Catalyst RED – Retail Electronic Delivery
It seems that, historically, the only place to buy a PDF was from the manufacturer (or a select few online websites). If you wanted both a PDF and physical book, you were limited to what was available from the manufacturer. Retail stores that serve the player with play space, selection, and knowledge just could not offer a player a PDF and a book. We at Catalyst Game Labs have been working hard to change that.
Therefore we’re proud to announce the creation of Catalyst RED, our new Retailer Electronic Delivery system. With RED, retailers will be able to sell you copies of the core book PDFs along with your hard copies right at the store simply by providing your email address. And should you for some reason lose your PDF, you can easily request another download of the file, just like a online customer. We feel that Catalyst RED will finally allow that next step in customer satisfaction that you and the owners of your friendly local game store have been asking for.
Currently the system is in Alpha testing at select game stores across the country, and we plan to have the system available at more retailers later this year. For a list of retailers who currently offer Catalyst RED purchases see below:
Adventure Game Store
6967 Stirling Rd
Davie, FL 33314
Black Diamond Games
1950 Market St Suite E
Concord, CA 94520
Castle Perilous
207 West Main Street
Carbondale, IL 62901
EndGame
921 Washington
Oakland, CA 94607
Le Valet d’Coeur
4408 St-Denis, Montreal
Quebec, Canada, H2J 2L1
Modern Myths
34 Bridge St #4
Northampton, MA 01060
Myriad Games
8 Stiles Rd.
Salem, NH 03079
Rainy Day Games
18105 SW TV HWY
Aloha, OR 97006
The Danger Room
2213 S. Scatterfield Rd
Anderson, IN 46016
September 26th, 2009 at 1:47 am
oh please please with sugar on top share with us when it will be available in europe ASAP
September 26th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Once we open up to more retailers, I’m sure we’ll get some EU shops interested! Make sure to tell your favorite store we’re doing this, and to sign up when it’s available.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:15 am
At long last! Now perhaps retailers will stop whining about “buy where you play.”
September 26th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Do you have something I can print and give to my FLGS owner and get him on board? (considering just _how many_ Cayalyst books I’ve bought from him in the last few months…)
September 27th, 2009 at 12:30 am
I think this is an excellent idea. I’ll be interested to see how well it works.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:31 am
[...] Game Labs (publishers of the well-know RPG Shadowrun, and more) are setting up a new system called RED where retail stores can sell electronic copies of RPGs along with the hard copy. The way it works [...]
September 27th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
this is an amazing idea, i love having PDF’s of my books as i can’t always carry everything i need. i also second the request for some kind of flyer i could provide to my FLGS owner to bring them on board, a lot of them are afraid of PDF’s taking their buisness, this is another way for them to stay in the loop.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Are you planning on offering sales of .pdf documents only? Or will it require the purchase of a hardcopy book, I only ask because there are some books that are released in .pdf before a hardcopy has been made and I was curious if you will be offering your books that way as well.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Ajay, stores participating in Catalyst RED will get access to our PDFs at the same time we make them available online.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
So let me get this right. You go to your FLGS, ask for the PDF and hardcopy of say running wild, purchase it. Then you download it to your laptop (via link and passcode)? Will this mean some of the PDF only books be available as well?
September 28th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Mark, stores using Catalyst RED will have access to our entire PDF catalog. And you won’t have to have your laptop in the store — you’ll be emailed links that allow you to retrieve your PDFs, so you can grab them wherever.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
This is a great idea. It may not be the solution to the distribution problem, but it’s a fantastic effort.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:32 am
[...] “Cthuhlutech”and “Battletech” recently announced “RED.” Catalyst Retail Electronic Delivery allows PDF sales at your FLGS. It is currently in Alpha (very early testing) at nine retail game [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Something very nice would be to deliver the pdf’s to the retailer immediately (with a watermark to the customer’s ID, of course) so he can burn it/them on a CD and give it to the customer right away.
Some retailers might even go the extra mile and offer an in-store printing and bounding option.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
First, this is really neat idea.
Second, its awesome that Myriad Games (which is just down the road from me) is doing it. I guess I’ll have to drop by there and grab something.