The guy who leaked the Core Books was a:

[AnthonyRoberson]

I have a horrible admission...

...until I saw the 'douchebag's' PDFs I had no interest in 4E. Now that I have seen them, I am placing my order on Amazon. Take that for what it's worth...

 

[Cadfan]

Those who ordered 4e because the leaked pdfs attracted their interest would almost certainly have had the same experience in another context from a different document. Either a friend's PHB, or a later leaked pdf would have done it.

A leak was inevitable. What made this person a particularly bad was the timing, and the fact that they were in a position of trust.

 

[EroGaki]

I've been looking forward to 4E ever since it was announced. I was saddened when my DM said that he wasn't switching to the new system. Then the leak happened, and I showed him the PH. Now he has placed all three core books on order.

Maybe the one(s) responsible for the leak are in the wrong, but thanks to them, I get to play 4E.

 

[Zulithe]

I think the leaked PDFs will only help sales. tabletop RPGs are niche thing anyway, and it's really hard to play at a table with PDFs in my experience. People who play online in chatrooms will benefit most from the PDFs. For everyone else, I think the leaked books just increase exposure and word-of-mouth. As a result, I think WotC will see record-breaking sales of 4e. At least, at first. It's up to them to keep that momentum going and release more quality manuals and live up to the hype we've been hearing about D&DI

 

[Agamon]

Both the leaker and the idiot online companies that shipped early are the douchebag collective.

 

[Shroomy]

I said douchebag even before I saw the poll options.

 

[SPECTRE666]

Douchebag!

-Indeed!


SPECTRE666

 

[SPECTRE666]

Douchebag. Leaking the books denied us the fun of escalating anticipation before the official moment of release. We would have had a countdown, a race to the store, and then an explosion of information on the forum.

-Yeah, its called pre-ejaculation!


SPECTRE666

 

[Jon Wake]

How about 'irrelevant'?
It would have happened sooner or later. Sooner, as we've seen from the limited polls and anecdotal evidence, is more likely to generate sales than anything else. In fact, every reputable study of downloading shows little to no negative impact on sales. The RIAA and MPAA disagrees, but they are wrong and backwards.
The people who are ranting about 'DIRTY, DIRTY THIEVESES!' don't really have anything other than an emotional response to stand on. Legally, the most they could get the leaker on is breach of contract, and that's iffy if he\she\they never signed an NDA. Lawsuits are expensive, and when the net result is a sales bump on people who wouldn't have bought it before gaining interest, it's a sign of a company in the process of self destruction.

Get over it.
It's not a big deal.

 

[shamsael]

Hero.

I preordered a PHB from Amazon, and a full set from the FLGS.

I think I'm entitled to have access to the material a few days in advance so I can help my player's create their characters saturday morning and start off our first adventure.

So, now I'm wondering: did anyone actually get their hands on books early, or were they all downloading the books and claiming they were physical copies?

If that's the case, are their errors in the pdfs that were corrected before printing?