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

[Shemeska]

Have to love your hyperbole here. Paizo sales alot of stuff though stores.

My local comic shop / FLGS today (Foundations Edge, Raleigh NC), was chatting with the owner, and according to him, he's got the same number of people with standing orders for Pathfinder material as he does for 4e books. So at least locally with me, PF is doing rather well in stores.

 

[carborundum]

As a European I was torn between buying one from Paizo (with shipping costing the same as the book) or waiting a month to se if my LGS got a copy. I'd reserve one but they sell reserved stuff to their Warhammer buddies if they ask in Eldar anyway.

With the subscription I´ll get the pdf on the first day and can flip through it til the big book gets here. I'll also mail it to my group for discussion purposes. Assuming my group likes it they'll all buy their own pdfs, and each order a hardcopy from the LGS - that's 5 sales for paizo and 5 for the local shop which he wouldn't have if I hadn't technically pirated the pdf to my mates and suggest changing from 3.5 to PFRPG. And WOTC doesn't believe such things hapen.

The cheap pdf will get my stingy Dutch friends all positive about PF even before they peek inside. Then they will each buy a hardback assuming they like their peek. Chances - 90%, they're itching to buy books but not big 4e fans.

 

[smug]

I'd reserve one but they sell reserved stuff to their Warhammer buddies if they ask in Eldar anyway.

That is the worst thing I have read all week.

 

[aboyd]

The thing that shouldn't be possible, according to her, is for me to weigh the positive of hardcopy versus the negative of higher price, and make my decision based on a balancing act between the two. Her dichotomy doesn't allow for people tho choose one format over the other based on price.

That's the entire point of her post, and I think its wrong.

Actually, I think the entire point of her post is that the two markets she described are the only two that matter. You unusual choice will not be mirrored by enough people to even factor it into her thinking. You have no economic impact. It sucks, but hey, them's the brakes. When I design Web sites, I'm usually given a mandate to "cater to the top browsers" and anyone using something crappy, such as IE 4 or Netscape 6, can suck it. Will they lose customers over such a decision? Yep. Like, one. And the cost to cater to that one customer is too high to be worth it.

 

[Cadfan]

Actually, I think the entire point of her post is that the two markets she described are the only two that matter. You unusual choice will not be mirrored by enough people to even factor it into her thinking. You have no economic impact. It sucks, but hey, them's the brakes. When I design Web sites, I'm usually given a mandate to "cater to the top browsers" and anyone using something crappy, such as IE 4 or Netscape 6, can suck it. Will they lose customers over such a decision? Yep. Like, one. And the cost to cater to that one customer is too high to be worth it.

No. No, no, no.

No.

What I'm objecting to is the idea that it even makes sense to treat these as discrete demographics, like users of a particular web browser. They're not. This is an economic decision about the convenience of your preferred format versus monetary savings obtained by using a different format. It is not something where you are predestined to be either one or the other. Analogies based on this logic are simply inapplicable.

Lets say that A is the cost of an electronic copy, and B is the cost of a hardcopy. A<B. Right?

She's saying that the people who like hardcopy value it at an amount greater than B-A, or at the very least, the amount of people who prefer hardcopy but value it at less than B-A are statistically insignificant. In this case, B is $49.99, and A is $9.99. B-A is $40. She is saying people who prefer hardcopy, but would prefer to save $40 even more, are statistically insignificant. She is also saying, or at least seems to be saying by implication, that the number of people who would prefer electronic copy but would not be willing to pay $40 more for it is insignificant.

I find that unlikely on both accounts. I guess I could be wrong, but I find it unlikely. I think price points factor into people's decisions.

 

[Erik Mona]

The thing that shouldn't be possible, according to her, is for me to weigh the positive of hardcopy versus the negative of higher price, and make my decision based on a balancing act between the two. Her dichotomy doesn't allow for people tho choose one format over the other based on price.

I don't think that Lisa believes this to be true.

The simple fact is that we are so confident in the quality of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook that we believe the large majority of "check it out and see at the cheaper price" customers will be convinced to buy the hardcover and lots of our other products after getting a look at (and perhaps even using) the PDF.

I'm certain she did not mean to overlook this audience cohort, even if she did not specifically call attention to it in her post.

--Erik

 

[ki11erDM]

Print copies of Paizo's FREE stuff still fetches solid sales on Ebay - a measerly 16-page adventure they gave away freely on FreeRPGDay fetches ten dollars

3 words to say about that: Village of Hommlet

And I've siad it before, other than a few random reasons (like you don't live in the US) I don't see why anyone would ever buy any Paizo stuff from a LGS. And judging from the back copies of Paizo product on my LGS's shelves, Pathfinders not selling to well... but then they did not even know about Free RPG day... so not like they are a good judge ; )

 

[Erik Mona]

Pathfinder is selling great, so I think the final clause of your last sentence is perhaps the most important part of your post.

--Erik

 

[AllisterH]

Keep in mind, I'm playing devil's advocate here....

The whole "PDFs can be a great/horrible thing for retailers" is an assumption that I personally have no stake in.

We're basically an echo chamber here since I suspect that enworld is slanted heavily towards PDF wanting consumers/slightly adverse to dead tree versions.

 

[Erik Mona]

I'm interested to hear why you think EN World users would be "slightly averse" to print editions of products? That's certainly not my assumption.