Pathfinder 1E Paizo sets price of Pathfinder RPG PDF at $9.99!!!!!

[Odhanan]

This is amazingly awesome.

 

[catsclaw227]

I should note I use two monitors, one of which is tilted portrait to view docs on. And I'm considering hooking up my 32" Sony Bravia HD TV as my sole desktop monitor instead, which would provide a lot of screen real estate....

If I'm not mistaken, unless your Sony Bravia can do better than 1080p, you won't get much more real estate, just bigger letters (unless your current monitors are lower res).

</threadjack>

I love the new PDF price and I will buy a copy to review, even though I play 4e pretty much exclusively right now.

 

[The Black Kestrel]

So why even buy a hardcover copy?

I buy the .pdf., lets say I like it. Oh now I want a hardcopy, do I shell out $50-60? Hell no, I go to staples, where I could make 2-3 color, bound copies of the book and still be spending less than MSRP.

Something wreaks of desperation, not sure what but something.

No desperation. Its a simple business decision as mentioned by previous posters. The PDF is priced to drive BOTH PDF and hard copy sales. Most releases of a hard copy product in PDF are discounted 30-50% (with 50% being the acceptable discount for most PDF pruchasers). By dropping the price down to $10 (80% discount) Paizo makes the core rules an attractive "hey, its so cheap I'll check it out" purchase to those who were on the fence about purchasing Pathfinder. A percentage of those will most likely decide they DO like the rules and will then purchase a hard copy of the book (WW sucked me into Exalted this way with a free PDF copy of Exalted 2E in PDF).

While your assertion that some that you could go down to Staples, Kinkos or another print shop and have them print out multiple copies of the manual is valid, I just don't see Paizo being worried about that. Sure some people my do that, but they wouldn't have bought the hard copy anyway. Paizo has been a long-time supporter of the PDF market and is very aware of the problems that dual hard copy/electronic publishers face and continues to address it in the best way possible: strong deterent measures that do not interfere with the owners use of the PDF combined with reasonable pricing.

 

[ggroy]

Something wreaks of desperation, not sure what but something.

Why do you believe this is the case?

Do you believe that Pathfinder will be a total flop?

 

[AllisterH]

Now to be a stick in the mud.

There's an assumption by many in this thread that "of course this will drive people to the local bookstore, the price is so cheap that people will be encouraged to pick up the book"

Guess what....This is an assumption that simply put, might not be true.

People are assuming that the number of people that buy the PDF and then buy the hardcover will outnumber the number of people that buy the PDF and balk at the price point.

Sure, Amazon is selling it at $35, but one could say "ok, I'm supporting my local FLGS by buying it at $50". At a price point of $10 though? even though it is a PDF?

Eh, I'm not so sure about that...

I'm actually wondering what store owners are thinking about this now....they were the only ones that actually were ticked off when other companies had their own "cheap discount PDF day" and this is a direct analogue to that.

 

[El Mahdi]

I don't have a problem reading pdf's. And once e-paper readers become more common place (and the bugs worked out), I'll probably go almost exclusively to pdf's. But, there's still nothing quite like having an actual book in your hands. I would have only bought the pdf, but now I'll buy both. Mainly because a physical book is so cool, but also to support a model that I feel all publishers should embrace (they don't have to, but I won't buy physical books from them either, so...). Hopefully the number of downloaded Beta versions will foreshadow some significant sales of this book for Paizo. It would be really cool for this to be a huge success for Paizo.


edit: P.S.: IMO there's really no comparison between printing out a pdf at Kinkos, and a nice, shiny, brand new, professionally printed book sitting on your shelf (or at the game table). They're Apples and Oranges (or more like artificially apple flavored products and real oranges).

 

[Twowolves]

I absolutely cannot understand how this news can generate ANY negative reaction. Anyone who sees this announcement and sees bad news has to be looking for a way to spin this negatively. $10 for a PDF will be a loss-leader for Paizo and will bring in more players than otherwise. Many if not most of these new players will buy the $50 hardcover (whether from their FLGS or not) and then many of these will go on to buy more Pathfinder product. People who were too skittish to buy a $50 book migh be more willing to shell out $10 for the rules in PDF form, and if they hook even a tiny percentage of these curious readers, they have a ton more to sell them down the road.

Maybe the whiny FLGS owners can band together and take a cue from the RPAA and start suing people who buy PDFs instead of hard copies, or suing the companies that are undercutting "their" sales. It makes about as much sense.

 

[JVisgaitis]

The $9.99 price point is brilliant. I have no desire to go back to a 3.75, but I love Paizo's Art Direction and everything else. The core book is too pricey IMO, but I'll happily give them $9.99 for a PDF.

 

[El Mahdi]

I absolutely cannot understand how this news can generate ANY negative reaction. Anyone who sees this announcement and sees bad news has to be looking for a way to spin this negatively. $10 for a PDF will be a loss-leader for Paizo and will bring in more players than otherwise. Many if not most of these new players will buy the $50 hardcover (whether from their FLGS or not) and then many of these will go on to buy more Pathfinder product. People who were too skittish to buy a $50 book migh be more willing to shell out $10 for the rules in PDF form, and if they hook even a tiny percentage of these curious readers, they have a ton more to sell them down the road.

Maybe the whiny FLGS owners can band together and take a cue from the RPAA and start suing people who buy PDFs instead of hard copies, or suing the companies that are undercutting "their" sales. It makes about as much sense.

If they had a stronger lobby, like auto dealerships, maybe they could have gotten a federally mandated law giving them a percentage of all online sales.

 

[kitsune9]

Was just checking Paizo's boards when I came across this announcement from Vic Wertz the Technical Director.



When asked if that was correct his response was:



I'm totally amazed at the price. Paizo rocks!

Cool, I'm really looking forward to getting this as PDF. My plan is to buy a book and pdf.