Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Where are the PDFs?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Echohawk" data-source="post: 6365824" data-attributes="member: 9849"><p>The OP is making some unsupported leaps of logic to conclude that not offering PDFs at this stage is a bad business decision on WotC's part. Nobody except WotC has sufficient information to be able to assess that.</p><p></p><p>The potential base of Player's Handbook users consists of the following groups:</p><p></p><p>1. People who will buy only the print PH, whether or not there is a legal PDF available.</p><p>2. People who will buy the print PH, and will download an illegal copy of the PDF whether or not there is a legal PDF available.</p><p>3. People who will not buy the print PH, and will download an illegal copy of the PDF whether or not there is a legal version available.</p><p></p><p>For the purposes of determining whether it makes business sense for WotC to offer PDFs, the people in groups 1-3 are irrelevant, since they will never buy legal PDFs.</p><p></p><p>We also have the following groups:</p><p></p><p>4. People who will buy the print PH, and will also buy a PDF if it is legally available.</p><p>5. People who will not buy the print PH, but will buy a PDF if it is legally available.</p><p>6. People who will buy a legal PDF <strong>instead of the print PH</strong>, but who will buy the print PH if no PDF is available.</p><p></p><p>The folks in groups 4 and 5 will add to WotC's bottom line if PDFs are available. Both of these groups may or may not download an illegal PDF if there is no legal version available, but they definitely represent potential lost sales for WotC. </p><p></p><p>The folks in group 6 represent a more complicated group. If there were PDFs available right now, they'd be buying those instead of the print versions. We don't know what the profit margin on a PDF is compared to the profit margin on a print product, so we have no idea whether WotC would gain or lose by making a legal PDF available to this group right now. However, this is a group who will buy the print version in the absence of a legal PDF, so they don't represent lost sales.</p><p></p><p>In the early days of 4e, WotC made PDFs available at the same time as the print versions of each product. Then they stopped releasing PDFs altogether. We can therefore presume that they have some idea of the impact of offering simultaneous PDF releases on print sales.</p><p></p><p>Now, let's say the potential profit from groups 4 and 5 is X (where X must be a positive number). And the potential change in profit from group 6 is Y (where Y could be a positive or negative number. Finally, let's assume that the cost of offering PDFs is Z (and there will be a cost, it is wishful thinking to assume otherwise).</p><p></p><p>Then, we can say that if WotC offers PDFs, they will see an increase in profits equal to X±Y-Z. Importantly, there is absolutely no guarantee that this is a positive number. It might be, or it could be negative, making it a bad idea for WotC to offer PDFs. Only WotC has enough information to be able to judge this. We do not.</p><p></p><p>It may also be the the case that offering PDFs, say, six months after the print release, moves some of the people in group 6 to group 4 -- they will buy the print version now, in the absence of a PDF, but they will make an extra PDF purchase when the PDF is made available for sale later. If a delayed PDF release changes the result of X±Y-Z in a good way, then that's a good business decision for WotC.</p><p></p><p>Hmmm... that was a much longer-winded post than I'd intended!</p><p></p><p>Short version: The OP does not have sufficient information to know whether WotC offering simultaneous print/PDF releases is a good business decision. Jumping to that conclusion based on a personal desire to have a legal PDF does not make it true.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Echohawk, post: 6365824, member: 9849"] The OP is making some unsupported leaps of logic to conclude that not offering PDFs at this stage is a bad business decision on WotC's part. Nobody except WotC has sufficient information to be able to assess that. The potential base of Player's Handbook users consists of the following groups: 1. People who will buy only the print PH, whether or not there is a legal PDF available. 2. People who will buy the print PH, and will download an illegal copy of the PDF whether or not there is a legal PDF available. 3. People who will not buy the print PH, and will download an illegal copy of the PDF whether or not there is a legal version available. For the purposes of determining whether it makes business sense for WotC to offer PDFs, the people in groups 1-3 are irrelevant, since they will never buy legal PDFs. We also have the following groups: 4. People who will buy the print PH, and will also buy a PDF if it is legally available. 5. People who will not buy the print PH, but will buy a PDF if it is legally available. 6. People who will buy a legal PDF [b]instead of the print PH[/b], but who will buy the print PH if no PDF is available. The folks in groups 4 and 5 will add to WotC's bottom line if PDFs are available. Both of these groups may or may not download an illegal PDF if there is no legal version available, but they definitely represent potential lost sales for WotC. The folks in group 6 represent a more complicated group. If there were PDFs available right now, they'd be buying those instead of the print versions. We don't know what the profit margin on a PDF is compared to the profit margin on a print product, so we have no idea whether WotC would gain or lose by making a legal PDF available to this group right now. However, this is a group who will buy the print version in the absence of a legal PDF, so they don't represent lost sales. In the early days of 4e, WotC made PDFs available at the same time as the print versions of each product. Then they stopped releasing PDFs altogether. We can therefore presume that they have some idea of the impact of offering simultaneous PDF releases on print sales. Now, let's say the potential profit from groups 4 and 5 is X (where X must be a positive number). And the potential change in profit from group 6 is Y (where Y could be a positive or negative number. Finally, let's assume that the cost of offering PDFs is Z (and there will be a cost, it is wishful thinking to assume otherwise). Then, we can say that if WotC offers PDFs, they will see an increase in profits equal to X±Y-Z. Importantly, there is absolutely no guarantee that this is a positive number. It might be, or it could be negative, making it a bad idea for WotC to offer PDFs. Only WotC has enough information to be able to judge this. We do not. It may also be the the case that offering PDFs, say, six months after the print release, moves some of the people in group 6 to group 4 -- they will buy the print version now, in the absence of a PDF, but they will make an extra PDF purchase when the PDF is made available for sale later. If a delayed PDF release changes the result of X±Y-Z in a good way, then that's a good business decision for WotC. Hmmm... that was a much longer-winded post than I'd intended! Short version: The OP does not have sufficient information to know whether WotC offering simultaneous print/PDF releases is a good business decision. Jumping to that conclusion based on a personal desire to have a legal PDF does not make it true. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Where are the PDFs?
Top