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<blockquote data-quote="Nemesis Destiny" data-source="post: 5439720" data-attributes="member: 98255"><p>For the PDFs of the old books, I agree 100%. It was dumb to pull them. Pirates aren't usually customers, and fans of older editions don't buy new books. This has always been the case.</p><p></p><p>I don't think it was about "pushing" 4e though, as the 4th edition books that were in print at that time were also available in PDF. If it were actually about pushing 4e, they would only have pulled the older material.</p><p></p><p>Their officially cited reason was, in fact, piracy. The PH2 had just been released and they claimed massive piracy of that book was what caused them to drop PDF support. Their claim was actually posted in an <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/254134-exclusive-interview-wizards-coast-president-greg-leeds.html" target="_blank">exclusive interview</a> on ENWorld, but the important bit is here:</p><p></p><p>I'd like to see these sales figures that he can't quote. I find their claim of being able to track just how many illegally pirated copies are floating around out there to be dubious at best, however, that is beside the point.</p><p></p><p>I've said it before and I will say it again, that keeping the older stuff in pdf format at places like DriveThruRPG was pretty painless for them, so it was foolish to pull it. It was presumably making <em>some</em> money then, as opposed to the <em><strong>zero</strong></em> it is making now.</p><p></p><p>I'm sure that piracy does result in some lost sales of current product, but that's a pretty amusing reason for a company to use, especially after they had already <em>intentionally leaked</em> copies of the 4th edition core books a month or so before release. That was a strategic move, and one which I think, to an extent, worked to get gamers talking about the new edition instead of why/how WotC is going to hell for "abandoning" 3.x.</p><p></p><p>It seems pretty clear now that the rest of his statements in that interview about looking at ways to distribute "even older material" digitally was nothing more than lip service. Too bad; they blew a good opportunity.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nemesis Destiny, post: 5439720, member: 98255"] For the PDFs of the old books, I agree 100%. It was dumb to pull them. Pirates aren't usually customers, and fans of older editions don't buy new books. This has always been the case. I don't think it was about "pushing" 4e though, as the 4th edition books that were in print at that time were also available in PDF. If it were actually about pushing 4e, they would only have pulled the older material. Their officially cited reason was, in fact, piracy. The PH2 had just been released and they claimed massive piracy of that book was what caused them to drop PDF support. Their claim was actually posted in an [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/254134-exclusive-interview-wizards-coast-president-greg-leeds.html"]exclusive interview[/URL] on ENWorld, but the important bit is here: [I][/I] I'd like to see these sales figures that he can't quote. I find their claim of being able to track just how many illegally pirated copies are floating around out there to be dubious at best, however, that is beside the point. I've said it before and I will say it again, that keeping the older stuff in pdf format at places like DriveThruRPG was pretty painless for them, so it was foolish to pull it. It was presumably making [I]some[/I] money then, as opposed to the [I][B]zero[/B][/I] it is making now. I'm sure that piracy does result in some lost sales of current product, but that's a pretty amusing reason for a company to use, especially after they had already [I]intentionally leaked[/I] copies of the 4th edition core books a month or so before release. That was a strategic move, and one which I think, to an extent, worked to get gamers talking about the new edition instead of why/how WotC is going to hell for "abandoning" 3.x. It seems pretty clear now that the rest of his statements in that interview about looking at ways to distribute "even older material" digitally was nothing more than lip service. Too bad; they blew a good opportunity. [/QUOTE]
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