Pathfinder 1E Paizo sets price of Pathfinder RPG PDF at $9.99!!!!!

[Twowolves]

Twowolves, you honestly can't see why brick and mortar stores are upset?

No, I can see why they would be upset, just like I can see why my 2 year old gets upset when I don't let him have a popcicle instead of vegetables.

The brick and mortar stores wouldn't sell many of this book anyway. At $50 a pop, most people would get it from Amazon or some other online store. Are BnM stores mad at ALL PDF sales, or just cheap ones? From what I gather, a lot of BnM stores are already mad at Paizo because of their subscription service (which sells at a discount AND gives free PDFs of the product), so how is that a loss for Paizo anyway? Are newstand owners mad at the internet too? How so those buggywhip salesmen feel about Ford these days?

Again, you keep assuming that there will be no lost sales due to the parent company selling this? This isn't Amazon which while they (game store owers) hope WOTC would toss over a bridge they understand the reality of.

So it's ok for them to just accept it when WotC does something similar with the DDI, and when Amazon does it to everyone, but by gosh, how dare Paizo try to drum up business in the 21st century??!!? Sounds like a bad case of the "I'm entitled" mentality.

And I don't think there will be a significant ammount of lost sales. At all. In fact, I think there will be more, much more business coming down the pike directly attributible to this move. More players = more sales of adventures, cards, dice, sourcebooks, minis, etc etc.

This $10 PDF is akin to WOTC decidiing to sell MTGO packs not at the MSRP but at pennies (Gencon and GAMA has many "game store owner" panels and trust me, when MTGO was to first go live, there was much complaints/threats from the store owners of WOTC undercutting them at such panels).

No, it's not. Not at all. It'd be more like WotC selling a STARTER DECK at pennies on the dollar, then selling boosters at list price. Or free trial downloads of online games. Ask Blizzard how those two week free trial offers hurt their sales. And I fail to understand how online cards for an online game hinders sales of physical product at all anyway. Yeah, you could trade in a virtual set for a physical set, but really, how many of those were handed out? Since you had to collect a whole set (including foils, IIRC) before you could trade in, it wasn't exactly a loss in $$$.

Finally, overseas sales of Paizo products should skyrocket from thsi move. Exchange rates plus shipping is putting overseas sales in a stranglehold, and this move should blow that market wide open. Anyone who is a gamer and not a Brick and Mortar store owner (and one who refuses to accept the reality of doing business in the digital age and adapting accordingly at that) should be thrilled at this, and even smart BnM store owners should realize that this will only drive MORE sales of their product in the end.

 

[Jason Bulmahn]

I just feel like it bears repeating (although no game shops have complained... it is a good point). We released the Beta pdf for free and the printed book sold out faster than any other product in Paizo history (to the best of my knowledge). Most of those went through distribution (hence game stores).

While there are some that prefer pdfs only for their game needs (and we are happy to give the a break), most gamers I know still prefer a hard copy to read and use at the table.

Just thought I would reiterate that...

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

 

[Eridanis]

When Malhavoc was at the top of its game, I was happy to pay $8 to $10 for thier interesting and useful books in PDF. Those were 64 page books, and this is a 500+ page book at the same price point. Sounds good to me.

THe PRPG rules were free (as in beer) at the same time they were selling perfectbound copies of a (350? 400?) page book. The Paizo booth at last year's GenCon was sold out of 1000 copies in one day and one hour, IIRC. And it was well known that the pdf was free. And game stores around the country were sold out of the book within two months or so. (No one in their right mind is taking a PDF that's hundreds of pages long to Kinko's to print, when a bound copy is cheaper than the cost of that. If you can even get them to print it!)

If a retailer cannot sell copies of a well-produced, high-quality, in-demand product to its core audience, then I don't have any advice for them. (Other than to contact some of the FLGS's in Joe Goodman's thread about favorite game stores to see how they do things.)

 

[aboyd]

I buy the .pdf., lets say I like it. Oh now I want a hardcopy, do I shell out $50-60? Hell no, I go to staples, where I could make 2-3 color, bound copies of the book and still be spending less than MSRP.

I defy you to name that Staples. Where is it? I want to call them.

To do what you assert, the Staples in question would need to charge only 3¢ per color print. There isn't a Staples on Earth that charges that little to do a color print of a PDF. You can't even get black and white prints for that price!

And at the price of 3¢ per copy, they'll need to do the collating & binding for free.

Buying the actual book at a FLGS is far cheaper than getting the PDF and printing it out.

 

[joela]

pdf versus flgs

I have to admit I am stunned as well.

I hear the LGS owners whining and crying already.

What does the PRPG pdf pricing have to do with FLGSs? IMO, it may have an impact if buyers only consider price as their sole reason to buy/not buy a product.

Edit: Just spoke with my FLGS. Yeah, they definitely reacted to the $9.99 news. $40 bucks is hard to ignore.

 

[Nymrohd]

Smart move by Paizo, maybe now people will buy it instead of pirating it a week or two after release.

 

[Erik Mona]

So why even buy a hardcover copy?

I buy the .pdf., lets say I like it. Oh now I want a hardcopy, do I shell out $50-60? Hell no, I go to staples, where I could make 2-3 color, bound copies of the book and still be spending less than MSRP.

Something wreaks of desperation, not sure what but something.

You can't even get Kinkos to print the Beta for less than 40 bucks, so we feel that the Core Rulebook print edition has a very good price.

I think the desperation thing is probably projection.

--Erik

 

[Khairn]

The price for the pdf is unbelievable, the subscription policy (free pdf with the book) is great, and even the $50 price tag on a 570 page color hard cover rule book is more than reasonable.

Kudo's to Erik, Lisa and the rest of the Paizo crew.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah Kudos to you guys, Erik. This is how the PDF/print thing is supposed to go. Many will buy both. Like me probably, if I can find somewhere in NZ that stock Paizo... although there is always Amazon

I will definitely buy the PDF and see whether I am going to play a campaign after my next 4E campaign.

Just a question as well for Erik or the other Paizo watchers. At what point will the subscription be PFRPG modified? I know it is compatible with 3.5 but there are changes. At launch, at the next AP start, before the main book launch with the rules already pretty much fixed...?

 

[Festivus]

OK, I really have no interest in Pathfinder, but I have to give them major kudos. THIS is how you fight piracy... with reasonable prices. Hopefully this will lead to fans buying the hardcover and the PDF, rather then buying the hardcover and pirating the pdf.

$10 says you will still see it pirated. At the page count, I want a hardback anyhow.