D&D 5E So when do you think the PDFs will go on sale? (Speculation)

[was]

Probably one month after the book release so that they can maximize the books sales before people start sharing the pdfs.

 

[Torg Smith]

Probably one month after the book release so that they can maximize the books sales before people start sharing the pdfs.

Well, it sounds like people are sharing the Starter Set PDFs already and they have not even released the PDFs yet. So much for that plan.

All this does is anger the people who want to purchase the PDFs as they are being treated like second class citizens.

 

[was]

Well, it sounds like people are sharing the Starter Set PDFs already and they have not even released the PDFs yet. So much for that plan.

All this does is anger the people who want to purchase the PDFs as they are being treated like second class citizens.

..Ignoring the sarcasm..

1. Are you sure that you are not confusing the Starter Set with the Basic Rules PDF released by the company for free? http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/basicrules

2. Books in PDF format are notoriously easy to pirate and distribute. You need to direct your anger more towards the unscrupulous people who enjoy pirating such materials. While they may be a small minority of PDF users, they often do enough financial damage to companies for them to postpone PDF releases in order to minimize their potential losses.

 

[Torg Smith]

..Ignoring the sarcasm..

1. Are you sure that you are not confusing the Starter Set with the Basic Rules PDF released by the company for free? http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/basicrules

2. Books in PDF format are notoriously easy to pirate and distribute. You need to direct your anger more towards the unscrupulous people who enjoy pirating such materials. While they may be a small minority of PDF users, they often do enough financial damage to companies for them to postpone PDF releases in order to minimize their potential losses.

I did some checking. I did not verify the files as I don't like clicking around on untrusted sites. They were talking about the Starter Set. All the stuff they put on the site looked correct except they had it as a 64 page adventure and a 32 page rule book. I believe those are swapped. I did not do a download, so it could just be a hacker site trying to load a worm on your computer with a malicious script.

You must have missed the post above by SkidAce that walks the Barns & Noble store to try and catch the people steeling physical books. Theft is theft, it happens. The problem comes when you punish the law abiding people and let the criminals go with a slap on the hand. When you punish people for obeying the laws, they stop. It is common sense and a major problem we have in America right now.

 

[TrippyHippy]

If PDF is a problem due to piracy, why not make ebooks for ibooks and Kindle respectively..or indeed, an APP?

Personally, I can’t see a valid argument why they can’t make a PDF either, but sobeit.

 

[mattcolville]

I think the plan for 5E is to make PDFs of the core books, along with everything else, available inside the morning star app

 

[Stormonu]

I think the plan for 5E is to make PDFs of the core books, along with everything else, available inside the morning star app

Well, I hope not. I'm not into "renting" electronic access.

I don't know if its a problem of scale, but I don't see why D&D can't follow paizo's model. Heck, even bass ackwards GW makes electronic (overcosted) versions available when they do a new release.

 

[Torg Smith]

The main advantage to the open standard PDF is that you are almost guaranteed to have access to a PDF Reader for a long time to come. As I probably only have about 20 years left, they will most likely be usable for the remainder of my life. The other formats are not so sure. As the publishers are designing these books for print, the layout is done in book format. The other formats are more targeted at small devices. To make the books look good on them would require all new layout and the art and maps would not work well.

You really don't want authentication server requirements on your documents. Trust me, I have laughed at a lot of people who whined when authentication servers were shut down for games. It was like they thought the company should not be allowed to do that and that they were getting ripped off. The fact that they accepted the authentication server to begin with was their own fault.

 

[Jake Johnson]

I'm going to reserve judgement until we hear more about what WotC has planned for its digital presence. I'd be fine with an approach that put everything inside Project Morningstar, for example. I'd also be good with Kindle or iBooks versions sold separately from the physical media.

 

[Echohawk]

I don't know if its a problem of scale, but I don't see why D&D can't follow paizo's model. Heck, even bass ackwards GW makes electronic (overcosted) versions available when they do a new release.

Except that the model that enables Paizo to support the sale of PDFs is really their overall subscription model. They have significant numbers of their customers buying into product line subscriptions which bundle PDFs and print products. Those are direct sales for Paizo so there isn't a reseller involved, and I presume that means Paizo keep more of the selling price as a profit.

Of course, Paizo are cunning enough to also sell individual PDFs directly from the web site, but I think the part of the business model that WotC would need to emulate to succeed at it would be "sell subscriptions to your product line directly to customers", instead of "bundle print and PDF versions together".

Is there a business case for WotC to sell PDFs of current print releases? Sure, there must be. Does it involve bundling PDFs with print product? Probably not. Is there more of a business case for selling electronic access to the rules via a proprietary app than as a PDF? Maybe. Might enough customers be willing to buy all three (print, PDF, app) separately, to make that worthwhile? Yes, at least one sucker.