D&D 5E Price Increase on D&D & MtG coming

[Zardnaar]

makes sense

Yeah the containers might be more valuable than what goes in them.

Shortages of microchips and building materials atm locally.

 

[Zardnaar]

Can confirm from over here in Europe that much of the same applies. Obviously the container shortage is a global supply chain issue, but interestingly Europe also has a shortage of truck drivers, I'm not really sure of the structural reasons behind that.

Another knock-on effect of the pandemic was the near elimination of air freight. Most international mail and air freight travels on passenger aircraft; and international passenger air travel obviously plummeted in volume. Small shipments which it used to be economical to send by air suddenly became prohibitively expensive and subject to huge delays. Even if you pay the inflated price your shipment can still get repeatedly bumped back in the schedule if someone shows up with a higher priority goods classification.

In Europe the truck drivers were eastern European.

With travel restrictions etc less workers.

Labour shortages here so upward pressure in wages for the first time since 1970s. Some people I know have had 8-13% pay rises some are asking for 30% (and getting it).

Nurses are asking for 50% a few are sodding off to Australia for double or triple the pay better conditions.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can understand this has to happen sooner or later, but I payed 50 euroes for the Spanish-translated books, and I can others offering more pages with the same prize, or cheaper but with the same number of pages.

 

[delericho]

You do realize that prices don’t stay the same forever? WoTC has essentially charged the same price for 7 years which is pretty rare.

Yeah, this.

Indeed, this coupled with the vastly reduced release rate means that 5e is probably the edition I have spent least on over the years - well, excluding 4e which I skipped almost entirely.

So while price rises always suck, I find I'm hard pressed to object to this one.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Of course it is absolutely a factor.

You cannot inject several trillion dollars into an economy without massively devaluing the dollars already there, especially if those dollars were not generated through creation of capital but through simply printing more of them.

Certainly you are correct that energy supply, including price of oil is also a factor.

If you have good productivity yes you can, especially given all the dead money in the system. The lockdowns among other issues wrecked productivity.

Canadian payed for WWII, Korean War, huge infrastructure projects, ect..., by borrowing interest free from the BoC until 1974, no inflation spike caused by that, when Pierre Trudeau put an end to that to appease neoliberal politicians and banksters, after which inflation grew, as Canada's debt massively ballooned from being largely flat.

Printing money is fine, literally or via credit as long as you have the productivity to meet increased demand (there isn't a shocking jump in demand right now, so other issues negatively effecting productuvity is driving this).

Once fracking companies increase oil production, oil prices should go back down some what, and other issues like shipping get resolved, and productivity rises back up, inflation will be back under control.

 

[Ath-kethin]

By the way, how is it that the MSRP is $49.99, yet you can buy D&D books on Amazon for $30?
That really undercuts the FLGS.
I guess the siren song of Amazon volume is too good to resist.

I resist it every time. I want my FLGS to be there in 5-10 years when my kid is in the market with their own money.

Conversations and camaraderie in the game store are priceless. And it's not like Bezos is going to take any of us with him when he flees the planet.

 

[Charlaquin]

My problem isn't with how much the books cost but how little all the workers who are involved are probably making. That's the real crime.

Yeah, if the prices increased so the laborers could get paid more, that’s an increase I could get behind.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't have a PS5, nor do I want one, but at $70, PS5 games are cheaper than PS1, PS2, and PS3 games in real terms. Fiat currency changes in value, if Sony increases their prices less than the decrease in currency value, that's still less expensive

I don’t care what the abstract value of the currency is, it doesn’t actually “cost less” if I’m not getting paid more.

My new Switch games are nearly half the actual cost of new games we would buy in the 90's. Are game companies and WotC making healthy profitable? Good, I want them to, so I get more of what I want. I appreciate that WotC kept the lid on costs as long as they did, but it's business.

I don’t care that it is business, I don’t think it ought to be.

 

[Charlaquin]

They've shifted the cost of the games to subscriptions, dlc, microtransactions.

GTAV for example, Assassin's Creed etc. AAA stand alone games are few and far between.

They haven’t shifted the cost at all, they’ve added those costs in addition to the base price of the game, which they’ve also increased.

 

[Zardnaar]

They haven’t shifted the cost at all, they’ve added those costs in addition to the base price of the game, which they’ve also increased.

Not in line with inflation though. Costs of games development bhave massively balloned last 20 years. Cost to consumer at retail hasn't.

The difference? What I said. Some things are resistant to inflation.

Demon Souls $129 PS5.

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Phantasy Star 4 $99



I remember paying $150+ for Genesis games 1994. Mortal Kombat hit $200.

At $150 1994 25:hours minimum wage.

Demon Souls 7 hours minimum wage.
In youth rates I had to work a week to pay for a Genesis game.