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The Real Reason(s) Behind the PDF Debacle
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<blockquote data-quote="3catcircus" data-source="post: 4750471" data-attributes="member: 16077"><p>Well - when the pdf (not the content, but the media) becomes a commodity, then the producer of the content needs to differentiate itself and make wanting to buy from them worthwhile.</p><p></p><p>When you offer something the other competitors don't at an attractive price, consumers will buy it. Had WotC offered cheap (or free) PDFs to those that bought the dead trees, piracy numbers wouldn't be nearly as high. On this very website, I called out Rouse on this issue last year and was told that I was insane and didn't know what I was talking about.</p><p></p><p>The Paizo model works. Selling PDFs for $20 and dead trees for $30 doesn't work. Heck - charging full price for 3.x pdf products was bad business practice from the beginning. Sure - some people bought them, but I always felt that charging full price for different media (when there was no physicalness to said media) was extremely arrogant on their part.</p><p></p><p>iTunes is successful because their price point doesn't feel like a ripoff. I'm willing to bet that the best sales on RPGNow and Paizo were for the back catalog items (the ones they charged $4.95 on average). Five bucks doesn't feel like a ripoff (despite the fact that, at the time or initial release back in the 80s, a new D&D module retailed for around the same price in your FLGS).</p><p></p><p>If you give people something the competition can't offer, you will be the lead competitor.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="3catcircus, post: 4750471, member: 16077"] Well - when the pdf (not the content, but the media) becomes a commodity, then the producer of the content needs to differentiate itself and make wanting to buy from them worthwhile. When you offer something the other competitors don't at an attractive price, consumers will buy it. Had WotC offered cheap (or free) PDFs to those that bought the dead trees, piracy numbers wouldn't be nearly as high. On this very website, I called out Rouse on this issue last year and was told that I was insane and didn't know what I was talking about. The Paizo model works. Selling PDFs for $20 and dead trees for $30 doesn't work. Heck - charging full price for 3.x pdf products was bad business practice from the beginning. Sure - some people bought them, but I always felt that charging full price for different media (when there was no physicalness to said media) was extremely arrogant on their part. iTunes is successful because their price point doesn't feel like a ripoff. I'm willing to bet that the best sales on RPGNow and Paizo were for the back catalog items (the ones they charged $4.95 on average). Five bucks doesn't feel like a ripoff (despite the fact that, at the time or initial release back in the 80s, a new D&D module retailed for around the same price in your FLGS). If you give people something the competition can't offer, you will be the lead competitor. [/QUOTE]
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