Home
 

WOTC Suspends Sales, Re-Downloads of All Downloadable Products

 
aeon — Mon, 2009-04-06 23:35

From the front page of RPGNow.com: "Wizards of the Coast has instructed us to suspend all sales and downloads of Wizards of the Coast titles. Unfortunately, this includes offering download access to previously purchased Wizards of the Coast titles. We are in discussions with Wizards about their decision to change their approach to digital sales of their titles and will post more information as we have it. If you would like to let Wizards know your opinion on offering D&D titles for download, we suggest the D&D Message Boards found here (linked to gleemax)."

A post on the Gleemax forums would seem to indicate that the issue was one of piracy:

Hey all. I wanted to step in and add shine a mote of light on the subject.

Unfortunately, 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.

Trevor Kidd
Community Team
Wizards of the Coast

An ENWorld post points out that WOTC filed three copyright infringement suits today. According to that press release:

“Violations of our copyrights and piracy of our products hurt not only Wizards of the Coast’s financial health but also the health of whole gaming community including retailers and players,” said Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast. “We have brought these suits to stop the illegal activities of these defendants, and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

Posts on the Paizo Forums seem to indicate that this decision will affect all online retailers, and not just RPGNow, and will include not only 4th Edition product but all older product as well. The formal Paizo announcement reads as follows:

Dear paizo.com customer,

Wizards of the Coast has notified us that we may no longer sell or distribute their PDF products. Accordingly, after April 6 at 11:59 PM Pacific time, Wizards of the Coast PDFs will no longer be available for purchase on paizo.com; after noon on April 7, you will no longer be able to download Wizards of the Coast PDFs that you have already purchased, so please make sure you have downloaded all purchased PDFs by that time.

We thank you for your patronage of paizo.com. Please check out our other downloads at paizo.com/store/downloads.

Sincerely yours,

The Paizo Customer Service Team

Apparently coincidentally, WOTC today announced a new Internet Sales Policy which, according to a press release, establishes "clear guidelines for online sales of Wizards’ product, and requires that retailers register with Wizards by signing an Authorized Internet Dealer Agreement." The agreement, in part, reads as follows:

"At all times You will maintain at least one (1) Retail Location primarily selling adventure/hobby games, comics, models/collectibles, or collector cards directly to Consumers.marketing materials for your Retail Location(s) and Authorized Retail Websites, provided, that such Authorized Retailer Logo solely appears in the lower left"

However WOTC sources have said that the "cesation of PDF sales has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet Sales Policy. I know it's the 6th of April and I can definitely see how the two would appear linked, but the truth is, this is a completely seperate matter." (sic)

More details as we get them.

zipdrive — Tue, 2009-04-07 20:32

This is also true of Paizo. Today I got this in the mail:

Wizards of the Coast has notified us that we may no longer sell or distribute their PDF products. Accordingly, after April 6 at 11:59 PM Pacific time, Wizards of the Coast PDFs will no longer be available for purchase on paizo.com; after noon on April 7, you will no longer be able to download Wizards of the Coast PDFs that you have already purchased, so please make sure you have downloaded all purchased PDFs by that time.
zipdrive — Tue, 2009-04-07 20:45

A little research brought up the following:

From ENworld forums, WotC_Trevor says:

Hey all. I wanted to step in and shine a mote of light on the subject. First off, this cesation of PDF sales has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet Sales Policy. I know it's the 6th of April and I can definitely see how the two would appear linked, but the truth is, this is a completely seperate matter.

Unfortunately, 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.
Last edited by WotC_Trevor; Today at 12:46 AM.. Reason: removed unnecessary words

This follows up on this bit of news (also from ENworld):

Wizards of the Coast Sues Eight For Copyright Infringement "Wizards of the Coast LLC today filed three lawsuits in US
District Court for the Western District of Washington against eight individuals, including named defendants located in the United States, Poland and the Philippines, for copyright infringement of its recently-released Dungeons & Dragons® Player's Handbook® 2. The lawsuits allege that the defendants illegally distributed the Player's Handbook 2 via free file-sharing websites and that these illicit uploads resulted in a substantial number of lost sales and lost revenue to Wizards of the Coast.

"Violations of our copyrights and piracy of our products hurt not only Wizards of the Coast's financial health but also the health of whole gaming community including retailers and players, said Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast. We have brought these suits to stop the illegal activities of these defendants, and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing."

The complaint alleges, among other things, that one or more of the defendants purchased digital copies of Player's Handbook 2 and then illegally posted the copies onto popular file-sharing sites for free access and download by the general public."

I hope this makes it clearer.

Anonymous (not verified) — Wed, 2009-04-08 04:52

Sorry, that's baloney.

Illegal PDFs of ALL editions, even 4th edition are all over the internet.

Suspending sales of PDFs will most definitely affect WotC because they will not be selling
them, which I suspect is their plan anyways... if you catch my drift.

Anonymous (not verified) — Wed, 2009-04-08 12:57

WotC's awesome anti-piracy tactic: let's stop selling things!

I'm sure that will totally work like a charm.

Cyndane (not verified) — Fri, 2009-04-10 00:06

I like how the day that the 4e pdfs are no longer for sale White Wolf puts up the core rulebook for Exalted up for free download. Whether or not this is deliberate thumbing of noses at WotC, I like to think it is because it's funny to me.

aeon — Sat, 2009-04-11 21:40

RPGNow has worked out a "Download Recovery Day". Email from them follows:

Greetings Valued Customer,

By now, you have probably learned that Wizards of the Coast recently decided to cease the sale of digital download versions of their books. This means that RPGNow and DriveThruRPG will no longer be able to offer you future downloads of Wizards titles you have purchased.

We are offering you a final 24-hour period in which to re-download copies of any Wizards of the Coast files you have purchased from us in the past. If there are any titles you purchased, and you need a new copy of the file for your personal archive, this is your last chance to get it.

This 24-hour period will begin at 10:00 AM EST (U.S.A. Eastern Time Zone), Wednesday, April 15th and will conclude at 10:00 AM EST on Tuesday, April 16th.

During this time you may visit DriveThruRPG ! or RPGNow, log in, and click the My Account link found in the upper right corner of the site.

Tithian — Sun, 2009-08-30 17:57

Strange move.

If Wizards wants to expand the market, they should be focused on making the game more accessible to casual gamers. The reality is that GM/DMs tend to buy a lot of books, while Players, being far less committed to the game, often baulk at buying anything. For those casual players who are just dipping their toes into RPGs, the pdf is the best way to get them engaged. If a DM gives a pdf to every player in his group, chances are, at least one of them will be inspired enough to go out and buy the book. If he later becomes a DM himself, he'll start buying a lot of books.

Personally I find it incredibly difficult to convince a newbie (or a potential convert to a new system) to play after he learns he must buy and read a book. At that point, too many a potential player decides its too much of a chore and quits the game. A pdf, on the other hand, empowers them, and makes them enthusiastic about the game.