[Press Release] RPGnow and DriveThruRPG Merge

[HighmoonMedia]

Red-hot news, people! Be sure to include this in your news roundup for next show.

Direct Inquiries To:
Steve Wieck
SteveW@OneBookShelf.com
http://www.OneBookShelf.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RPGNow and DriveThruRPG Merge

Atlanta, GA, Thursday, October 25, 2006 - RPGNow and DriveThruRPG announced today that the two leaders in the digital delivery of electronic roleplaying games have merged together to form a new company called OneBookShelf.

OneBookShelf will continue to operate both the RPGNow and DriveThru websites while a new, fully integrated site is developed that will replace the existing sites. Publishers and titles that were once exclusive to one site will now conveniently be displayed on both sites so rpg fans can find all of their favorite titles on their preferred site.

Steve Wieck explained DriveThruRPG's desire to merge, "Our goal from day one has been to offer consumers their choice of any roleplaying game ever published available for instant download 24/7 world-wide. We will be able to meet that goal sooner by combining forces with RPGNow."

The merger is being treated as a merger of equals with all employees and owners of both companies carrying on with the new OneBookShelf company. DriveThru's latest digital delivery site DriveThruComics is also now part of OneBookShelf.

"The focus of the merger is providing the best experience for rpg fans. Combined with DriveThruRPG, we will now offer consumers over 9,000 titles from over 500 different publishers. Many of the titles have never been available in print or are no longer available in print," said James Mathe at RPGNow.

Both RPGNow and DriveThru will be down for a few hours tomorrow as the content of the sites is cross-listed.

OneBookShelf also announced that it has formed partnerships with the two largest rpg community sites, RPGnet and EN World to operate download stores connected to those community sites. Fans can support their favorite community site by purchasing from the new EN World and RPGnet download stores.

Shannon Appelcline of RPGnet said :"I think it's great for the rpg community that RPGNow and DriveThruRPG are joining forces. Once the new RPGnet download store is unveiled, it will give the RPGnet community even more convenient access to instantly get the best top brand and indie rpg titles available, while supporting RPGnet at the same time".

Russ Morrissey, owner of EN World described the new partnership with OneBookShelf: "This is a winning situation for everyone involved - customers, publishers, OneBookShelf and EN World. We should have done this years ago! Now EN World's members can support their favourite publishers and EN World at the same time! And EN World can support those publishers without worrying about who's buying what where. In addition, we at EN World get to concentrate on what we do best - D&D news, and a fun community.

"EN World has been a fundamental part of growing the RPG PDF industry from the outset, as a great source of information and reviews for the customers and a fantastic source of marketing for the publishers. We've decided to partner with OneBookShelf for the operation of the EN World download store because they can provide our community more title choices, from Wizards of the Coast to EN Publishing, to the newest independent publishers, and they can provide the level of customer support to which we feel this wonderful community is entitled."

"We are in discussion with more potential partners as well," said James Mathe of OneBookShelf. "Our goal is to allow all publishers to load their titles with us and be assured that they are reaching every corner of the rpg community world-wide. Publishers can devote their time to creating great content and communicating with their fans."

One consequence of the affiliate stores is that the RPGNow site which had been divided into a main site and an RPGEdge site devoted to small press rpgs will now combine all publishers into a single RPGNow site.

[Rob Lang]

Good bye competition and with it competitive prices and the will to strive harder than your oponent. Let's hope that it does more good than evil.

[Elf_NFB]

The individual publishers will still be striving to keep the prices down to compete. I never saw any real price differences between DTRPG and RPGNow. I'm more concerned about DRM. I avoided DTRPG like the plague because of the "security" DRM forced upon the buyer. I hope the new store front doesn't adopt that policy.

[HighmoonMedia]

There's a lot of stuff in fluctuation right now, and as you can image, everyone's talking at the same time. The new sites go live this afternoon and you will be able to see the results firsthand:

• http://www.rpgnow.com
• http://www.drivethrurpg.com
• enworld.rpgnow.com
• rpgnet.rpgnow.com

This is huge, and I am very excited about the turn of events. For me, this means my products will be available at all my previous sales sites with just one easy-to-use interface (RPGnow's) PLUS I get a new sale mirror at RPG.net, plus any other that sign up as mirror affiliates (and more are coming). I only need to keep track of one database for product uploads and sales, which gives me a lot more time to concentrate in getting more products done.

Yes, some publishers are not 100% happy and they each have their reasons, some of them quite valid. Yes, you as a consumer will see a price increase from some publishers to account for new, higher fees being charged to the vendors to account for new overhead costs. Yes, there will be growing pains for the next 6 months or so, after which time a new, integrated online retailer will emerge to take the place of RPGnow and DTRPG.

I'm still very much happy and excited about the possibilities.

I'm more concerned about DRM. I avoided DTRPG like the plague because of the "security" DRM forced upon the buyer. I hope the new store front doesn't adopt that policy.

DRM is not enforced on DTRPG anymore, and hasn't been for a while. The only company, IIRC, that still uses it is WotC. DTRPG has a system for watermarking each purchased product with the customer's name and account ID on the lower left corner.

For the moment, if I want a product to contain that watermark, I would upload it to DTRPG using their interface, if I don't, then I upload it via RPGnow's interface. Products get crosslisted daily so it would show on both sides in about 24 hours anyway. Once the merged site, whatever it is called, goes live, watermarking will be phased out to the best of my current understanding, though I would imagine WotC will still be using DRM as that is their own choice, not one put upon by the retailer.

[HighmoonMedia]

Just an FYI: I'm just a small potato vendor at the sites involved, but if you have any questions, I don't mind acting as the unofficial liasion to the DLI. I'm sure the other vendors who frequent these boards will pipe in as well.

[FraserRonald]

To the best of my knowledge, e23 (the Steve Jackson Games' e-retailer) isn't involved in this.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=20844

I will say that I'm not pleased that my percentage gets dropped from 80% (ENGS) and 75% (RPGNow) to 65% (unless I sign an exclusivity contract, in which case it's still 70%). I had mailed in SEP's contract to DTRPG on Monday, so I would have been on all three sites anyway. I am hoping that there will be a dramatic increase in total sales and PDF purchasers, but right now I can't say that I'm excited. Not upset or disappointed, but not excited. I'll wait and see what happens.

[HighmoonMedia]

Yeah, I just found out that the e23 site I had linked to earlier was just a mock-up put together in order to make a pitch.

I have my concerns, for sure, but color me naive, I think it's going to be good in the long run.

[CreativeMountain]

Regarding the planned publisher rate increase by OBS (formed by the merger of RPGNow.com and DTRPG) - "With the possibility of price hikes, I believe that both vendors and consumers have a stake in this. Perhaps, just a joint request from those two groups for the rescindment of the rate increase will have some effect. To that end, I see no reason why a petition can't be started to get the simple message across. Remember, this rate increase to publishers is bound to impact prices of products, both PDF and print, as well as lower rates and wages that publishers can pay hard-working freelance writers, artists, editors, etc. Click here to view it, please."
- Mark Clover, CreativeMountainGames.com

[Elf_NFB]

DRM is not enforced on DTRPG anymore, and hasn't been for a while. The only company, IIRC, that still uses it is WotC. DTRPG has a system for watermarking each purchased product with the customer's name and account ID on the lower left corner.

This is good news. I'm sorry to not have heard about the DTRPG change in policy before now....but not too sorry. I was very happy wioth RPGNow. As long the new store is at least as good as that, I'll be happy. I've bought a ton a stuff from RPGNow and only one thing from DTRPG...and even a few of those Highmoon Media things.

Thanks for the info Daniel!

[FraserRonald]

Sword's Edge Publishing will be raising its prices on all OneBookStore sites (RPG Now, DTRPG, ENGS, and RPGNet) to compensate for the increased commissions. This means products will be cheaper for purchase at Steve Jackson Games' e23. We really have no choice but to swallow the increase, but I want to help grow alternative sites to OBS in order to ensure that there are alternatives for SEP (and others) in the event of another increase. SEP will be surrendering a portion of our profits (we won't be exclusive with OBS) in order to try to drive sales to alternate sites.

SEP is very small tadpole in the pool, but if the big fish follow a similar approach, we might see some healthy competition in the PDF market, which will benefit the publishers (lower commissions) and the consumer (lower prices).

[HighmoonMedia]

Just an FYI:
Highmoon Media Productions is still considering all the options before taking any action. We have pretty much all of November to do this and I don't want to jump the gun, optimistic about the merge as I may be.

IF we do increase prices, it won't be by a lot and it won't be across the board. I might just take the opportunity to equalize some price points I have always felt were too low in comparison to other products, but no overall percentage increase. After having a few products out I realized I was underpricing some of my products and revised my pricing procedures right then and there. Except for a handful of cases, I charge for my products what I feel they are worth, and though the increased fees of the merger will hit us for sure, there's only so much I can do before I myself feel I am overcharging the customer.

I'll let everyone know what will happen with time, at the very least so you can take advantage of current prices on those items that will see a small increase.

[Lord Z]

Hmm, I find what has been done with the sites more puzzling than alarming or encouraging. I just now looked up a productI had previously reviewed. I found it listed on eight different pages as if it were eight products. My review was linked on four of the eight, but the other four claimed that there were no reviews. Curiouser and curiouser...

Thanx for the news, Daniel.

[HighmoonMedia]

Cut them some slack on the crosslisting. This all happened on Friday and everyone--coders, store owners and publishers alike--is trying to catch all the discrepancies that show up.

[Prest0]

I personally think this was a great business move on the part of RPGNow and DriveThru. Only time will tell whether it proves as beneficial to publishers and fans, but I'm an optimistic person. 12 to Midnight was already offering our titles at RPGNow, DriveThru, and EnWorld, so I'm excited at the time savings in managing our catalog once instead of three times. We also already offer our titles at e23 and at Pinnacle's online store, so we don't see the merger as a sign of the end of competition.