So, WotC is planning to sell their 4e PHB at Gencon for $5 with purchase of another rulebook at Gen Con.

Lots of speculation as to why going on at E.N. World - here is my own ramblings:

1. This is mostly so the focus at Gen Con is on WotC and 4e rather than Pathfinder - not to disrupt sales of Pathfinder (I am fairly certain that Paizo will run out early on during the con), but trying to remain the ones in the limelight.

2. Sales of RPGs in general (and 4e in particular) has been lackluster - this will attract attention, and maybe get some new folks playing 4e.

3. WotC is trying to get some good publicity - making up for some of the not so good publicity that has become a fixture of 4e and WotC in general of late.

4. All told, selling a $5 PHB with a full price book at Gen Con to pretty much everyone there is going to make a bunch of money for them. A big chunk of their overhead for the con will be taken care of.

5. And compared to the regular book sales channels selling a book to everyone at Gen Con is still not all that many books out of their total sales - it is just all happening at once, rather than spread out across the country and calendar.

6. As noted, it gets copies of the PHB into people's hands.

The Auld Grump