DDI/Online Tools

[JeffB]

So has there been any scuttlebutt on the future of these?

No new products coming out so I guess they are not adding material, but is the software "current" to the final print products?

Have they announced when/if they will go offline?

If so, will the tools be downloadable for those with subs?

What about hownthey will handle subs if they are taken down?

I am thinking about re-subbing for a year, but am a little skittish.

 

[Iosue]

So has there been any scuttlebutt on the future of these?

Not really.

No new products coming out so I guess they are not adding material, but is the software "current" to the final print products?

Current to the final print products, AFAIK, but has not been updating Dragon material for a while.

Have they announced when/if they will go offline?

No.

What about how they will handle subs if they are taken down?

Unknown.

I am thinking about re-subbing for a year, but am a little skittish.

Resub for the year. DDI is their primary revenue stream until the release of Next. While they are no longer putting any development work into it, they will surely maintain it until Next is released.

 

[JeffB]

Thanks for the 411.

I reckon I should go ahead and do it!

 

[Jan van Leyden]

What about hownthey will handle subs if they are taken down?

WotC Customer Service doesn't seem to make a big fuss if you terminate your subsciption and send them an e-mail with your reasons. They tend to give you a refund for the part not used.

Hopefully, they'll handle the termination of their service in a similar vein. But their information policy being as it is, they'll probably just remove the option to buy into DDI one day, meaning that active subscriptions will run out, but no renewals are made.

 

[keterys]

Or they'll just stop updating it and let people continue to give them money until the machines disintegrate.

 

[Balesir]

Or they'll just stop updating it and let people continue to give them money until the machines disintegrate.

If they have them on virtual servers there would be no need to stop even because of hardware issues. They could outsource the hosting to the cloud until the hosting costs exceed the revenue. The main potential issue there is if they tied in the subscription to the 4E tools to a raft of DDN stuff, which might put off those who weren't interested in DDN, but that might not be an issue at all if either (a) you like DDN, too or (b) the price is low enough.