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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5508112" data-attributes="member: 22424">It's maybe worth noting here also that the same people who stopped buying due to rushed, unfinished work in print form are now being offered rushed, unfinished work in software form.The tools are getting better, and rapidly. I've been particularly impressed with the progress on the Character Builder. But even so, it still has major issues, months after being released.I would strongly dispute your &quot;small chunk for overheads&quot;. Merely running the servers required to support the DDI must be expensive. Then there are the maintenance costs (which are all the more significant when they rush out poor tools and have to pay a premium to get them fixed urgently), the costs to develop new tools, the sunk costs in having had to develop almost all of these tools at least twice, and the costs involved in adding all the latest material to the DDI as it gets published in printed form.There are a lot of DDI subscribers. (The evidence we have suggests about 45k; I would guess that the actual number may be anywhere between 30k and 100k.) However, there is absolutely no guarantee that there are enough for the DDI to be making a profit at all, never mind paying for the development work that is still ongoing.Developing and maintaining software is not cheap.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="delericho, post: 5508112, member: 22424"] It's maybe worth noting here also that the same people who stopped buying due to rushed, unfinished work in print form are now being offered rushed, unfinished work in software form. The tools [i]are[/i] getting better, and rapidly. I've been particularly impressed with the progress on the Character Builder. But even so, it still has major issues, months after being released. I would strongly dispute your "small chunk for overheads". Merely running the servers required to support the DDI must be expensive. Then there are the maintenance costs (which are all the more significant when they rush out poor tools and have to pay a premium to get them fixed urgently), the costs to develop new tools, the sunk costs in having had to develop almost all of these tools at least twice, and the costs involved in adding all the latest material to the DDI as it gets published in printed form. There are a lot of DDI subscribers. (The evidence we have suggests about 45k; I would guess that the [I]actual[/I] number may be anywhere between 30k and 100k.) However, there is absolutely no guarantee that there are enough for the DDI to be making a profit at all, never mind paying for the development work that is still ongoing. Developing and maintaining software is not cheap. [/QUOTE]

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