3rd party ESDs?

[Henry]

Shows what happens when you're in a hurry to answer something...

Moved to Publishers Forum.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Thanks for the move, Henry!

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Okay, I've gone through the ENWorld list o' publishers, and here are the ones that I hope will go the ESD route as stock goes out-of-print...

Atlas Games
Bad Axe Games
Eden Studios
Fantasy Flight Games
Fiery Dragon
Green Ronin
Kenzer & Co.
Mystic Eye Games
Privateer Press
Thunderhead.

These are the ones that don't already have all their products PDF, so far as I can tell...

So, can I hold out hope that they'll be waiting for me to buy online and download, when I get that steady job for which I've been waiting two years?

 

[johnsemlak]

Thanks for the move, Henry!

************************

Okay, I've gone through the ENWorld list o' publishers, and here are the ones that I hope will go the ESD route as stock goes out-of-print...

Atlas Games
Bad Axe Games
Eden Studios
Fantasy Flight Games
Fiery Dragon
Green Ronin
Kenzer & Co.
Mystic Eye Games
Privateer Press
Thunderhead.

These are the ones that don't already have all their products PDF, so far as I can tell...

So, can I hold out hope that they'll be waiting for me to buy online and download, when I get that steady job for which I've been waiting two years?

I think though that many of hte publisher's who have put out some ESDs still have some OOP. For example, Bastions Arms and Armor (which I'm now happy to have a print copy of) is now OOP along with some other BP products. Hopefulyy thhose will go the ESD route.

One problem, however, is that many print products simply aren't very appropriate for an ESD release--mainly they're too big. (From what I gather from several publishers, 100 pages seems to be the limit for a successful pdf) This could be solved by breaking them up, I suppose.

BTW, Thunderhead Games was bought up Mystic Eye. Thunderhead's 'Bluffside' line is now completely available in digital format.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Cool, I rather liked Bluffside. I was wondering where Thunderhead went.

 

[JohnNephew]

Okay, I've gone through the ENWorld list o' publishers, and here are the ones that I hope will go the ESD route as stock goes out-of-print...

Atlas Games
[...snip...]

These are the ones that don't already have all their products PDF, so far as I can tell...

So, can I hold out hope that they'll be waiting for me to buy online and download, when I get that steady job for which I've been waiting two years?

Speaking for Atlas Games: Only two of the books we've published for d20 are out of print: Thieves in the Forest and The Ebon Mirror. Both have been available for some time in PDF format from RPGNow.

As other books go out of print, I expect that they will be turned into PDFs as well. Unlike some older titles in other product lines, we DO have the digital files for everything we've done in the D20 arena, so making PDFs is relatively easy. (Not the case with some Ars Magica books that were published a decade ago, and all we have are one or two copies of the printed book, or even big sheets of film from the printer.)

 

[rpghost]

When I was at GenCon and Origins I had approached most of the publishers. Most of them all said they'd be doing some sort of PDF/ESD in the future. Most of them though said they had little time to get that done. I had some very postive talks with several big name publishers that were on your list above that stated they'd be willing to release PDF with RPGNow.com, but many have not followed through. Time and energy I guess.

So we're working with Phil and others on staff to hopefully provide a service for these companies to release their OOP stuff with little pain. Just added revenue from dead products.

Still there are a few people/companies out there that are very nervious about releasing PDF as they do not want to let go of their properties or fear the pirates. Not much we can do to convince these people, other then to tell them we regularly send other publishers hundreds of dollars every month for doing PDF.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

P.S. I didn't see Guardians of Order on your list above. They are releasing with RPGNow too.

 

[johnsemlak]

So we're working with Phil and others on staff to hopefully provide a service for these companies to release their OOP stuff with little pain. Just added revenue from dead products.

That sounds like a great project. I hope it works out.

WotC are willing to put a lot of their OoP stuff in PDF format; so I hope others won't be afraid to release some of there stuff.

A lot of fine products go OoP, and often gamers don't get a chance to see them; it's a shame to loose them.