Edition Cycles and declining sales

[Jan van Leyden]

Probably nothing... but you are already "buying" it by paying for DDI for the months leading up to the publishing of the book.

Which is why I think WotC is perfectly happy with this new model of sales, the subscription fee. Who cares if they sell less physical books... everyone is buying those books electronically via the DDI. If it means they have to print less harccopy... that's cool... no skin off their nose. And what's probably better for them using the DDI subscription model as opposed to the hardcopy sales model... is that (as folks above have stated) they KNOW on a monthly basis how much money they are bringing in.

Well, this is not exactly true, as the costs for a printed book are not only for the actual printing. Beyond the costs for the raw data made available via DDI subscription, they'll also have to cover art, art buying, print buying, logistics and several things more.

As long as WotC continues to publish books as well as online data, diminished sales actually mean less revenue.

I actually think that the publishing model of 4e, with printed stuff as well as a subscription model, is valid for a period of transfer only. Come 5th edition, we'll either have a subscription only model or a shameful return to printed books.

If I'd have to bet some money on he result, I'd decide for the first version.

 

[mudbunny]

Well, what does the EULA say?

I will try to remember to dig up the EULA tonight when I get home. I think it is also on the WotC website somewhere, but don't feel like digging for it right now.

 

[pawsplay]

I'm skeptical of the "smoother" revenue stream. DDI is just a subscription. Dungeon and Dragon magazines, in print, were not a mainstay of revnue even back in the day. I play a MMO, and I know I let my account lapse, only to renew it later when I get the itch. The less shiny and new 4e is, the less a subscription model is going to look like an answer to eclining sales.

 

[ggroy]

I actually think that the publishing model of 4e, with printed stuff as well as a subscription model, is valid for a period of transfer only.

What do you mean by "period of transfer" in this context?

Come 5th edition, we'll either have a subscription only model or a shameful return to printed books.

If I'd have to bet some money on he result, I'd decide for the first version.

There's other options, such as making 5E into a hybrid rpg/boardgame similar to 3E WFRP.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

*blink* *blink*

I am not sure if you are asking a serious question or not.

To me, thinking that WotC is going to go onto your computer and delete, without your permission, all of the 4E DDI tools that are out (or will come out) is right up there with WotC ninjas coming into your house to burn your 3.5 books now that 4E is out. In other words, so for out of the realm of possibility as to be impossible.

Yeah, I was being facetious. I guess I should have considered an emoticon.

For those who might not be aware, here's a link to the Amazon reference:

Amazon remotely deletes Orwell e-books from Kindles, unpersons reportedly unhappy (update)

 

[Scribble]

Yeah, I was being facetious. I guess I should have considered an emoticon.

For those who might not be aware, here's a link to the Amazon reference:

Amazon remotely deletes Orwell e-books from Kindles, unpersons reportedly unhappy (update)

As far as the Amazon thing... I can kind of understand Amazon's actions. Not notifying people why it was happening, and just "quietly" doing it was a bad move, but since the company supplying the digital copy didn't have the right to do so, wouldn't the copy you had be "technically" like stolen goods? (And stolen goods can be and are confiscated from the buyer.)

If WoTC did something like this, man... THAT would be really foul play. But I really don't think they would.

 

[Drkfathr1]

"Everything" does not go away. It stays on your computer, and even on youor backups. The only thing that may go away is the compendium and the updates to the programs.


I highly doubt WotC is going to delete the contents of thing installed on your computer.

Ah, I see. I don't subscribe so I wasn't aware it was a download you got to keep. I guess as long as you keep it backed up you'll have it forever.

 

[Drkfathr1]

That is a risk that *anyone* subscribing to a digital subscription service runs. Do you play an MMO? Well, if the company goes belly-up, you are not going to be able to use all of the data that you downloaded to your computer anymore. With DDI, you have the option to download all of the copies of Dungeon/Dragon and burn them to a DVD, where they cannot disappear.

Or for a more precise comparison, Monte Cook has his Dungeon a Day website (I think that is the name) that you can subscribe to. If, for whatever reason, the website goes belly-up, you lose all of the content that your subscription provided access to unless you downloaded it to your computer and/or archived it somewhere.

No, I don't play any MMO's...and that's one of the big reasons why. I like to actually own/keep what I buy.

 

[Scribble]

No, I don't play any MMO's...and that's one of the big reasons why. I like to actually own/keep what I buy.

I used to be more like that- things like rhapsody seemed absurd to me. Yuck renting my music collection???

But then after I started messing with the netflix thing on my xbox I realized I really liked the convenience of it all. I looked at my DVD collection rotting on the shelf, and realized all those purchased things I got to "keep" in the form of VHS tapes went away anyway when I switched to DVD (and there is no way in hell I'd ever watch a VHS on my HD screen... the distortion would be insane...) As it is I barely watch the DVDs anyway- generally I either rent something new, watch something on demand, or download something. The instant queue thing was awesome.

VHS tapes just ended up being a waste of space, which eventually entered some random landfill somewhere, and I started spending money AGAIN for films I already had. Same thing is starting to happen with the DVDs (So I sold just about all of them to Half PRice Books.)

I'm REALLY hoping Netflix's plan comes together and they CAN start offering any movie on their instant queue service.

Not having to worry about storing all those movies, about keeping them in good shape, about "upgrading" to a new format when the time comes... Combined with the ability to instantly get a new thing from my couch??? Awesome. Screw Blueray, the cloud is where it's at.

Sure, I don't feel this situation applies to EVERYTHING... But the concept of essentially "renting" some stuff isn't so weird and scary to me anymore.

 

[rjdafoe]

Well, what does the EULA say?

It doesn't matter what it says. There is as much chance of WotC blowing up the entire world to get rid of every last reminant of an old edition as them deleting things off of a computer.

The Amazon kindle is totally different, and Amazon took a lot of grief for it as well - and it was a licensing issue IIRC, they did not own the license to the IP they sold.