Having asked the question on why so many recent AP issues have appeared on the almost sold out store blog post (misjudged demand to paraphrase) and Paizo’s seeming reluctance to do another Anniversary edition like rise of the rune lords (I get and sadly agree they are 100% right with the money decision behind that) . I was thinking of ways to allow the fantastic AP’s to live on and maybe get repurchased without messing up the AP/Paizo business model. My idea is instead of collecting them in a hardback to re-release them in an updated improved or just pathfinder compatible (or years hopefully down the line PF 2nd+ edition compatible) to release one every year or two every 2-4 months in the six part format but to have no subscription so it takes 1 or 2 years to get all the issues but no free PDF’s without a real reprint as there would be some updating or just changes as the developers see fit to rules or just fixing mistakes/improving.
Your thoughts?
I don't think this would be the most profitable thing for Paizo to do. The APs can still be downloaded so demand can be met. For every employee they would have to put on updating the APs, that would be one less person working on writing, editing, etc, another project. Remember that it's not just one person who would be updating. It would be a team. That's several people that could be doing something more productive, like working on the next AP.
Every month that goes by, they probably see sales drop for any of their products with some spikes but usually lower than the previous high point. That means it's diminishing returns. It's not really worth the time or money to do this often. The Rise of the Runelords was a special case. It's not just an anniversary edition. It's part of their history that will boost sales and bring in many new players. If they continued to do this for all their APs, it wouldn't pay off the same way. We end up at the diminishing returns again.
I would much rather see them work on other products and make sure they are the best they can be.
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Having asked the question on why so many recent AP issues have appeared on the almost sold out store blog post (misjudged demand to paraphrase) and Paizo’s seeming reluctance to do another Anniversary edition like rise of the rune lords (I get and sadly agree they are 100% right with the money decision behind that) . I was thinking of ways to allow the fantastic AP’s to live on and maybe get repurchased without messing up the AP/Paizo business model. My idea is instead of collecting them in a hardback to re-release them in an updated improved or just pathfinder compatible (or years hopefully down the line PF 2nd+ edition compatible) to release one every year or two every 2-4 months in the six part format but to have no subscription so it takes 1 or 2 years to get all the issues but no free PDF’s without a real reprint as there would be some updating or just changes as the developers see fit to rules or just fixing mistakes/improving.
Your thoughts?
My thoughts? This would be a lousy business decision for Paizo.
For Paizo to reprint an AP would require large amounts of effort for little actual reward. At this moment no AP volumes are sold out except the original RotRL and you can still buy all of Curse of the Crimson Throne.
For Paizo to do a new print run of an old AP they would have to guarantee a significant number of people want a new version. The fact that after four and a half years the old version of CotCT is still available should tell you something about the demand for a new version (or the lack thereof.)
A new version would require significant overheads to be spent and would require a substantial print run. If Paizo were to do that they would likely never see a return on their investment.
When the old AP's run out then your recourse is ebay or pdf's. That may be tough for recent converts to swallow but it's the sad fact I'm afraid.
I suspect the only way you will ever see the old APs reprinted would be if Paizo elected to "retire" them to a print on demand scheme via -- whoever does such things...Lulu.com?...RPGNow? -- and it's possible that's been considered and rejected for excellent reasons.
Quality control is one that's been offered as a mark against POD. I daresay the 'reluctance to compete with our current AP' would be another (although presumably less of a problem with a POD-for-collectors setup).
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Perhaps since they are not going to do any after RotRL, they would be OK with a fan produced free conversion for the old 3.5 APs to bring them in line with the pfrpg rules. Other than that, I agree with pretty much everyone else. More new stuff is the proper profit and therefore business survival mode.
I'm sure it would be possible to produce a free fan conversion of the 3.5 compatible APs under the Community Use Policy.
Having said that, I suspect there are bound to be lots of threads on it for the early APs in their respective subforums.
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I believe it's not profitable to reprint every old AP. However, maybe some fan favorite can return in the future. Let's say that people loved Carrion Crown and after it sold out, there is a lot of demand for a reprint, it's possible a new edition of this specific AP. In contrast, if people think that Secound Darkness was a weak AP, it will never return to prints...
And the AP's that where published in Dragon and Dungeon Age? I would really like to take a good look to some of them, specially Savage Tide, but now that is not easy, and I would be really happy to see them republished. But sadly I suppose Savage Tide could be imposible for property problems.
Which is too bad, since Savage Tide (which I'm running) is a lot of fun!