Industry Responds to Wizard’s PDF Revocation

Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast

No doubt everyone has heard of the brash move Wizards of Coast made late Monday night (April 6th, 2009) when they decided to yank all PDF sales, without notice, from vendors like Paizo, DriveThruRPG, and RPGNow.  They say it was to fight piracy, which anyone with a lick of intelligence knows won’t put a dent in piracy.  So I imagine it is just a move in a much larger game.  I’ll not comment about the details, but if you haven’t caught some of the articles commenting on Wizards’ actions, here is a list of the ones I think are useful:

Manufacturers Giving Some PDF Love

The thing is, I wasn’t even going to deign to comment about Wizards, because the internet has definitely been saturated with posts, threads, and comments about the stunt.  BUT, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  In response to Wizards’ actions (which has garnered itself the auspicious title of PDFgate), many other publishers decided to give hobbyists some love, PDF style.

I believe first out of the gate was Rogue Games, which made a pledge to continue PDF sales and treat the gamer with respect.  Its pledge can be seen at the Game Publishers Association site as well as on the Rogue’s blog.

Then I caught wind of White Wolf’s statement to continue producing PDFs and their offer for a free Exalted 2nd Edition download as well as a onetime 10% discount on any White Wolf titles at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

The rest of these offers I actually lifted from Zachary Houghton of the RPG Blog II (I’m sure he won’t mind me spreading the word):

But why stop there?  Now that the old editions of Dungeons & Dragons are no longer available for legal download, I think now is an excellent time to mention all the stuff the Old School Renaissance is making that is available in what else? PDF!  Oh, and to boot, much of this F-R-E-E!

As a community, I say we should show Wizards that we appreciate a publisher who is still in touch with the hobbyists and that is smart enough to know that yanking digital sales will not hinder the pirates (anyone hear of a scanner or advance dev copies?).

Listening to: The 69 Eyes – Motor City Resurrection – Science Gone Too Far

10 thoughts on “Industry Responds to Wizard’s PDF Revocation

  1. @Greywulf: Hehe, thanks for stopping by!

    @Vulcan Stev: Your welcome, though I stole most of them from Zachary of the RPG Blog II.

  2. @Questing: I Capital L Love that idea! Wonder if the community of RPG publishers feel the same!

    @MadBrew: Nice touch adding the retro-clones to the list!

    Zachary’s last blog post..Discussion: Gaming Companies That Get It Right

  3. @Questing GM: I dig the cutomer appreciation day, you should format some kind of email to the publishers that is both a thank you and a proposal to continue the love, every year.

    @Zachary: Thanks! Like if there was ever a time for the Old School Renaissance to make a big move, it is now. Capitalize on Wizard’s mistake!

    @Helmsman: As long as the message is getting out, it doesn’t matter how nice you say it (and I read your post and it was presented just fine).

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