Not sure why COVID would postpone releasing PDF versions of RPG products. This seems the simplest solution for all involved. Why not just release the PDFs for sale? I know I'd gladly purchase them.

Bad enough that those of us choosing to live in this century already to have to wait a month or so after the print release. Why not simply get Keyforge out there, and on the Foundry sooner, while folks are home?

I think there's a couple of things that drive the month delay;

• People are probably more inclined to double dip if they get a physical copy first; the convenience of a PDF is pretty undeniable, so once someone has the book on their hands they might want to get a PDF as well for convenience's sake. People who get a PDF first probably have less incentive to get a physical copy.
• Piracy; PDFs get leaked online incredibly fast, whereas physical copies take someone being willing to go through the laborious process of scanning an entire book (and usually wrecking the spine in the process, if they want a *good* scan). That means there's a period of a couple of weeks to a month where potential pirates might be inclined to buy a physical copy rather than wait for a digital copy to materialise.

Do I think these are good reasons? Hard to tell without some sales figures and piracy data, really 🤷‍♀️

Under the present circumstances, it would be forthcomming to the customers to release the pdfs early. To many, hobbies like RPGs provide much relief if you have to stay at home in quarantine.

Regarding the piracy topic, yes even only-print products are scanned and spread incredibly fast in the "world wide web" (maybe due to experimental internet gas 😂 ) and there seems to be a high willingness to ruin the spines. Here the companies have to trust the "real" customers, that they support your products. Collectors of pirated copies without purchasing the products at a later time don't tend to be future customers really playing those games anyways. So to say you don't loose any money to those as it is highly unlikely that they would've purchased a legal copy anyways.