[PeterSmith]

You're clearly aiming/delaying for a Gencon release but I have no clue why...

Looking for reasons? Single biggest convention for gaming is a great place to start.

[Mara]

You're clearly aiming/delaying for a Gencon release but I have no clue why...

Looking for reasons? Single biggest convention for gaming is a great place to start.

I can see that for delaying the print release. However, the game has been released, with copies minus some color
plates and maps in the wild. It might only be a few hundred copies, but it is out there. There is little reason to delay
the PDF release. Or, did everyone who bought a copy at Origins have to sign an NDA?

[Michael Chandra]

If they did, Karma Inferno is in trouble. So I doubt it.

[Bull]

No NDA.  We're allowed to talk about it now.

As for the Why, it's a marketing decision, I think. They want to release everything at once (The exception being the Origins special edition, and that likely mostly because we were running all 5th ed games there in anticipation of the book actually being out now).  And it takes a while to get all the books printed and shipped to the warehouse and ready to go out to distributors and game stores, espeically with a new edition that is being printed in very large numbers.

[Dax]

You're clearly aiming/delaying for a Gencon release but I have no clue why...

Looking for reasons? Single biggest convention for gaming is a great place to start.

You mean: catering to people who can shell out the money to even go there...to me, and a lot of people, that convention means nothing!  At home is where the game makes or breaks it...not in a building thousands of miles away!
I hope they're thinking about a worldwide playerbase and release that pdf and or book asap.

[Valashar]

What angers me is that there has to be a PDF-ready (or even a finalized PDF) of the core book now that it's finished, formatted, and has been in the printer's hands for a few weeks now... and yet the (just a guess) couple hundred who were able to buy an Origins edition now have full access to SR5 itself, and are the only people who do (I can't even expect that many of the Demo Team folks still have a copy since I heard that the demo copies were also sold to players).

Except for a bit of marketing, the game has been released. Yes, the hardcover editions will take some time to Officially Exist. It takes time to get good work done and I've always agreed with the Catalyst policy to not give a dead-tree edition street date until the book is in the warehouse. And yes, I also would be in support of a call to wait on accepting preorders on similar grounds. But no such logic can ever apply to a PDF release, especially for the flagship product of the company's foreseeable future, and certainly not with a limited physical version of the product now in circulation.

I feel similarly about the delay in putting the quick-start PDF from Free RPG Day up for grabs, since that's been ready for release for an even longer time. Again, absolutely wait until after the event itself since the idea is to get folks to head to their FLGS for the physical copy. But really, is it so impossible to set up something with DriveThru and on BattleShop so that the PDF is placed on the listing the following Monday? I have no web programming skills, but I know that such things can be entered on a time delay.

My last point is that, from my own views and reading posts from the past few days, so much of the anger felt by many on the delays and silence coming from Catalyst could be lessened or in some cases even eliminated if Catalyst would just open their mouths about anything from time to time in a manner that's easily accessible to everyone who wants to know. If you make a huge cross-platform announcement like the Year of Shadowrun press release and then proceed to say nothing outside a couple of small-audience locations, you're only adding to the frustrations.

For those who did, thank you for reading. And yes, I do feel a bit better now. For now, anyway.

[Citan]

I would suggest they release the pdf soon or deal with pirated scans of the origin version - wouldn't be too surprised to see those popping up somewhere. It's sad they won't even announce a release date for the pdf. Or release the quick start rules... or do SOMETHING to soothe the masses

[Aaron]

There's a difference between a printer-ready PDF and one intended for reading electronically. The qualities are different, the compression (flattening) is different, there are bookmarks and internal links to be added, the cropping is different, etc. usw. sono ta.

Game publishers like to release at conventions not only because there are lots of people there to buy it, but even more so because there are retailers, critics, distributors, and other industry people there at the same time.

[Sipowitz]

Game publishers like to release at conventions not only because there are lots of people there to buy it, but even more so because there are retailers, critics, distributors, and other industry people there at the same time.

They already released at a convention.  The game is already out there.  Doing nothing until Gencon will make some feel that it is a big FU for not being at Origins.  Unfortunately not everyone goes to conventions. Waiting until Gencon do release the game to everyone else is going to be severely anticlimatic, especially here on the forums where the select few who do have the book get to tease/show-off for the next 9 weeks or so.

[Wildcard]

Personally I'm slightly annoyed they released SR5 at the lesser of the two big conventions, especially since I saved up to finally go to GenCon again for the first time in years.

Hopefully the Run Faster will be there, otherwise the year of Shadowrun at GenCon will have nothing new.

[Sipowitz]

I prefer Origins over Gencon.  I think it is set up better and runs way more smoothly.  If you make Origins your big reveal you get to be The Big Fish unlike Gencon where you are just another fish.  Plus that 8-10 weeks allows the fanbase to prep for some serious awesomeness at Gencon.

[Mara]

Game publishers like to release at conventions not only because there are lots of people there to buy it, but even more so because there are retailers, critics, distributors, and other industry people there at the same time.

They already released at a convention.  The game is already out there.  Doing nothing until Gencon will make some feel that it is a big FU for not being at Origins.  Unfortunately not everyone goes to conventions. Waiting until Gencon do release the game to everyone else is going to be severely anticlimatic, especially here on the forums where the select few who do have the book get to tease/show-off for the next 9 weeks or so.

Yeah..pretty much this, plus you know a person is already, right this moment, removing the cover from his/her copy, and feeding it through a scanner. Would I be right in guessing that CGL wants people to go looking for those versions? Instead of, you know, making money from people willing to buy, but are desperate enough they will contemplate looking for the pirated scans?

[PeterSmith]

There's a lot of Shadowrun coming out this year, and it's not all on Catalyst's schedule. Cross-promotion is awesome when it's handled properly, one of the first rules is you keep your mouth shut until it's time to start talking. And given the silence on this matter, it's not time to start talking yet.

[StarManta]

Pirated scans of books are hugely inferior to the real PDF. Huge file sizes, usually grainy scans, can't seach, can't copy/paste... and that's assuming they don't make any mistakes while scanning it. I don't think scanned PDFs are actually a threat to an actual released PDF.

Now, if the actual PDFs (like the demo agents have) got leaked, THAT might be a threat to PDF sales. But scans? Nope.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that Catalyst should release the PDF sooner rather than later, but mostly so that players can learn the rules better before GenCon comes around. But scanned PDFs are bad enough as to not factor into this decision.

[Wildcard]

I'm not considering crossfire to be anything more then a label slapped on a different genre, ala FOBOS.

Considering it's release was spring, and the summer release of SR5 already beat it, whatever embarrassing product makes its way to a convention should be picked up as a novelty item at best.

Honestly, if the major SR releases at GenCon are all from outside Catalyst, I'll be very disappointed.