Top screen shot was from 10:06 AM this morning.Bottom screen shot was from 10:51 this morning.
It looks like they are trying to keep the WotC releases from squeezing out the indie releases on the Hottest Items lists.
Same happened at RPGNow, but I didn't think of grabbing the screen shot until the moment had passed.
I don't blame OBS for doing this at all. The WotC stuff will sell no matter where it falls on a list (or fails to fall depending on how they work it) but placement on these lists can be the bread and butter of indie sales.
Falling of the list means slowing sales, and that hurts both the indies and OBS.
And just as I was about to hit send, the first list is back up - it looks like there is some major tweaking going on behind the scenes.
RPGNow's current list is WotC free. Let's see how long that lasts ;)
The real test will be of course to see what happens when the Player's Handbook for 4e is back on OBS.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day it was the juggernaut that nocked everything out of the top 3. I remember because the week it was released the top 3 were all 4e and #4 was my Ghosts of Albion.
When/If it goes back up and it is in the top 100 then they are using numbers from the pre-purge days.
I completely disagree. Sales charts should be honest. Saying otherwise is accusing people of being sheep and too stupid to make their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteIf indie stuff is good (and some of it is) it deserves to rise and fall on its own merits. Subsidies of any kind lead to market weirdness which in turn serves no one well in the long run.
And what the hell is OBS? Please, explain your acromyms on first usage in an article.
ReplyDeleteAlso super-outraged. So much for western civilization.
Delete@Malgrim - calm yourself. OBS is OneBookShelf, the parent company of RPGNow and DrivethruRPG.
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing was seeing WotC on the "Top 100 Small Press" list.
ReplyDeleteyou want an Easter Egg - look at the number 3 in the DnDClassics hotest items - it's in the upper right of this page
ReplyDelete