I found this waiting in my email this morning.
Dear publisher,
Starting in February 2019, all elements of the RPGNow tool pages and storefront will redirect to similar pages on DriveThruRPG.
You most likely know this, but since RPGNow and DriveThruRPG first merged as businesses back in 2006, they have shared all the same tools and digital inventory. On the front end, they looked and behaved like two separate sites, but essentially they have just been two faces of the same site for many years. The only real differences were the color schemes and logos.
You might have some questions about the coming change, so we’ve done our best to anticipate and answer them below.
How will this affect me?
In most ways, you’ll be unaffected. Your entire catalog of titles from RPGNow is already listed on DriveThruRPG (as it always has been), and you can log in to DriveThruRPG using the same account(s) you’ve always used on RPGNow, just as you could before.
Even your old bookmarks to pages on RPGNow.com will still work: They’ll automatically be redirected to the same page on DriveThruRPG.
What about sales reporting? Will my past sales be combined?
Yes, as far as sales records and your titles’ metal rankings, we will be merging those together.
Starting in February, your sales records will show combined sales of each title across both the deprecated RPGNow site and DriveThruRPG, together. The number of unit sales will also be combined, so if you had metal rankings for titles on one or both sites, there’s a good chance you’ll find that your rankings on some titles will have increased on DriveThruRPG.
What about my Publisher Promotion Points and marketing impressions?
No worries. Your Publisher Promotion Points (PPP) are already shared across sister sites. They are compiled by publisher, not by site.
If you have used your PPP to purchase site impressions for banners or featured product messages on RPGNow, you will also be reimbursed, commensurately, for those expenditures on DriveThruRPG.
Why is this happening?
Here’s the big picture: In the 12 years since RPGNow and DriveThruRPG merged, the growth of RPGNow has tapered off constantly, while DriveThruRPG has continued to grow strongly, year over year, since it launched in 2004. We’ve reached the point where RPGNow rarely draws new customers or publishers and sells less than one-tenth the volume of titles purchased on DriveThruRPG.
To be honest, we have known this moment would come for years now. We’ve just finally decided it’s time to put the RPGNow brand out to pasture.
If you look at the two storefronts, RPGNow has always had a stronger OSR and smaller publisher presence. This does not bode well...
Oh, thank goodness. It should have been done years ago.
ReplyDelete"It does not bode well" was my feeling, too. I have always seen better sales for NUELOW Games through RPGNow than DriveThruRPG. I guess we'll see how it turns out.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a customer who has purchased hundreds and hundreds of titles from the site, I prefer RPGNow. That was the site I knew first and, silly as it may sound, I prefer the color scheme.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it’s obvious they have been two fronts to the exact same website for a long time. I’ll just go to DriveThru now instead. My OSR and small publisher preferences aren’t changing.
I simply like the name "RPGNow" better, and I'm partial to the color blue over red. Funny, but that's why I go to the same exact listings on rpgn over dtrpg LOL. Otherwise, I think it's good to make things less confusing and merge entirely.
ReplyDeleteI started on Drive Thru and always had a fondness for the name. Never made a purchase through the RPG Now storefront and I’ve been a patron for years. It’ll all balance out.
ReplyDeleteI think the one difference I saw, and will miss, is that RPGNow seemed to have a lot more independent/small publisher stuff listed in the top sales categories when I was browsing.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if they merge, perhaps they can focus on navigation and content filtering now, so I don't have to constantly be reminded that "Flumphs of the Realms" is the "top seller" every time Wizards wants to put out something silly.
That said, as long as some idiot at Hasbro doesn't try launching an e-sports line of products on DM's Guild maybe I'll still be able to find what I don't know I'm looking for through the browsing features.