How does pulling old edition pdfs benefit WotC?

[Voadam]

I'm not seeing how pulling old edition pdfs benefits WotC.

From the interviews Leeds said it was done because of increases in piracy within hours of pdf releases and for a strategic business purpose.

Piracy obviously hurts WotC if it leads to lost sales.

The entire WotC then current catalog of 3e books were pirated before WotC ever made pdfs for sale and there is no reason to expect 4e books won't be similarly scanned and pirated now that 4e pdfs are no longer available. So the driver here is only changing the patterns based off of those who buy pdfs legally.

1 I can see release day pdfs mean quickly pirated pdfs from legally bought ones going up and thinking that some who pirate those legally bought pdfs and don't also buy the book would instead preorder the physical book or buy it on day one from a store for instant gratification and rules access purposes. Those hypothetical purchases of physical books which would be but are not being made would benefit WotC.

This would seem to be solved by releasing pdfs a month or two after physical release but it is at least a possible rational reason to not release pdfs on the book release day.

2 I can also see thinking that some who own pdfs will not buy the hardcovers but would if there were no legal pdf available. To me this seems numerically improbable to lead to a conclusion that removing sale of pdfs entirely will be to WotC's advantage as it is weighed against the profits from those who buy the pdfs in addition to the hardcopy books and those who will only buy the pdfs, but I can see this as a possibility in reasoning.

I find these lines of reasoning possible, but those rationales would still only apply to books that are in print.

How does pulling 3e and older edition pdfs benefit WotC?

I feel like there is a big chunk missing here.

 

[Lanefan]

It directly benefits them if they are planning to either a) put the older stuff back into print (highly unlikely) or b) start selling those .pdf's in-house only (a bit more likely).

It indirectly benefits them - a bit - if they are planning to never release those products again in any form, as it in theory drives players toward their current product (4e, at the moment).

The most direct benefit, at least for now, does not go to WotC at all; but to those looking to sell paper copies of older products - they will fetch a better price.

Lanefan

 

[thedungeondelver]

It directly benefits them if they are planning to either a) put the older stuff back into print (highly unlikely) or b) start selling those .pdf's in-house only (a bit more likely).

It indirectly benefits them - a bit - if they are planning to never release those products again in any form, as it in theory drives players toward their current product (4e, at the moment).

The most direct benefit, at least for now, does not go to WotC at all; but to those looking to sell paper copies of older products - they will fetch a better price.

Lanefan

I think C: In a few months when 4e stuff goes back on sale, WotC pulls a Guy Incognito and says "Ol-der-e-dish-ons? What are these 'ol-der-e-dish-ons' you speak of?"

 

[Breschau of Livonia]

Without going into conspiracy theories, I can see how removing the 3.x pdfs could offer some small gain for 4e sales - it might push those holding off upgrading to 4e. However, I imagine at this point it would be a minimal gain. It seems more likely to help Pathfinder.

Removing 2e and earlier seems to be an extremely small gain - the purchasers of these either also support 4e or never will - it seems unlikely that this crowd would go to 4e as a result of other editions being unavailable. They might (like me) support both 4e and earlier versions already, but I can't imagine that generating any new sales.

 

[tomBitonti]

Older edition players are not only those that buy the PDFs, but the people in their gaming group.

Removing the PDFs may cause some of those older edition groups to break up. That would free those other people to migrate to 4E.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Older edition players are not only those that buy the PDFs, but the people in their gaming group.

Removing the PDFs may cause some of those older edition groups to break up. That would free those other people to migrate to 4E.

Surely older edition groups wouldn't break up just because they couldn't get PDFs of old material? Surely they would just carry on using the rules, making up adventures and having fun like in the old days?

Cheers

 

[ExploderWizard]

Surely older edition groups wouldn't break up just because they couldn't get PDFs of old material? Surely they would just carry on using the rules, making up adventures and having fun like in the old days?

Cheers

I find this to be quite true. The combination of retro-clone material available along with the option of guilt free piracy (because WOTC refuses to accept payment) means that old school gaming can keep going very strong. The bottom line is that if material exists and people have a desire for it, then they will get it somehow. All WOTC did by removing older material is remove some income.

 

[Henry]

My best guess is that the PDF sales were some sort of blanket license, and they pulled the license, meaning the older ones went away along with the new ones.

I'll admit I believe it's going to be very likely they WON'T offer the old PDFs any more when the new "digital distribution solution" goes back online.

 

[Voadam]

My best guess is that the PDF sales were some sort of blanket license, and they pulled the license, meaning the older ones went away along with the new ones.

I doubt it highly. Paizo only had the pre 3e pdfs. On rpgnow I've seen companies pull individual titles before. I see no reason on either side to structure a license requiring all products to be pulled if any of them are. I expect this is a wholly WotC decision.

I'll admit I believe it's going to be very likely they WON'T offer the old PDFs any more when the new "digital distribution solution" goes back online.

I'm not holding my breath waiting. I don't even expect them to get past an exploring options phase for 4e stuff any time this year. I expect there is a good chance their active explorations result in no good new options discovered.

 

[Mournblade94]

My biggest worry with this is that WOTC would make older PDF's only available through DDI.

DDI may be a great service but it is only great if you play 4e. It is pretty useless for D&D. With better companies around it is easy to leave WOTC in the dust, but offering up older PDF's through a DDI would just be a slap in the face to players of the time tested editions. UNLESS they brought the same DDI functions to the older editions. I would use the DDI if it was for any game other than 4e.

I am not against supporting WOTC, I still buy Star Wars, so I would subscribe to DDI if it was otherwise useful. I would not subscribe to it only to get old PDF's.

If that happens, I would start ENCOURAGING the pirating.