D&D General Penguin Random House To Stop Distributing D&D [UPDATED!]

A memo which went out to retailers this week indicates that Penguin Random House will not be distributing Dungeons & Dragons products in mainstream bookstores from 2024.

Effective December 31, 2023, Penguin Random House LLC will cease distributing titles for Wizards of the Coast LLC. Depending on the product, please ensure that the vendor of record for Wizards of the Coast LLC titles is changed to one of their new distributors listed here: Distributors | WPN."

WotC uses a range of distributors, including Alliance, Diamond, GTS, and more in the US, and Asmodee and others in the UK and Europe. Most of these deal with hobby trade (game stores and the like) retailers, while Penguin Random House is a general book trade publisher. Of course, the game will still be available on Amazon, also.

This isn't brand new news--WotC announced this back at the beginning of September.

UPDATE--WotC spoke to ICv2:

Penguin Random House is a valued partner and publishing licensee of Wizards of the Coast. While we deeply appreciate the excellent service provided over the years by PRHPS, we are now shifting our distribution strategy to utilize the capabilities of Hasbro to sell and distribute D&D products to retailers, and we will continue to partner with PRH on licensed D&D titles like the recently released Lore & Legends and the upcoming Hero's Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse. This change to distribution of Wizards' D&D roleplaying game publications such as rulebooks and adventure content won't affect fans as they will continue to find Dungeons & Dragonsproducts at their preferred retailers.

 

[Stormonu]

Wasn’t it the Random House deal that got TSR into trouble in the 90’s?

I would miss the RPG section in my local bookstores, but neither they nor my FLGS have had much variety in RPGs anyway. However, if D&D drops from bookstores, I wonder if other systems might disappear from there as well (PF mostly, but I’ve seen a few others on occasion).

 

[darjr]

Oh! Wait! This may be big news! But not what people are thinking! Good for FLGS.

Edit: I now think I was mistaken

 

[darjr]

Possibly good for WotC too.

 

[sevenbastard]

Sounds like they were ticked off that Penguins didn't make the cut for the 6e Monster Manual.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh! Wait! This may be big news! But not what people are thinking! Good for FLGS.

Possibly good for WotC too.

One presumes with the new Core launch next year, might be related to the timeline for distribution contracts that would need to be renegotiated anyways.

 

[darjr]

One presumes with the new Core launch next year, might be related to the timeline for distribution contracts that would need to be renegotiated anyways.

It looks like this was announced a while ago. Just most/all of us kinda missed or ignored it.

 

[J.Quondam]

Sounds like they were ticked off that Penguins didn't make the cut for the 6e Monster Manual.

Apparently, the legendary action "Cease book distribution" didn't score very high in the play test surveys. Didn't really fit with the the "aquatic fowl" theme, is my guess.

 

[see]

I do wonder if the disappearance of D&D books from the USA Today bestseller lists (now that those have resumed) is related to this, either as a cause (Penguin Random House has changed its efforts, sales though the book channel declines, and as a result Wizards is ending its deal with them and looking for a new book trade distributor) or an effect (Penguin Random House has stopped putting effort into pushing D&D into bookstores because Wizards is ending the deal).

 

[Cadence]

How do Target stores currently get the D&D stuff they have (like the boxed sets)?

 

[darjr]

May be nothing much after all. Over in James Lowders Facebook James Fallone speculates that it may be WotC wanting more control over the Amazon relationship and Random House no longer thinking it’s worth it ti be in this deal.