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

[nerfherder]

Yes, there is an app coming. That's Codename: Morningstar. Lots of info on it roundabouts!

I believe that the colonials refer to them as rotaries.

 

[Torg Smith]

I believe that the colonials refer to them as rotaries.

And when there is no traffic, "doing huge doughnuts." Sideways is the only way to go around. XD

 

[Jester David]

Their legal team has already signed off on a plan. They had to establish licensing with all the third party companies a while ago.

Maybe. I've heard conflicting things. There was talk from a couple 3rd Party folk, but the content released and announced seems unlicensed or just uses the OGL. Excluding Kobold Press, which was a one time thing.
But while that's good for established 3rd Party Publishers, it leave new companies in th dark. And does nothing for fans self-publishing on blogs or tumblr and the like.

They might be looking at a different distribution method and PDFs might be a fall back plan. We have no way of knowing. We don’t know why they don’t want to say anything.

Oh Odin, I hope they don't try and get creative with something proprietary, as that will undoubtedly not work on my iPad or my friend's android tablet.
PDFs work because anyone can use them.

 

[variant]

I am wondering if they even plan to sell a PDF version of the books or if they plan to have their own format of the books in Morningstar.

I personally have always wanted PDF versions of books that are specifically formatted for 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10 screens instead of just taking the books and putting them in a PDF file.

 

[SidSad]

The pirated Starter Set (actually just the adventure) looks awful.

PDFs are a little easier to pirate then physical books. A little. Not enough to justify droping it as a valid format.

There are other ways to publish a book in digital form. Digital books are doing okay latelly. Not entering this market for fear of piracy is not wise, from a business perspective.

Project Morningstar looks promising!

 

[Greatwyrm]

The worst idea is continuing to say nothing at all. Every dollar I just spent at DriveThruRPG's "Christmas in July" sale is a dollar WotC didn't get because they never gave me a reason to wait.

 

[reiella]

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.

I'm not sure how much of an impact it would have, but don't WotC's desires to support the FLGS market run against the idea of doing a subscription base or sell-direct solution? It may well be old thinking, but I can't help but think it could have an impact on WotC's approach.

 

[Torg Smith]

The worst idea is continuing to say nothing at all. Every dollar I just spent at DriveThruRPG's "Christmas in July" sale is a dollar WotC didn't get because they never gave me a reason to wait.

Your post implies limiting buying what you want. I bought a number of PDFs in the "Christmas in July" sale and plan on buying what they put up tomorrow. I can stop honest, I just don't want to. XD

 

[Starfox]

The pirated Starter Set (actually just the adventure) looks awful.

PDFs are a little easier to pirate then physical books. A little. Not enough to justify droping it as a valid format.

There are other ways to publish a book in digital form. Digital books are doing okay latelly. Not entering this market for fear of piracy is not wise, from a business perspective.

Its worth remembering that a pirated copy is also an advert for the real thing. If the pirated copy looks like , it is a very poor advert.

 

[Torg Smith]

I don't know if this is a sign of anything, but they have only been releasing four classic books a week lately.