D&D 5E Initial D&D Next Releases Showing Up on Barnes & Noble Website

[Greatwyrm]

I haven't bought physical books in quite a while and this price won't do much to change that. I'm more interested to see what the pdf versions or whatever D&D Insider will become cost.

 

[Shadowsoul]

You guys are lucky!

It costs me about €80.00 to take Mrs. Soul out to the cinema.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

$49.99 is more than I would like, but not more that I'd expect. The cost of publishing, printing, and shipping physical books skyrocketed during the recession and never recovered.

 

[Plaguescarred]

A $150 list price is out of my comfort zone for a game I'm not sure I'll ever run or play. This pushes me from pre-ordering the core books, to waiting and seeing how it looks before buying anything.

Why you say it'll cost you $150 for the 3 core books in pre-order when the only one announced is $37.95 in pre-order?

You assume the 2 other books will be more than $50 with the discounts?

 

[GX.Sigma]

1.) An easy, hand-holding intro to RPGs that is designed to tease them into buying the PHB, or
2.) A simplified D&D that is complete in itself, but as players grow and expand (and want more options) they begin to pick up the Core Books.

Mearls has been talking about it as though it were #2, but the name "Starter Set" strongly implies #1.

 

[Dire Bare]

I find it interesting that after six-plus years of having their products spoiled by online retailers, WotC still has not learned to announce forthcoming products in a timely manner.


At this point, the D&D section of WotC's marketing department has ONE JOB: keeping us informed on the forthcoming products. And they failed that again.

Given it was likely written last week or the week before, it's doubtful Legends & Lore this week will mention the release or give us more information on the size of the book, contents, and pricing. At best, we'll likely see a hastily put together news release on the D&D front page, which will quickly vanish into the archives like the 40th Anniversary "announcement".

"Failed?" Really? WotC already let us know the new game would be out over the summer, and long-time fans know that means in-and-around GenCon. While the news from B&N is certainly more specific, if even accurate, it's not exactly ground-breaking news. Just because WotC isn't delivering news on your time table doesn't make their marketing a failure at all. After being burned by fans in the past, WotC is careful to only release information if it is rock solid. And I don't blame them. I also don't care when the exact release is, whether it be sometime in June, July, August, or even later. They'll come out when they come out and I'll pick up the PHB then, no worries.

 

[Mark CMG]

I do not see the wisdom of not releasing early enough in the summer for folks to be ready to game, books in hand, when they go to the conventions. This may come back to haunt them.

As an aside, not releasing this edition as a complete box set helps brick and mortar game stores tremendously, since as you may recall, Amazon sold it practically as a loss leader. And as a store owner, may I suggest you take this opportunity to pay a few dollars more at your local FLGS as an indication you would like to see RPGs not die there?

That is a definite plus. Good on WotC for making it easier for B&M shops to get their share of the pie.

As a player myself, I feel we're headed towards the chit and counter wargamer model if we can't get new blood into the game (what good stores do).

Everything gets largely replaced eventually and one has only to look at the expansive wargamey-boardgame market (and the videogame field) to know what happened to chits and counters. This coming from someone who plays chit and counter games all the time, still, and goes to small gamedays and conventions where I can do so.

 

[Dire Bare]

A few folks have mentioned, "What? $50? What about all those less expensive and even free games out there?"

WotC isn't competing against any of those games. There are truly tons of excellent games out there, some even direct variants of different editions of D&D, but they don't calculate into this at all except for a very small subset of the gaming population. D&D doesn't even really compete with any other game out there, not even Pathfinder, in both brand recognition and customer loyalty. They are going to print big, beautiful, expensive books and charge a fair price for them ($50) because they can, all the internet grumbling aside.

Doesn't mean there won't be other pathways into the game. Will there be a digital version of the game? What will it look like and what will it cost? We don't know yet. Other than the $20 Starter Set, will there be other, lower-cost entry points into the game? We don't know yet.

But man, do we like to bitch and moan about every little bit of info . . . and non-info . . .

(Aside: Yes, I know, for a period of time you could make an argument that Pathfinder was outselling D&D . . . during the demise of 4E and the desolate period between 4E and 5E. It's easy to outsell a company that isn't publishing a lot of books. Expect that to change mid-to-late summer.)

 

[Mark CMG]

WotC already let us know the new game would be out over the summer, and long-time fans know that means in-and-around GenCon.

Naw. They've released so much in June for new editions that it seemed more likely that early summer would be the target . . . to long-time fans like myself anyway.

 

[Obryn]

Why you say it'll cost you $150 for the 3 core books in pre-order when the only one announced is $37.95 in pre-order?

You assume the 2 other books will be more than $50 with the discounts?

I was talking cover price.

Still - the point about relative price stands.