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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steve Conan Trustrum" data-source="post: 3147056" data-attributes="member: 1620">Part of the definition of monopoly is having a large enough share of the market to be able to directly exert pressures on said market that cause factual shifts in how that market operates and exists. So, if a company has enough market share that its decisions set the standard in the industry, that's a monopoly. In this specific instance, none of the remaining companies have a noteworthy enough market presence to be a viable option to compete against the newly merged company--companies such as Paizo and e23 don't have even remotely the same market presence and selling power. The fact that this is so means you're essentially doing business with the new company, or not at all or you have to look into radically new ways outside of the existing service model to get product to your customers.You may believe otherwise, but the new company's market share DOES constitute an effective monopoly because of the breadth of influence they now have on the market and the total absence of similar influence available to the remaining competition. The big problem with how some people are reacting to the use of the word is they aren't using it as an appropriate statement of the facts of the matter but rather believe the term contains "evil" conotations of purpose as a part of its definition--a monopoly is just the unavoidable end results of the merger and not some diabolical plan on the part of James and Steve.This is most certainly NOT their only leverage. Their market share allows them to define market trends and can even effectively destroy aspects of the industry, were they to decide to do so. Their access to customers is so much higher than any other PDF storefront that were they to (by way of example) decide not to sell anything with the d20 logo on it, the d20 PDF market would virtually disappear. Even companies only selling such products through their own company sites would notice a loss of sales because the destruction of the core market would cause customers to shift for alternatives.We're also already seeing how the merger is affecting prices because there are a number of companies (including one of the largest PDF companies in the industry, Ronin Arts) who are already talking price shifts as a result of the merger. If OBS' influence in the market wasn't so grand, the price shifts wouldn't be necessary because the other storefronts could be used to create a balance in the shifting profit margins. Because the majority of sales in the PDF industry come from the companies merging into the OBS, however, restructuring is practically inevitable, be the restructuring in budgeting/production planning or product costing (unless a company is willing to go exclusive, which takes out your point about there being other companies offering their services, which then returns us to the point of an existing effective monopoly.)There also remains absolutely no proof that the OBS will bring any additional customers. That is purely speculation at this point. Companies that already had dealings with all the affected companies aren't suddenly gaining access to more people. FOr there to be this influx of customers that you speak of, OBS will have to do something more than just consolidate their customer databases. And, to their credit, James and Steve have spoken about how they have such plans, but until we see actual results (along with data on how any results aren't just a matter of the market evolving on its own, which we already know is happening), those plans are unproven speculation and theories. So, while they have ideas as to what they want to do with their increased slice of the pie, their asking for that slice before actually being able to provide anything substantial in return. This is, I think you'll find, the crux of where the disagreement regarding the royalty changes rests.</blockquote>

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