How does pulling old edition pdfs benefit WotC?

[Mistwell]

Exactly. Why assume a reason that WotC would have stated and they didn't? Totally illogical. We have eliminated the possibilities and are left with killing the competition of old versions...

No, it is illogical to assume your answer is the only possible answer.

1) In no interview that I know of has WOTC been directly asked about why they discontinued the non-4e PDFs.

2) Hence, to assume they have not stated a reason on purpose is not logical. They have not stated much, beyond what they were directly asked. There is no real reason for them to have stated a reason for this specific issue so far, particularly if the assumption that they were not selling a whole lot of them anyway is true.

I do think it's safer to assume they do not care, more than it is to assume some nefarious conspiracy theory regarding competition.

Also, you have definitely not eliminated the possibility that they do not care, or that they were not profitable. THAT is an illogical statement. The burden on you to entirely eliminate other possibilities is a heck of a lot higher than you simply saying so.

 

[Kask]

If WotC was going to sell them exclusively themselves again I would expect them to be pulled, but they have said they won't. The closest they have come to that is to say they are exploring possibilities for alternative digital distribution schemes.

Which contradicts the WotC Pres. Why go after piracy of something you don't want to sell & make $ on? Why get rid of a profit center in the process?

The only reason is that he thinks they will sell more current product if they make old product unavailable.

 

[Umbran]

Which contradicts the WotC Pres. Why go after piracy of something you don't want to sell & make $ on? Why get rid of a profit center in the process?

The only reason is that he thinks they will sell more current product if they make old product unavailable.

"Only" is an absolute. Be wary of using them.

For example, there is another reason in this case: Not selling old-edition pdfs is just simpler. One less thing they have to worry about. You may not think it is a good reason, but it is, in fact, a reason.

Something that seems to be often forgotten here is that while old-edition pdfs are a revenue stream, that isn't in and of itself sufficient to keep it around. Companies think in terms of amount of profit for resources invested. While the resources invested in keeping pdfs out there are minimal, they are there. If they can make more money putting those minimal resources elsewhere, they are apt to do so.

We can argue endlessly about whether we think the cost for WotC is worth the benefit - but we don't have the spreadsheets. We are not in a position to eliminate this kind of possibility, so we cannot say another reason is the "only" one.

 

[Kask]

One less thing they have to worry about. You may not think it is a good reason, but it is, in fact, a reason.

While the resources invested in keeping pdfs out there are minimal, they are there.

Ummm, it's a very funny reason. But it isn't a realistic one, (probably why they didn't advance it). Any competent business person would have have laughed him off the "stage".

Have you ever run a company with a large E channel sales division?

 

[rgard]

Something that seems to be often forgotten here is that while old-edition pdfs are a revenue stream, that isn't in and of itself sufficient to keep it around. Companies think in terms of amount of profit for resources invested. While the resources invested in keeping pdfs out there are minimal, they are there. If they can make more money putting those minimal resources elsewhere, they are apt to do so.

We can argue endlessly about whether we think the cost for WotC is worth the benefit - but we don't have the spreadsheets. We are not in a position to eliminate this kind of possibility, so we cannot say another reason is the "only" one.

Umbran is correct. We just don't know what the numbers are...and we may never know what the numbers are.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Kask]

We just don't know what the numbers are...and we may never know what the numbers are.

We don't know the gross sale numbers. I do know the cost number to keep them SKU'ed. Zero.

 

[Umbran]

Have you ever run a company with a large E channel sales division?

No. But then, I don't think WotC has a large e-channel sales division.

 

[Kask]

No. But then, I don't think WotC has a large e-channel sales division.

Do you know how static E-SKUs are handled when there is no end user interaction or channel partner interaction?

 

[JohnRTroy]

Nah. When they discontinued the scanning program I expected they decided they would not make enough money soon enough from pdf sales to justify paying for further scanning. I did not expect them to pull the existing products from sale, particularly since they went to rpgnow and paizo where the vast majority of costs and handling issues are handled by the distributors and WotC's only costs seem to be tracking their incoming money and remembering that this income stream exists.

I think you miss my point.

The fact that they canceled any attempts to scan these items should have been a warning sign. When they canceled scanning, my own assumption was that the existing PDF products were not going to have a permanent life. It turns out they lasted a lot longer than I expected, but the cost to scan old inventory was probably not that much--heck, people volunteered to do it and they were still turned down.

That should have been a warning sign that WoTC was not going to officially support out-of-print games, whatever their motive may be.

 

[amethal]

That should have been a warning sign that WoTC was not going to officially support out-of-print games, whatever their motive may be.

I have no problem with WotC not supporting out-of- print games - whether because it is not economical, because they think this is the best way to promote 4th edition, because they are following an ancient prophecy or because the management are allergic to the work of Jeff Grubb. That is their right.

However, what they are doing is, on the face of it, removing the PDFs of out-of-print products for an indefinite period in order to combat piracy. This reason makes no sense. And that annoys me.