It is a bit odd that the 2013 revision is now available is some very obscure languages (Ewe? Gun?) but not in Spanish, German or French. It’s almost as if they’ve avoided the major languages on purpose. Maybe the delay for these major languages is because of cost.
If Watchtower needs to print around 50 million new Bibles at a cost of around 5 to $10 each, that’s approaching half a billion dollars. Can they afford that? I really doubt it.
50 million might seem a high estimate, but I don’t think it is, because every JW wants a couple, plus family and inactive. They already printed over 200 million copies of the old NWT. So 50 million may be a conservative estimate.
By not printing German, Spanish or French versions they may have cut the cost by around a half. But it raises a lot of questions. Will they stop printing English Bibles next?