for the initial demand.

And, to respond to another thread of the conversation, if the sales of your old edition cannibalize the sales of the new shiny hotness, your new shiny hotness probably isn't actually that great, but all the money you're still making from your old stuff probably is great balm for that burn.

Very, very good point.

It was one of the original goals of the OGL. To ensure a baseline satisfactory version of D&D is preserved regardless of future versions of D&D.

And it worked. 4E failed to meet the demands of a large portion of the D&D fan base, who then went to OGL alternatives and now Pathfinder outsells 4E (at least according to Paizo).

All that revenue and market share could have been WotC's had they only kept 3.x on in a Print On Demand basis.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

And it worked. 4E failed to meet the demands of a large portion of the D&D fan base, who then went to OGL alternatives and now Pathfinder outsells 4E (at least according to Paizo).

All that revenue and market share could have been WotC's had they only kept 3.x on in a Print On Demand basis.

Actually, I outsell D&D, not Paizo. I've just ordered a second printing of me to satisfy popular demand, and while I cannot disclose revenue numbers, I'm currently really profitable.

Additionally, I'm only one like the RC and not three like the corebooks of Pathfinder or 4e. The woodgrain box also was one. This proves how retro I am, yet I'm also pretty innovative.

I would've been the best choice to unify the fanbase, but Wotc decided to include Marking and Paizo decided to include a Fly skill. Neither of which I possess - this obviously shows how rules-light i am.

If you're interested in me, just drop me a mail at Iloveme@Narziss.com and I'll send you a condensed version of myself.

 

[Keldryn]

WotC could probably do POD for 3.x game materials, if they were so inclined -- they were all created digitally and they will still have all of the source files.

POD for the older material is more problematic. Most of the PDFs of older edition material that they have are not of high enough quality to print on high end equipment (or even in low end equipment in some cases). Customers would not be satisfied with the results. If they still have the original printing plates, they could do a new print run, but that's not feasible for POD. To offer a quality product, they'd need to re-scan every page of every product at high resolution, OCR the text, proofread and correct the scanned text, fix any off-center or rotated scans, and clean up all of the stains, creases, and wear marks if they had to scan less-than-pristine copies. That's expensive -- and not entirely unskilled -- work, and I highly doubt that gamers, being a generally picky lot, would accept lesser quality from a printed product which they pay for.

It's hardly a quick and easy thing that they could do at little expense.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

If you have every edition of D&D available, Wizards would just then be competing with themselves which is bad business sense...

This is why I can't buy Pepsi AND Mountain Dew....oh, wait a minute....

 

[Lanefan]

POD for the older material is more problematic. Most of the PDFs of older edition material that they have are not of high enough quality to print on high end equipment (or even in low end equipment in some cases). Customers would not be satisfied with the results. If they still have the original printing plates, they could do a new print run, but that's not feasible for POD. To offer a quality product, they'd need to re-scan every page of every product at high resolution, OCR the text, proofread and correct the scanned text, fix any off-center or rotated scans, and clean up all of the stains, creases, and wear marks if they had to scan less-than-pristine copies. That's expensive -- and not entirely unskilled -- work, and I highly doubt that gamers, being a generally picky lot, would accept lesser quality from a printed product which they pay for.

It's hardly a quick and easy thing that they could do at little expense.

Well, that said they've already done it at least for the 1e core three books; as those are being re-issued this summer.

All the old Dragon and Dungeon stuff is already digitized too, on those compilation CDs they sold some years back.

The things that would be a b***h to digitize (and then print out again) would be the fold-out maps from the box sets e.g. Forgotten Realms, Dragon Mountain, etc.

Lan-"but they had to print 'em in the first place somehow, so maybe it is possible"-efan

 

[Obryn]

And before the "competing against themselves" shenanigans pops up again, go tell that to Crest and their 17 kinds of toothpaste. As a matter of fact, I think gaming is one of the few industries that doesn't have multiple versions of similar products on the market simultaneously from the same company.

I see no reason to believe that the RPG market is similar to the toothpaste market. You need to buy toothpaste regularly when it runs out, and you can count on brand attachment. You do not need to buy RPG products regularly, and they are not widely considered a necessity.

Crest having 17 kinds of toothpaste allows it to compete better with other brands - it helps with shelf space, ad campaigns, etc, and their market is literally every person in the country.

This does not hold true for RPGs.

-O