WotC halts sales/downloads from rpgnow.com

mhensley · April 06, 2009, 08:50:22 PM

Quote from: Simlasa;294575It really reminds me of stuff Games Workshop pulled with online vendors a while back... though there was no piracy excuse floated in that one.

Yep, WotC gets more and more like GW every damn day. Expect them to start announcing quarterly price increases real soon. Oh, and I guess they'll outlaw all online game stores from carrying D&D soon too - all in the name of protecting B&M stores of course. It must chaff their ass to know that most people buy their books on Amazon for 30% off. They could make more by stopping that and forcing everyone to buy from only their online store.

I'm glad I don't like 4e so I don't have to feel bad about supporting corporations like this.

Caesar Slaad · April 06, 2009, 08:52:58 PM

Quote from: Akrasia;294580I'm busy over at Paizo right now ...

Yup... snagged some few things that were in my rpgnow wishlist for a long time.

Probably be the last money of mine WotC ever sees.

T. Foster · April 06, 2009, 08:55:35 PM

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;294577If anything, I'd say "DRM protected download available for purchase if you have a DDI subscription"

And, of course, no previous-edition content at all (because we wouldn't want internet pirates getting ahold of that stuff and potentially undercutting the sales of those FLGS's who still have full-price copies of "Jakandor: Island of War" gathering dust on their shelves :rolleyes:)

Caesar Slaad · April 06, 2009, 09:01:24 PM

Quote from: T. Foster;294588And, of course, no previous-edition content at all

Yeah, that's the REAL pisser from where I am standing.

One of the great features of the PDF era has been perpetual instant availability. If I felt like starting a planescape game, I could go out and snag it. Any old book or adventure, I could go out and snag. Alternity. Gamma World. Etc.

Working electronically has become central to the way I play. And wizards has now withdrawn from that arena for me.

RandallS · April 06, 2009, 09:02:19 PM

Quote from: Benoist;294574Unfortunately, due to recent findings of illegal copying and online distribution (piracy) of our products, Wizards of the Coast has decided to cease the sales of online PDFs. We are exploring other options for digitial distribution of our content and as soon as we have any more information I'll get it to you."

I've just dropped a requirement that all PDF copies used at my game table be legal from my player info sheet. I never went out of my way to enforce this rule unless someone bragged about their bootleg copies or something, but the rules is now gone and will never return. I refuse to support any company/industry that punishes actual buyers to try to stop piracy with even mild anti-piracy statements.

RandallS · April 06, 2009, 09:06:39 PM

Quote from: T. Foster;294588And, of course, no previous-edition content at all (because we wouldn't want internet pirates getting ahold of that stuff and potentially undercutting the sales of those FLGS's who still have full-price copies of "Jakandor: Island of War" gathering dust on their shelves :rolleyes:)

I just looked at some of the torrent sites. It's far too late. Everything D&D I can think of -- including some stuff WOTC never made available for whatever weird reason -- is already out there and as I said for different reasons and in a different content will probably never go away.

jrients · April 06, 2009, 09:12:04 PM

Okay, fuck these guys. Even if you convinced me this isn't a dick move and even if WotC opened a DRM-free PDF store I still wouldn't trust the stupid bastards not to screw it up.

Akrasia · April 06, 2009, 09:20:26 PM

Downloading $150 worth of PDFs over at Paizo right now. How tedious, but at least the Paizo store is still offering OOP A/D&D stuff until midnight (unlike RPGnow, for some reason).

I very much doubt that WotC will ever get another penny from me.

Zachary The First · April 06, 2009, 09:24:22 PM

You know, the only thing I still bought from WotC were old-edition PDFs. I'm not a 4e player, but I liked being able to pick up out-of-print things.

I now have no reason left to give WotC my custom (however meager that was; a pdf or two a month when I was lucky), and absolutely no reason to give them my trust. With this no-notice bullshit and yanking the rug, I wouldn't trust them again even if it all went back up online tomorrow.

EDIT: Get the Rules Cyclopedia from Paizo while you can.

Benoist · April 06, 2009, 09:29:04 PM

Quote from: Akrasia;294595I very much doubt that WotC will ever get another penny from me.

You know, I never bought anything 4e but still liked the Saga stuff.
Now I'm done with anything WotC. I'll go back to WEG Star Wars, thank you very much.

jeff37923 · April 06, 2009, 10:04:54 PM

Here's their internet retailer agreement:
http://www.wizards.com/retailer/docs/internet_agreement.pdf

jrients · April 06, 2009, 10:07:49 PM

That's a generic agreement for Magic peddlers. The contracts with Paizo and RPGnow/DriveThru may not look much like those. Except for the immediate termination clause. That's obviously in effect.

Edsan · April 06, 2009, 10:07:59 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;294583And the Paizo site is lagging from all the usage...

No shit, I had to try 5 times just to log in!

A troublesome thought just hit me...reading several posts here and in other forums there seems to be a race to buy PDFs of OOP D&D books before Paizo et all are forced to close shop on these.

Could Wizards just be trying to make a fast buck at the expense of these collectors? Paizo, RPGNow and DrivethroughRPG must be having sales spikes tonight...

DeadUematsu · April 06, 2009, 10:16:18 PM

Me too. Bleh, if this continues... I'll need to turn to pirates to download the files I legitimately purchased. What a crock of shit.

Kyle Aaron · April 06, 2009, 10:18:19 PM

Hooray for retro-clones! Take your Official(TM) products and stick 'em up your jacksie, suited wankers!