It's been quite a few years since I first set the price on OVA, and it's hard to ignore that the economy is in a different place than it was in 2005. While the eventual price of the book will depend on many factors, ranging from decisions regarding color, binding, publisher, and countless other details, I have a lot more leeway deciding on the PDF price.
Originally, I was pretty firm on the idea that OVA would be a $20 book, and that a PDF should never retail for more than half of the print book's price. At the time, it was pretty standard for the big guys to release PDFs retailing at the print prices. This struck me as beyond ridiculous. You're not paying for paper, printing, binding, or shipping, but you're charging the same thing? Wha?
But OVA may not be $20 anymore. Books are getting more expensive to produce, especially if I make the leap to full-color and expand its page count. This isn't even mentioning that I'm spending significantly more on the art. So what is a PDF worth? I've seen similar products (of kin theme, size, and arguably production values) consistently retail for $15-16. This seems a bit stiff to me, but even the cost to produce a PDF has gone up, with most of the retail spaces taking an extra 10-15% than they did when I first made OVA. But OVA's affordability has always been one of its strengths, and it's something I'd hate to lose to satiate a bottom line.
So readers, what I'm asking here is for your honest experiences. What is the most you've paid for an RPG PDF? Did you feel cheated? Likewise, what was the biggest bargain on a PDF? What is the delicate price point that seems appropriate to you, not too little but not too much?
Of course, I realize asking the consumer what they'd like to pay is sort of a conflict of interests, but you guys are a mature bunch, right?
...right?
I dont really buy .pdf's much but the best bargains are usually the ones where they throw in a .pdf copy as part of a bundle deal with the print version(starblazers is a good example of this) as for a price for the print version you could still stay fairly cheap if you aim for the $25-30 range.
ReplyDeleteMost I spent was 12.99, for a Battlelords suppliment. The print verssion only cost $18, but I needed the pdf that game day (shipping just wouldn't work). I like to have both print and Pdf, one for the table, and one I can print pages off and mark up without fear of being trashed. Because of the re-use factor of PDFs I think they have value worth while, however only having to pay 9-10 bucks for an outstanding game is a huge bargain.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the bundle option, 30 with a pdf copy sound reasonable, I'll bite.
As a comparison, the new D&D core books are $35 print with the supplemental books at $30.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the PDF at 20, print at 30, and a bundle (w/extra goodies) at 40?
I just paid $80.00 for the HERO System 6th Edition bundle (two books with PDF copies of both). Admittedly it's about on the opposite scale of game systems from OVA......
ReplyDeleteWith what I've seen of OVA so far, I wouldn't mind paying $20 for the PDF, and I'd be more than happy to buy a bundle (book and PDF) for $35-$45.
What sort of page count are we talking about?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't buy it if you go over $30. I was already skeptical at $20.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's impossible to know the final page count before typesetting, a process that requires the artwork in its entirety to completely do, I'm estimating with the new material and slightly shorter text block that it will end up around 156. I never felt OVA was the kind of game to benefit from a textbook length, and it certainly won't be any time soon. :)
ReplyDeleteIn any case, while I'm pleasantly surprised by some of your monetary devotion, I can guarantee you that you won't be seeing a $20+ PDF. Hopefully, the print version wouldn't push past $25, but that's something we'll just have to see about.
And also, while I wouldn't buy a PDF/print bundle, I would gladly buy a bundle with a small book of like 3 premade adventures or extra characters for over $30 (print). Then again I don't know how many characters you already include.
ReplyDeletehaha, second n00b post. hi!
would gladly pay 25-30 print, 20-25 pdf - I know the system is awesome and want to support it. May be harder to attract new players at that price tho :(
ReplyDeleteWould buy a print+pdf bundle in a heartbeat, since I will probably want both for my games.
Looking at my previous orders from DriveThruRPG, my biggest recent PDF purchase was $16 each for large high-production hardbacks (Exalted 2e Lunars and Sidereals to be specific) and $10 each for low-end simple games (Jaws of the Six Serpents and Barbarians of Lemuria).
ReplyDeleteRegarding bundles, I paid $30 for Spirit of the Century softcover +$5 for the pdf. So "book price +$5" might be a good way to go for a bundle deal.
I've paid full retail price for PDFs before, quite often. I'd pay the same for OVA. I don't really buy into the notion that the lack of "real" paper should reduce the price. For me, PDFs bring alot of bonuses that paper doesn't: Portability, searchability, and the ability to back up my purchase.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate everyone's pledge of support for OVA. It certainly makes me more comfortable bumping up the PDF price, at least a little. :)
ReplyDeleteA PDF at the $20 range isn't a problem.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting conversation so far. I love the game, I still have the original first printing. I will pay a reasonable price for the PDF, and as for the print, anything below $45 is A-OK.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the cost of printing - but a paperback of this size and quality $20-$28 does not seem unreasonable.
ReplyDeletePDF $16-$22?
I personally would probably pay $25 to $30 for a print version and about $15 to $20 for the pdf.
ReplyDeleteI can easily see how a $20 cover price could be problematic these days. I've also always wondered why full color in what's essentially a textbook and reference book is THAT big a deal to the majority of the audience, though... For a B&W copy, I'd think $25 would be reasonably cheap these days. For color, I unfortunately don't see how you could turn a profit if it weren't $30...
ReplyDeleteAs for a PDF, the thing about them that makes people feel that they should be cheaper is the perception, and correct me if I'm wrong in it, that the overhead for an electronic product is necessarily far less than the materials plus overhead for a physical book. Paper and physical publishing and distribution are so expensive, in fact, that I'd expect there to be a larger profit margin on the PDF than on the book even if you charged half the cover price of the physical version ($12-$15 in the case of my suggestions).
Be sure to include obvious contact information in your PDF that a merely potential customer can use, to help offset the downside of electronic distribution from a publisher's perspective. -- Pteryx
I pretty much defer to the Pathfinder RPG pdf... Its 576-pages and full color for $10. Thinking about this makes it hard to sell me pdfs in general.
ReplyDelete