How does pulling old edition pdfs benefit WotC?

[rogueattorney]

The older products were probably pulled because WotC probably canceled their entire distribution license. Canceling it in its entirety was probably their only contractually permitted option. It probably wasn't due to any specific desire to remove older edition products.

I don't think this is right. Paizo only had the pre-3e downloads. Drive Through and RPG Now had all editions. That leads me to believe that there were two seperate contracts. Paizo, I believe, picked up the old edition download contract after SVGames stopped offering downloads.

This is all stemming from the old ESD program through Bastion press from, what? six plus years ago. Wizards didn't even create the OOP downloads. Bastion did, requesting submissions from fans. Often these were beat up and incomplete. And upon getting the license, Paizo did a lot of work updating and improving the scans.

So, I think WotC could have pulled the current edition pdf license without pulling the OOP pdf license. Why they chose not to, whether they even made a conscious decision not to, I haven't the slightest idea.

 

[Mistwell]

That may be but, years of experience running a business that relies on customers upgrading to newer versions of the same product tell me differently.

Have you run a large company where rev relies on getting customers onto the latest product version?

Yes.

So I say again, the simplest answer is usually the correct one.

 

[Mistwell]

So, in summary. The the only way pulling old edition PDFs possibly benefits WotC is that it keeps paying customers from spending on old editions and hopefully, they will spend on 4.0 instead.

No.

Many people have offered additional reasons for why it benefits WOTC. Reasons which do not depend on a nefarious conspiracy theory, which is what your position sounds like to me.

I contend the cost of maintaining overhead on non-4e PDFs outweighs the revenue generated by them. I've gone over in detail the ramifications of overhead, and how it is not just someone else doing it, and how it is not just scanning and storage, and how there are a host of people behind the scenes in accounting and marketing and executive positions and customer service who have to spend time and resources to maintain PDF sales of any kind, and it just was not worth it to do that without the more revenue-intensive 4e PDFs in the mix.

 

[Mistwell]

I won't need to pirate for old PDF's since I have hard copies of all the old sources.

If WOTC made old PDF's ONLY available through DDI subscription which many people don't need, hence forcing older D&D players to buy a subscription they do not need or want...

Then they deserve to have the PDF's pirated.

I disagree that they would deserve it, but that is entirely a different point. Even if you think WOTC deserves it, that doesn't justify a person actively encouraging illegal downloads. As I said, at the very least it harms the used sales market for hardcopies. Wanting to "stick it to the man" at WOTC doesn't justify wanting to stick it to your peers who are selling their used copies.

 

[Kask]

So, in summary. The the only way pulling old edition PDFs possibly benefits WotC is that it keeps paying customers from spending on old editions and hopefully, they will spend on 4.0 instead.

Ahem. Don't use red text, please. We save that for needing to get someone's attention. Like now! ~ PCat

Sorry about that, I didn't see that in the FAQs or what not. Maybe you should add that to intro message when someone signs up for the board...

 

[amethal]

No.

Many people have offered additional reasons for why it benefits WOTC. Reasons which do not depend on a nefarious conspiracy theory, which is what your position sounds like to me.

I contend the cost of maintaining overhead on non-4e PDFs outweighs the revenue generated by them. I've gone over in detail the ramifications of overhead, and how it is not just someone else doing it, and how it is not just scanning and storage, and how there are a host of people behind the scenes in accounting and marketing and executive positions and customer service who have to spend time and resources to maintain PDF sales of any kind, and it just was not worth it to do that without the more revenue-intensive 4e PDFs in the mix.

How about you guys all agree to disagree, and move on?

This is the kind of stuff I come to ENWorld to get away from.

 

[Kask]

How about you guys all agree to disagree, and move on?

This is the kind of stuff I come to ENWorld to get away from.

Don't worry. I see no reason to reply.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

... because living in a colony that is oppressed and overtaxed and fighting for your freedom is comparable to a company no longer selling stuff you like.

I never said it did. I just meant that if everyone fought every injustice through legal means, we'd still have a king. Or Queen. I objected to the thought that we should always fight through the system.

 

[Grazzt]

If WOTC made old PDF's ONLY available through DDI subscription which many people don't need, hence forcing older D&D players to buy a subscription they do not need or want...

I believe this (or something like it) is what we'll see in the future. I don't truly believe WotC pulled their PDFs due to piracy. (That, in my opinion, is just them blowing smoke/BS.) Imagine the ****storm if they just came out and said "We're pulling all PDF sales so we can offer them through the DDI." The nerd-rage would be through the roof. You could hear peeps heads exploding all around the globe.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

No.

Many people have offered additional reasons for why it benefits WOTC. Reasons which do not depend on a nefarious conspiracy theory, which is what your position sounds like to me.

I contend the cost of maintaining overhead on non-4e PDFs outweighs the revenue generated by them. I've gone over in detail the ramifications of overhead, and how it is not just someone else doing it, and how it is not just scanning and storage, and how there are a host of people behind the scenes in accounting and marketing and executive positions and customer service who have to spend time and resources to maintain PDF sales of any kind, and it just was not worth it to do that without the more revenue-intensive 4e PDFs in the mix.

The problem with this theory is that it is too non-conspiratorial/non-stupid. What I mean by this is that if this was the case it would be easy for them to say that they are pulling the PDFs because they are not cost effective. While some people will complain about PDFs going away WotC wouldn't have the additional negative PR of being stupid or shady. Instead WotC comes up with the piracy explanation that makes no sense. So if not being cost effective is the real reason why hide it behind a fake story about piracy. If they are going to use a fake story, conspiracy comes to mind before a belief that they are too stupid to not use the real and innocuous reason.