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I got an e-mail from DriveThruRPG.com today that has this in it:
DriveThruRPG announced today that Wizards of the Coast would be making a huge selection of its Dungeons & Dragons® roleplaying game titles available as eBooks on www.DriveThruRPG.com. By providing current 3.5 edition material in eBook format, Wizards is allowing Dungeons & Dragons fans to easily and legally get official D&D products in digital format. We are pleased to take this big step toward our goal of having all roleplaying game titles: past, present and future, available digitally, 24/7, around the world. In the coming weeks we will be adding at least one new Wizards of the Coast title per day, so check back often!
So, does this change anything in reguards to the SCAP ever being available in a digital format for those of us that run from a laptop?
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I got an e-mail from DriveThruRPG.com today that has this in it:
DriveThruRPG announced today that Wizards of the Coast would be making a huge selection of its Dungeons & Dragons® roleplaying game titles available as eBooks on www.DriveThruRPG.com.
So, does this change anything in reguards to the SCAP ever being available in a digital format for those of us that run from a laptop?
Definitely cool. Thanks for the information.
Thoth-Amon
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I got an e-mail from DriveThruRPG.com today that has this in it:
DriveThruRPG announced today that Wizards of the Coast would be making a huge selection of its Dungeons & Dragons® roleplaying game titles available as eBooks on www.DriveThruRPG.com.
So, does this change anything in reguards to the SCAP ever being available in a digital format for those of us that run from a laptop?Definitely cool. Thanks for the information.
Thoth-Amon
The only thing I see bad about this is that the prices are next the same as buying the physical book. When anyone can order the books for 25% off, WOTC is only going to hurt their chances of this taking off by charging full price.
Right now, this looks like just a way to max out profit instead of a way to branch out into a newer market.
WOTC can NOT charge less than full price on anything they make. It is against the law. Since they aren't having to purchase things from a distributor in order to sell them they can not cut out the competition with lower prices (since they have lower overhead). The can then not charge more or less than the recommended selling price for in print material.
Sean Mahoney
Sean, where did you get that idea from? They can charge whatever the heck they want. They may have some contractual obligations to distributors or other such things that might limit them, but there is nothing illegal about selling a pdf of a book for lower or different price.
Clark
It doesn't really matter if it is electronic or not. If they have a recommended price for a product that they give to other distributors then they have to sell it for that price. I suppose one could skirt the edge of things by saying this is different than the print books, though I would think many would disagree, but even then you would be held to whatever you are recommending that other distributors of the electronic book sell it for.
Sean Mahoney
"So, does this change anything in reguards to the SCAP ever being available in a digital format for those of us that run from a laptop?"
Seeing as how WOTC doesn't own Paizo, and Paizo owns the SCAP, no, this doesn't change much.
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"So, does this change anything in reguards to the SCAP ever being available in a digital format for those of us that run from a laptop?"
Seeing as how WOTC doesn't own Paizo, and Paizo owns the SCAP, no, this doesn't change much.
Well, the last time I was reading up on this, the "official word" was that Paizo would not be releasing it in PDF form due to WOTC not liscencing it.
As for Sean's comments about them not selling it for cheaper, I fail to see what would keep them from doing that. All they need to do is simply release the eBook with a different ISDN and then set the price for them lower. It works the same as releasing it hardback and then paperback 6 to 8 months later.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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It doesn't really matter if it is electronic or not. If they have a recommended price for a product that they give to other distributors then they have to sell it for that price. I suppose one could skirt the edge of things by saying this is different than the print books, though I would think many would disagree, but even then you would be held to whatever you are recommending that other distributors of the electronic book sell it for.
Sean Mahoney
All sorts of other publishers charge less for their electronic versions than their print versions. I'm sure they have recommended prices they give to their distributors as well. Any good lawyer could draft a contract that would allow different prices for in print books and electronic versions. I find it very difficult to believe that other game companies have found distributors willing to enter into this arrangement, but that WotC could not.
That being said, I believe they have published electronic versiosn of some books in the past and charged the same rate as the print run. Similarly, booster packs in magic online cost the same as real booster packs. I could hypothesize about the strategy behind this, and my first guess is that people are willing to pay the print price for an electronic book because WotC is the only "official" publisher.* If people are willing to pay the print price for an electronic book, WotC will sell it at that price and will have a better margin because they don't incur the printing costs.
*No offense Paizo. I know you're official too, but I believe there is a differing perception between WotC and Paizo. Paizo is much closer to being official than any other publisher.