Frostburn at DriveThruRPG

[Dark Psion]

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1449
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They have an agreement with WotC and have added Frostburn as a DRMpdf. available for purchase at their site.

It is $34.95 (I can get the Hardcover for $23.77 at Amazon.com )
It is full color and 224 pages (bye bye ink cartidges)
And of course it is DRM (Get that stake back in before the Vampire rises again!!)


While it is nice that WotC is expeimenting with pdf. sales, this may not be the best way to start.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

$35 for a PDF?

You dudes totally don't want to know what I'd want for that $35.

It's a nice option for the non-USAers though.

 

[Wombat]

**eeep**

If I am buying a pdf, it had better not cost much more than $10...

Otherwise I might as well go ahead and buy the thing bound and printed ahead of time.

 

[wingsandsword]

$35 for a .pdf of a book going for $24 on Amazon? Selling a book as a .pdf for the same price as it's MSRP, for a DRM'ed (i.e. nearly useless) .pdf? Not to forget that it will probably cost at least another $35 in ink (and that's if your cartridges are cheap) just to print out a copy (assuming the Digital Rights Mismanagement features even let you do that).

$35? They can't even blame the high price on the cost of ink/paper or shipping to the stores like they do for physical books? The exact same price as MSRP for a .pdf?

Why on Earth would almost any gamer buy this? The only reason I could think of, possibly, would be for an overseas gamer who would find it more expensive to get a copy purchased online and shipped to his home country (which with sources like Amazon and eBay I really wonder how hard that is) than to buy a .pdf and print it out (that ink is going to cost a fortune though).

I believe what we have here is guaranteed failure. An unpopular distribution method for a non-core (i.e. lower sales) product with a price scheme that in no way encourages purchasing from that source over traditional or even online sales. I can only imagine this is so WotC can try and ink out a few hundred extra bucks from the dozen or so people who will actually buy this, or it's an attempt to "prove" that online .pdf sales aren't working and not engage in the in the future.

 

[Sir Elton]

$35 for a .pdf of a book going for $24 on Amazon? Selling a book as a .pdf for the same price as it's MSRP, for a DRM'ed (i.e. nearly useless) .pdf? Not to forget that it will probably cost at least another $35 in ink (and that's if your cartridges are cheap) just to print out a copy (assuming the Digital Rights Mismanagement features even let you do that).

Not to mention that since it's closed content, it's mostly useless to many RPG publishers.

 

[Sammael]

Pure insanity. If it were $10-$15, I may have bought it to save up on shipping costs.

 

[Vanuslux]

I have no interest in buying full color books that large in PDF format anyway. After all the cost and hassle of printing it out it wouldn't be worth it even if the PDF were $10-$15. Ink is expensive as heck. Binding is a pain in the neck. I've no use for any of this drek.

 

[Dire Bare]

Actually, I think this rocks. Not that I expect you guys to agree with me, but I think you are missing the point here.

Why does WotC care if this product, whatever the price, is "nearly useless" to other RPG publishers? They didn't make it for them, the made it for the gamers. And DRM doesn't make the product "nearly useless" (old debate, I know), although obviously it lowers the value of the PDF in some folks eyes.

A poster above pointed out you can get the print hardcover for much cheaper of Amazon, so why buy the PDF? Again, missing the point. WotC is simply charging the full MSRP for the book, it's actually the same price they are selling the hardcover for (although, of course, you can get it at a great discount at a number of places). WotC WANTS you to buy the hardcover, they'd RATHER you buy the hardcover than the PDF, print books are what Wotc DOES for D&D!

Wizards, like many of the other publishers selling PDF's on DrivethruRPG.com, are providing their works in a different media for a different audience. An audience who feels downloading a PDF of Frostburn off Kazaa for free is theft and aren't thieves (again, old debate), and want PDF copies of the book instead of, or in complement to, the hardcovers. I am certainly in that audience, although I'll admit since I already have the hardcover and (like most of us I gather) have limited funds, I probably won't be buying the Frostburn PDF at full MSRP.

And all this whining about the cost of printer ink and paper. Wotc probably only expects complete morons to buy the PDF and have it printed out and bound instead of simply buying the sexy hardcover. Again, missing the point and the audience. The people who would find this PDF useful will NEVER print it out! It will rest on their laptop's harddrive for easy reference during gaming! (Leastways, that's what I'd do with it)

I hope this "trial run" partership between WotC and DrivethruRPG is a success (although, maybe with the occasional sale on their PDF titles!). Heck, who know? If this does work out, maybe they'll re-offer the PDF's of old 1e & 2e titles in a high quality PDF format that doesn't suck like the PDF's available on SVGames and RPGNow (and that's the quality of the PDF scan that sucks, not the actual quality of the books).

 

[Li Shenron]

It very well seem like a bad idea I don't even think a PDF would be very useful as an in-game reference, it's not faster to search through than a paper book!

The only electronic format which is useful IMHO would be an HTML package like Sovelior's SRD (which I never stop thanking! ), and for such a thing I may very well pay a few euros - but not much, probably up to 5e. But I won't find a good use for a PDF even if it was free...

It's possible that the cost of producing this PDF is very very low, and it doesn't cost more to produce more copies, so even with a few sales they'll be still making money.

And of course it is DRM (Get that stake back in before the Vampire rises again!!)

What actually is a DRM pdf? :\

 

[RangerWickett]

A DRM pdf is one that can only be read on a specific computer. You have to access the internet to get authorization to read the document every time you open it. This is designed to prevent piracy, but mostly it just frustrates casual gamers.

On an unrelated note, E.N. Publishing's next pdf will be sold at RPGNow for the neighborhood of $8.