RPG Now and Drive Through RPG merge

[Wraith Form]

There were some PDF's that I could only get from DTRPG

Oh, you mean when their web site worked, or they actually approved your download? They STILL have my $$ for a PDF that I ordered and can't DL from them. Eric's Grandma would have a heart attack at the "choice words" I have for DTRPG. So this merger makes me sad.

 

[Wraith Form]

Disclosure: I handle customer service for RPGNow. So, I'm sure that there are some out there who will dismiss me as a shill -- but I really do think this is a huge positive for the PDF market.

Well, your web site always allowed me to DL the PDFs as soon as I paid for them. DTRPG didn't. So I sure hope your portion of the 50/50 is the one handling the customers' availability (and speed thereof) to download product.

 

[Mark CMG]

Whether or not a PDF will have one sort of protection or another is completely in the perview of the vendor/publisher, according to what we have been told, so products won't have protection through one interface but not another, nor be lacking it in one location but have it elsewhere.

 

[Wraith Form]

Whether or not a PDF will have one sort of protection or another is completely in the perview of the vendor/publisher, according to what we have been told, so products won't have protection through one interface but not another, nor be lacking it in one location but have it elsewhere.

Not sure if you were responding to me, but I'm not talking about protection. I'm talking about when I can DL a product after I pay for it. RPGNow allowed me to DL within minutes of me paying (I use PayPal). DTRPG 100% never had my DL ready within 24 hours after I DL'ed it, and generally I had to email and pester them to get their shi..."act" together.

 

[Glyfair]

Well, it sounds like higher prices. I keep wondering whether or not this is a legal merger--politics aside, the government usually has to approve mergers like this. Is the market just small enough that no one cares?

I'm not sure about the market size, but the such concerns are that such mergers don't eliminate competition. The new company will have plenty of competition.

First, they are still competing with print publishers. PDFs are a small proportation of sales, and are just a blip, even if they are a growing blip, in the market now.

Secondly, there are plenty of PDF options out there. Paizo has a wide selection, and individual companies sell their PDFs (White Wolf comes to mind).

While this will probably mean higher prices in the short run, you won't see huge price jumps because they don't want to price themselves far above their current competitors.

 

[Mark CMG]

Not sure if you were responding to me, but I'm not talking about protection. I'm talking about when I can DL a product after I pay for it. RPGNow allowed me to DL within minutes of me paying (I use PayPal). DTRPG 100% never had my DL ready within 24 hours after I DL'ed it, and generally I had to email and pester them to get their shi..."act" together.

Ah, I see. I neither sold through them or bought through them. So I wouldn't know about that. However, I suppose my post might be of some value to someone concerned about that protection issue, so I guess I should leave it as is.

Don't let this distract you from the important work of developing the new campaign!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Is everyone here completely unaware that Paizo has a PDF store?

Not me. I have also bought stuff from e23, from time to time.

 

[SteveC]

This is truly a sad day. I really liked RPGNow. All I can say is that I hope the new site will be built along their lines rather than Drive Through's. With RPG Now I had fast, easy access, good web design, and actually got the products I wanted within minutes. I'll just say this now and for the record: if the new site uses either DRM or watermarking, I'm not buying a thing from it. And that's sad, because I love PDFs and I love supporting the little guys who make them.

A bad day for our hobby...

--Steve

 

[Ranger REG]

Disclosure: I handle customer service for RPGNow. So, I'm sure that there are some out there who will dismiss me as a shill -- but I really do think this is a huge positive for the PDF market.

So long as RPGNow still accept money order payments.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

You can't fight change. It is the only constant in the universe. And while I can't fight it, I can say that I freakin' hate mergers.

I have no doubt that our timestream might look a lot that of Star*Drive's.