Product PDF Updates, Do they ever happen? Options

[Malachi]

One of the biggest advantages, I thought, to buying a book in PDF form was the fact that it would be updated when official Errata has been released. The first few books that I bought were from DriveThruRpg.com which appeared to expect products to be updated (options for email notification etc), but I still do not see that any product has been updated.

Is this something on Catalysts' end of things (updates are not being provided)? Or should I be emailing the site (updates are available but not being posted)?

[coolgrafix]

When the PDFs are updated, places (typically) provide their customers with free downloads. I know BattleCorps does. However, it seems that for whatever reason the update frequency has stopped.

All the BIG errors where fixed early, and I think 1.3 was the last PDF version of the core book that was released as a PDF. I bought 1.0, and had 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 all for free. I think the errata is up to 1.5, but 1.4 and 1.5 PDFs haven't seen the light of day to my knowledge. Happy to be wrong on that.

Just hazarding a guess, but it's probably related to the cost-versus-benefit ratio of doing it each time an Errata comes out. Per product. Correlate that with the sheer number of projects going on and the small number of people to do them, and the picture becomes clearer. Talk to Adam about it. =)

It's also possible they just want more folks to buy paperbacks. ;)

[Adam]

Previously, when we reprinted a book that contained errata, FanPro always provided a corrected copy to all of our PDF distributors [all of who have slightly different systems for getting updates in the hands of their customers, but all are cool with providing the updates for customers that bought the previous version.]

An update is not provided when Errata is released, only when the book goes back to reprint [which is generally when errata is compiled, anyway.]

In the case of an error being found that ruins the functionality of a book [major text re-flow errors, for example] FanPro provided an update ASAP.

Catalyst plans on continuing doing that, and has already provided several updates for Classic BattleTech PDFs including Total Warfare and TechManual.

The obvious exception has been the most recent FanPro printing of the SR4 PDF; due to issues at FanPro a corrected file was never provided to PDF vendors, and Catalyst is going to wait until our first printing of SR4 [later this year] to release a corrected version, as we don't want to do a "stopgap" PDF release with our branding on it but no further changes, and we don't have the rights to release it "as is" with the FanPro logo either.

[Malachi]

Ok, PDFs will be updated with Errata changes and Catalyst branding later this year. Thanks Adam.