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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9851125" data-attributes="member: 54840">The irony here is that WOTC is just plain leaving money on the table by not releasing 5e material in PDFs. If they did so, they'd immediately start making money. The cost to produce and deliver PDFs is likely very low for them, considering the library they currently have on the DM's Guild for their D&D Classic material. I expect the D&D classic PDFs make some pretty great passive money. The products themselves are already in PDF in order to send to layout and print so the layout is already done. They could almost certainly negotiate with DriveThruRPG for a really good percentage cut -- very close to just credit card fees which they'd have to cover no matter what platform they'd put it on.And PDFs of D&D products don't compete with D&D Beyond. Both applications serve very different purposes. People would still buy products on D&D Beyond to use it with tools like Maps, the character builder, and everything else.The only argument against releasing PDFs is piracy and, guess what, their material is already pirated instantly, constantly, and continually. Those sales are already lost and some number of those pirated copies could have been legitimate customers if they sold what people want -- a digital format for their material that people can own, use offline, and use on different devices.My wife and I are a small business RPG publisher. Our stuff is pirated too. Does it bother us? Sure. But we're not going to get in the way between a customer and a product they want. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get our stuff -- that's far more important than trying to block pirates by getting in the way of a customer and their product. Pretty much every other RPG publisher does the same thing.If WOTC released PDfs they'd:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">make a whole bunch of money for a very low cost.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">improve their relationship with their customers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">be a better steward of D&D by supporting its future legacy.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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