DDI Updates end in March - WotC Trevor Kidd

[seti]

The question I have is will we have to keep paying for a DDI subscription to access the 4e stuff after they stop updating it and before they launch it with DnDNext stuff?

Good question...I'd assume, 'yes'. Free stuff that used to be pay-only stuff? From Hasbro? Hell no. Thankfully, I quit DDI over a year ago, so I am weened off of it, and used to actually using a pencil and an eraser to make up characters and monsters for 4e.

Incidentally, I'm glad they waited a while between ditching 4e, and stopping DDI and Dungeon/Dragon magazine content. So at least a few people who paid for a year subscription didn't TOTALLY get the shaft.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Called it. It may be up for a while, but I suspect that the old DDI will not survive indefinitely -- I predict its final demise within 24 months of the release of 5E.

Hopefully, certain people will have produced an offline version of the Monster Builder by then, to complement the offline Compendium and Character Builder....

Insert groundless speculation about Next's release date.

Half-arsed crock of s--- by GenCon 2014.

Full release of a revised version in 2015.

 

[skotothalamos]

Hopefully, certain people will have produced an offline version of the Monster Builder by then, to complement the offline Compendium and Character Builder....



Half-arsed crock of s--- by GenCon 2014.

Full release of a revised version in 2015.

2016: Next Essentials

2018: Open playtest for D&D 6: "Please Love Us"

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

I'm guessing if it sticks around it will be a "free extra" included with paying for a DDI subscription to Next. If there is one. Monthly subscribers are a nice source of income but I wonder if it will fly nowadays with so many free tools for other RPG's.

Hopefully they don't just kill it off because they can. WOTC seems to have gotten away form that kind of behavior this year so there is hope.

 

[TwoSix]

2018: Open playtest for D&D 6: "Please Love Us"

The playtest promises bonuses every level to combat the "lack of progression" feeling that 5e delivered.

 

[Dausuul]

Called it. It may be up for a while, but I suspect that the old DDI will not survive indefinitely -- I predict its final demise within 24 months of the release of 5E.

Why take it down? A website with no new content is pretty cheap to maintain, and they must know there will be a substantial number of 4E holdouts, just as there has been with every previous edition. If they terminate 4E DDI, they lose those people as customers. Much more sensible to slash the subscription price to reflect the lack of new content, engender some goodwill with 4E fans, and keep the revenue stream.

 

[darrell_uk]

How much "space" would they be habing to pay to cover all of the online storage of the characters on Character Builder? Would it be financially viable for them to cover that solely for what good will it would produce?

 

[Morrus]

How much "space" would they be habing to pay to cover all of the online storage of the characters on Character Builder? Would it be financially viable for them to cover that solely for what good will it would produce?

Doesn't really matter. Hard drive space is cheap, and they already have it anyway. Bandwidth costs, though.

 

[darjr]

The killer would be maintenance. Sure there wouldn't be much, but security patches alone would drive some, and at some point those security patches would drive an upgrade of api's or servers or the network/servers it's based in. That might be a significant investment of time/money. Plus tech that gets ignored rots or gets compromised or both.

Edit:

Oh also maintenance is not work many people want to do.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Why take it down? A website with no new content is pretty cheap to maintain, and they must know there will be a substantial number of 4E holdouts, just as there has been with every previous edition. If they terminate 4E DDI, they lose those people as customers. Much more sensible to slash the subscription price to reflect the lack of new content, engender some goodwill with 4E fans, and keep the revenue stream.

Bandwidth and maintenance are both minor factors and would be the public rationale but mostly, I predict, to "encourage" people to switch to 5E.

WotC doesn't exactly have a good record of continuing support for prior edition products, though that has shifted some with the runup to 5E with the reprint of some older products -- but limited print runs and a continuing online presence are different things.