I honestly have no idea. I do not know how many hours they put into it compared to the number of hours put into the actual book. The only point I was making was that it was more than none, which is the claim the person I replied to had made. That said, D&D Beyond sells their versions for ~half of the MSRP of the physical books. I know you can get the books below MSRP from some sellers (Amazon mainly), but the price of D&D Beyond vs FLGS/MSRP is roughly half.
And, I mean, you're still getting every bit of content that is in the book, so the D&D Beyond version has the production cost of the book (minus printing and shipping) plus the cost associated with creating and serving it as a database.
Personally, I have both physical books and D&D Beyond books, but no duplicates (eg physical PHB and DDB Xanathar) and I think both formats have their pluses and minuses and haven't decided which I prefer. And, again, there *are* legit criticisms of D&D Beyond, but claiming it is a PDF with no production costs (the claim I responded to) just makes the person appear as though they have 0 idea what D&D Beyond actually is.
Not really looking to debate it further as I'm neither for or against D&D Beyond, I just *am* pro-accurate claims and criticisms.
First you just said you have no idea, you don't.
Second I didn't claim what you said I claimed. It IS essentially a PDF generator, very few people will play from the app. I know they coded, but its a lot simpler then you suggest, in no way does it justify the prices they are charging, none. You paying full book price for that, plus the ability to look up things. The production cost is IMMENSELY lower, it is no where near the production costs of a print book, and since they already had all the content already designed and paid for its ridiculous to claim that it isn't just a flat out cash grab.
Third, I understand that BEHIND THE APP there was work done, sure. Just like it is when you produce a book, of course it isn't zero production time and anyone who thinks it is and that's what I claimed missed exactly what I was saying. It takes MORE time to create the content and get it into book form then it would to code it, by far. The content has already created and paid for completely, its already in DB format, it is when getting ready for production printing. Changing the form of the content is a pittance compared to creating it and getting into written form.
The idea I am conveying is that the price points are completely absurd and out of line with any other digital content, including most video games that cost millions to produce and 100,000+ hours to make. That's a 25 person production team working on nothing else for two years. Clearly Beyond didn't have that and didn't cost millions to make. Overwatch cost $15-25m but reused assets from another project (Titan) that cost about $50 million to produce, so OW cost north of $65m and 5 years of production time. It costs ~$40 to play Overwatch forever, with continuous free content updates. Beyond with all content is over $180+ with additional purchases coming in the future. If you own all the books (I do and everyone here owns some) you get nothing in Beyond for doing so.
At the very least they should include from now on a one time code with each book purchase to use the same content in Beyond. Or you can register your books to accomplish same. My fear (and it will probably be true) is that WoTC will just stop releasing book content and put it only in Beyond, which is far more profitable. IMO, Beyond is essentially a test run for this delivery system. The company in their annual report claims an "untapped mobile market." They are trying to tap it now, at what seems to me an excessive cost.
