EN World GameStore Closing

[Prest0]

Without making any sort of value judgement on the new store, I will point out that RPG e-publishers have been pampered compared to the greater book market. Spend an hour doing some research with online e-book retailers of fiction and technical books and you'll see them taking commissions of 40-60%. Personally I think that's outrageous, but that's market reality.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Without making any sort of value judgement on the new store, I will point out that RPG e-publishers have been pampered compared to the greater book market. Spend an hour doing some research with online e-book retailers of fiction and technical books and you'll see them taking commissions of 40-60%. Personally I think that's outrageous, but that's market reality.

You'll likely find there's also a larger market there to account for it. It's not a matter of rpg e-publishres being spoiled--if any of the vendors of rpg PDFs charged that much the market would simply collapse entirely because it's not big enough for e-publishers to operate under that model. A larger market compensates for that effect by moving a volume our market can't (yet?) account for (although I agree that the rates you provide are still horrific.)

 

[Henry]

Can't say I'm familiar with them, although I noticed both mentioned on a similar thread on TheRPGSite, and the people who responded to the names seemed to indicate that neither have the traffic (if not anything else) to really be a viable alternative. But that is heresay.

Warehouse 23 is definitely viable, but they don't do as much d20 business as RPGNow, DTRPG, and ENGS.

Regarding Monopolies: not only are there other PDF retailers, but people usually don't get as much up in arms over a monopoly on a luxury item.

Me, I see this as a good thing in some ways -- so far it's worked out very well for Russ and ENWorld, and that's what I mainly care about -- but I can also sympathize with Joe's concerns about the bind it's put some publishers in. Me, I have no conflicts of conscience any longer with having to direct people to RPGNow for an awesome product that wasn't being sold on ENGS.

 

[Yair]

Me, all I see is a monopoly. And monopolies are always bad, no exceptions. Regardless of what they may promise you, regardless of what bones they might throw you, monopolies are in a position to bend you over as far, and as often, as they feel like. And it's pretty rare when they don't.

QFT

I think what's likely going to be seen is an influx in publisher-owned storefronts becoming their preferred retail outlets with the new OBS outlet being a secondary outlet. For some, this may not be viable (hosting & payment processing fees, plus the other overhead associated), for others, there have already been posts where publishers will release to their own storefront first at "normal" rates and then release to OBS at a higher rate later to compensate for the increased commission rate.

I am not familiar with any case where a publisher sold a product at a lower price on their own storefront than at some other online provider. (I'd love to proven wrong.) There are definitely benefits to a site like the OBS (one account, less fear of credit card theft or unprofessional support, the ability to purchase from several retailers at the same time, the ability to make several small purchases...) that I'd be willing to pay more for. If the costs the site takes would be rolled onto the product's price, this argument would be very different.

For myself, I've so far largely purchased from RPGNow when given the option, as I liked them the most. From now on, I'd be purchasing through e23, Paizo, or the publisher's site when possible. I don't like the OBS, smells too much like other "luxury" monopolies such as microsoft.
Not that I buy many PDFs nowadays.

 

[Cergorach]

So i take it that pdf publishers would be interested in an e-tailer that would sell their wares at a significantly lower commision?

 

[Henry]

I am not familiar with any case where a publisher sold a product at a lower price on their own storefront than at some other online provider. (I'd love to proven wrong.)

There's also the fact that trying to get people driven to your own personal site unless you are a big-name-recognition publisher is harder than getting the camel through the eye of the proverbial needle. If I started a site, people wouldn't even take the time to register for it, much less go out of their way to buy anything from it. That's an option most publishers couldn't make fly, even if they wanted to. Heck, one of the big drives to ENGS at its inception is that most of its customer base didn't need to register for anything -- they already had an account because of ENWorld!

 

[JohnNephew]

On a side note, you, and others including myself are being quoted here:
http://enworld.rpgnow.com/aboutus.html



I'm pretty damn certain you didn't say that about OBS and I'm pretty damn certain nobody else said anything about them either. I think it's indicitive of the larger picture in this merger.

Yeah, I saw that. No doubt they thought it was legitimate to substitute "OBS" for "RPGNow," since it's a successor entity; but it was going to look a bit awkward with OBS not actually offering any Atlas titles.

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games

 

[philreed]

e23.rpgnow.com

 

[GMSkarka]

One thing that nobody has really talked about in this discussion is that RPGnet is also getting an affiliate store in this process -- RPGnet is one of the two largest sites (along with ENWorld), and they have not had PDF sales before. There is some cross-traffic between RPGNet and ENWorld, but there are also "site loyalists" who stick with one community.

The opening of a new affiliate store at the other major RPG forum represents direct access to more customers. It is my firm belief that increased sales will result from that.

Again, my two cents as a publisher.

 

[HinterWelt]

One thing that nobody has really talked about in this discussion is that RPGnet is also getting an affiliate store in this process -- RPGnet is one of the two largest sites (along with ENWorld), and they have not had PDF sales before. There is some cross-traffic between RPGNet and ENWorld, but there are also "site loyalists" who stick with one community.

The opening of a new affiliate store at the other major RPG forum represents direct access to more customers. It is my firm belief that increased sales will result from that.

Again, my two cents as a publisher.

I thought they had sales through a deal with DTRPG?

Bill