WOTC is out of their freakin minds...

[SSquirrel]

If they expect ANYONE to buy Frostburn from DrivethruRPG.com at full book price. Part of the reason e-books are purchased is that they're cheaper than real books and the publisher saves money on not having to actually print the book. This book should be selling for $20 TOPS, yet it's selling for list price of $34.95.

I don't know anyone who is going to purchase this book like this and this is supposed to be the test run that will determine if more books from WOTC will be sold in e-book fashion. Take a page from all the other publishers like Malhavoc Press. Supplements run from $6-$13 with the core book being $14. THIS is how you run a successful e-business.

Hagen

 

[LeifVignirsson]

Ummm... That is actually what I would expect from WotC, which is not much. They are much like the mastadon, moving VERY slow and not quite comprehneding the game at times. I was quite surprised by FrostBurn and I hope the other terrain books are as good, ut a PDF at that cost isn't worth it to me... Might as well just go get the hardcover. If they gave a deal with a different book, like...

"Buy Monster Manual III and get $10 off the PDF purchase of FrostBurn"

That might be a hook they can use too. Use the Proof of Purchase as the redemption certificate...

Maybe that is just me...

 

[Mouseferatu]

You folks are assuming that you're the target audience for full-price PDFs. You aren't.

Some people in other countries can't get hard copies; PDF is the only access they have to the book. Some people in the US prefer PDF, and are willing to pay full price for them. I know of someone like that, who finds it easier to manipulate PDFs on the computer than he does hard-copy books, due to health reasons.

Now, all that said, I agree that they're probably narrowing their potential market by charging full price. The PDF market is only a fraction of the RPG market, and I know that I, personally, would never pay full price for a PDF. The same holds true of many others.

So I agree that it may be a mistake on WotC's part. However, it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds at first examination.

 

[Dark Psion]

It's been available for almost a week and has yet to crack the top 20 on DTrpg's Hotest Items list.

That is not a good sign for WotC.

 

[Berandor]

You folks are assuming that you're the target audience for full-price PDFs. You aren't.

Some people in other countries can't get hard copies; PDF is the only access they have to the book. Some people in the US prefer PDF, and are willing to pay full price for them. I know of someone like that, who finds it easier to manipulate PDFs on the computer than he does hard-copy books, due to health reasons.

Now, all that said, I agree that they're probably narrowing their potential market by charging full price. The PDF market is only a fraction of the RPG market, and I know that I, personally, would never pay full price for a PDF. The same holds true of many others.

So I agree that it may be a mistake on WotC's part. However, it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds at first examination.

But still, I believe if there are some products available, it's WotC's. Plus, if they'd simply have these people as target audience, I think the audience for that product would be miniscule compared to the possibly interested people. If you can't get D&D books around your home, chances are you turn to another RPG, if possible, or don't even learn about D&D.

I think it's more a sign of Wotc's unease and hesitation in getting into the electronic market. It's a big step for them to publish this book as ebook. It's not that probably the tech staff and other people know about PDF sales figures, but the accountants have to be convinced, too. I think by having a test balloon at full price WotC might get useful data for future offers, including customer reactions.

That said, the book is heavily overpriced, especially with the limited usefulness of the DTRPG/ebook-format.

 

[Ukyo the undead]

Some people in other countries can't get hard copies; PDF is the only access they have to the book.

Weird. It´s hard to picture people that have access to internet, to international credit cards, but lives in a place bad enough to not having a decentmailing system( to buy and receive a book via mail). :\

It´s even harder to picture WotC aiming this kind of people as it target audience!

 

[Willtell]

Emailing from New Zealand, Even at full price it would be cheaper to get that PDF than buy and have It posted half way around the world.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think it's more a sign of Wotc's unease and hesitation in getting into the electronic market. It's a big step for them to publish this book as ebook. It's not that probably the tech staff and other people know about PDF sales figures, but the accountants have to be convinced, too. I think by having a test balloon at full price WotC might get useful data for future offers, including customer reactions.

That said, the book is heavily overpriced, especially with the limited usefulness of the DTRPG/ebook-format.

I figure they just want to make sure the PDF doesn't hurt their book sales. WotC has done PDF's of OOP stuff, so it's not like they don't know about the market to some extent. I'm also not sure what DTRPG charges for the process and overhead.

 

[ayrwind]

Well, look at it this way. For any decent mailing over to me here in Asia, i need to pay around $20 for shipping. And that takes some time for the book to arrive (a week). If not for amazon's discount, the book would be so prohibitively expensive.

I know of many places here in Asia that are not easily accessible, but has a decent connection to the internet. Hence, it might be easier and cheaper to get pdf instead of waiting for slow amazon to deliver their books.

also, wotc have the liberty to charge watever they want for the books. yes, a pdf is cheaper to produce than print books, and is not something physical, but then, a majority of the $34.95 US that i pay is *not* for the cost of printing and binding the book. the majority is as payment for the people who wrote the book (besides lining the wallets of hasbro executives ).

HOWEVER, i still think $34.95 is too much for a pdf...

BUT, do not presume too much when you do not realise the constraints faced by others in the world. i live in a rather modern affluent city and hence have it good. but i have friends in other neighbouring countries that are struggling to even find gaming books. having a book out in pdf format gives us more options, instead of waiting for slow amazon to release and send out the books.

and dun even talk about other online stores. most sell at the standard $34.95 and we have to top up $20 for shipping. for cheaper books, the shipping costs are close to being more than the cost of the book.

 

[Najo]

They might also be using the book as a test to see how piracy fits into the equation. By placing the book at full price, only people who a) really want a pdf over hardcopy, b) need it as a PDF to pirate but don't want to scan the hardcopy, or c) can't get the hardcopy at al and/or cost effectively. So by choosing a product of their own that damage from piracy would be minimal and expected sales less then most of their larger projects (like Ebberon and MM3), they can take the smaller customer list who purchased the book from drivethrurpg, then find who has the product in share folders, and then pinpoint people distributing their products illegally.

This release also tests the percentage of people who really want PDFs over hard copies as well.