Jaded Gamer - Cortex Prime prediction

This time I'm making a prediction.

Cortex Prime is going to crash and burn in the format they are switching over too.

In a recent announcement from Cam Banks the rights to the Cortex system are being sold to Fandom which does D&D Beyond. Their plans are apparently to follow that same release format. No pdf sales but instead you use an app to access all the material. Also no mention of actual dead tree formats either. The only pdfs they are releasing is to meet the requirements of the Cortex Prime Kickstarter backers. After than anybody new will have to download an app to get access.

Didn't Iron Kingdoms try that once upon a time? If I'm not mistaken that crashed and burned as well.

I think the only reason DnD Beyond is successful is because of the sheer size of the fanbase. Cortex does not have anything near that.

Nobody wants to be restricted to access through an app program that they really don't have any control over. There are several different pdf reasons out there for a reason, because people like variety when they view things. Also they like to pull open the book without having to be connected to the internet.

They are going in the opposite direction of user friendly. It will hammer the accessibility of the system and people will go elsewhere. ALSO when you make things harder to access it just drums up more piracy of your product. Look at Palladium Books, people were pirating the hell out of their stuff when they refused to release pdfs.

Anyways once the full release via their app comes out and it's the only way to get the game it will drop in popularity like a rock. Very few new people will be coming in and those who are fans are going to drop it because of the app access. Then they will finally break down and release pdfs again just to keep the line feasible. Hopefully it will be salvageable at that point.