D&D General D&D Book Prices Are Going Up

WotC announced today that D&D books will be increasing in price this year.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be $59.99 as a preorder and $69.99 thereafter. These will apparently come as physical and digital bundles, so you won’t need to buy the D&D Beyond version separately.

This space is dedicated to communicating clearly and transparently with our players- even when the topic isn’t particularly fun. Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We're committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.

This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.

Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.

 

[Oofta]

Then why do you care that the prices of physical books are going up, if you don't buy them?

I never said I personally cared. I've just noted that adjusting for inflation the price has remained about the same. There's enough hyperbole and speculation about how evil WOTC is around here I thought maybe some facts would be a nice change of pace.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've decided you're not buying any new books no matter what, so why do you care?

 

[SteveC]

So from what I gather he's still just some podcaster who's trying to get eyeballs. I mean, yes, obviously WOTC is going all in on digital. So? I don't buy physical books any more and DDB works well for me and I get to share all my books with 9 people now across two groups. I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

Want the dead tree version? You can still buy them. Me? I don't care if I never get another physical book ever again. Same way that I've cut my cable cord, the times they are a' changin'.

I'm not sure why you'd care about anything that's being discussed in this thread then. The notion that WotC is moving to having physical books be a luxury item that they're not catering to as a market is a big deal. Just ask FLGS about that. As has been already discussed in the thread, its the FLGS that have to deal with the retail prices and it will be a big deal to them if prices continue to climb. Moving to a digital first publishing model by WotC will to change the industry in an enormous way, and just a few months ago, the very notion of this happening would have been met with a "you're lying!" response. So I'd say it's a pretty important thing to discuss.

Is this thread just another place to beat up on WotC? I'm sure it is for some people. For me, increasing prices is something that I care about because it's going to determine if I'm buying the 6E books in physical form or not. I also think that with all the bad press WotC has had this year, this is just going to be one more thing that people are going to point to. It's one more "unforced error" where people are going to talk about the cost increase instead of whether or not the book is any good.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Considering that games are going from 80 to 90 CDN here, I think it makes sense that books increase prices as well. We're just used to low inflation for several years so it surprises us all. However, I feel @FitzTheRuke because entertainment is the first thing that people generally cut on their budget.

Thanks. Yeah, the switch-times are always the toughest, too. For one, it's impossible to predict how many of my customers will choose to skip purchasing based on the price-hike (among the other reasons they might have to skip) so predicting demand and ordering will be harder. A price point of $59.95 USD might be "reasonable", but it's not going to feel that way in August. Two years from now, it might look "cheap" by comparison, but by then it'll be too late for the sales of Bigby's (for example) - not that it won't sell then, but it won't sell "like new". Meanwhile, whatever the new book is, when the price "feels" reasonable, will do closer to its own merits, and not effected by the price-point, which everyone will be eased-into by then. If that makes sense.

At any rate, all I know for sure is that I'm going to have to decrease my standard order numbers and hope that I can get more when I run out. This will primarily effect my sales on the retailer-exclusive covers (which we can usually only get with initial orders), but their novelty has been waning lately anyhow.

So... my recommendation to everyone who wants to buy a retailer-incentive cover from a FLGS: Make sure you pre-order them going forward. Retailers are going to HAVE to order tight.

 

[Retreater]

@SteveC thank you. I'll try to find the video, but on the account of getting my wife margaritas to celebrate the end of her school year, it might take a bit.

 

[jerryrice4949]

I also question the $4, but I don't see how it's all that relevant. The actual printing is not the biggest cost by far. The PHB is for sale on amazon for $26 right now, but that doesn't count Amazon's 40% cut after costs are deducted (that's for paperbacks, I don't know if that applies to game books). WOTC has shipping and overhead, there are setup and maintenance costs that are likely not in that $4 price. So they make maybe $10 per book sold for $6 profit (if the $4 is accurate). Not bad for a long tail profit but not exactly exorbitant either.

If you don't want to pay it, don't buy the book.

I call complete BS on the cost of a book being $4. Maybe strictly the paper and ink but not development, salaries, marketing, art, shipping from China, warehouse storage, shipping to retailers, etc…the list goes on and on.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I call complete BS on the cost of a book being $4. Maybe strictly the paper and ink but not development, salaries, marketing, art, shipping from China, warehouse storage, shipping to retailers, etc…the list goes on and on.

It's very possible that the individual cost to produce a single HC book could be in the ~$4 range, once you spend the many thousands of dollars of costs to get the ball rolling. I doubt that it has anything to do with the initial costs, or even the average cost per copy, but perhaps the "once you have 19,999 copies, the cost of your 20,000th copy".

 

[SteveC]

@SteveC thank you. I'll try to find the video, but on the account of getting my wife margaritas to celebrate the end of her school year, it might take a bit.

I'm going to be honest and say that sounds like so much more fun than looking through RollForCombat videos. Congrats on making to the end of the school year!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I call complete BS on the cost of a book being $4. Maybe strictly the paper and ink but not development, salaries, marketing, art, shipping from China, warehouse storage, shipping to retailers, etc…the list goes on and on.

Well, what the printer charges per book, not including the cost of paper and ink and covers and so on, could be $4. So it could be technically correct.

 

[Oofta]

I'm not sure why you'd care about anything that's being discussed in this thread then. The notion that WotC is moving to having physical books be a luxury item that they're not catering to as a market is a big deal. Just ask FLGS about that. As has been already discussed in the thread, its the FLGS that have to deal with the retail prices and it will be a big deal to them if prices continue to climb. Moving to a digital first publishing model by WotC will to change the industry in an enormous way, and just a few months ago, the very notion of this happening would have been met with a "you're lying!" response. So I'd say it's a pretty important thing to discuss.

Is this thread just another place to beat up on WotC? I'm sure it is for some people. For me, increasing prices is something that I care about because it's going to determine if I'm buying the 6E books in physical form or not. I also think that with all the bad press WotC has had this year, this is just going to be one more thing that people are going to point to. It's one more "unforced error" where people are going to talk about the cost increase instead of whether or not the book is any good.

Is it a big deal or is it just the reality that many people don't really need books any more? Times change, an emphasis on digital has been a big part of their vision since 4E. The plans didn't work out back then, but the technology has come a long way. I agree that there is a concern for FLGS and I don't have a good answer for that. But they're also losing money to sites like HeroForge where you can get a customized mini printed or print them at home. Are we also going to rail about the evils of 3D printers as well?

Inflation affects all sorts of prices, it baffles me that people think it shouldn't affect the price of books. If they can't make a profit because their expenses, like everyone else's, are rising they'll go out of business. Prices increase all the time. I choose to accept reality for what it is so I can determine the course of action that makes sense to me.

 

[Retreater]

Randomness in D&D and Pathfinder has a bad reputation, but you want MORE randomness in your games!

The Deck of Many Things, the Harrow Deck, the Rod of Wonder, and the Bag of Beans are some of the most infamous magic items in history, as their results are ...

www.youtube.com

Here ya go. Start watching around 1 hr 14 min to see what he says about the print cost. (A little before to see him discussing the quality of paper/binding/etc)
Cheers. Gonna have some margaritas.