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.

 

[jerryrice4949]

People keep saying “inflation”, but just like with groceries, I’m convinced most of the cause is corporate greed.

Wages have also been going up.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why should WotC tell you that?
I think everyone knows that. Or should...

I'm always going to ask for a lack of spin in advertising. And probably never going to get it...

 

[jerryrice4949]

People on these forums have some weird ideas. Prices are going up for the 1st time in almost a decade on WoTC books, during a time of extreme inflationary pressure, and people think it is unreasonable. How many others things have you bought in the past decade that are the same price today? Maybe a television because the technology has gotten so cheap but not your house, car, phone or even food items. It’s not my preference of course but I understand it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

People on these forums have some weird ideas. Prices are going up for the 1st time in almost a decade on WoTC books, during a time of extreme inflationary pressure, and people think it is unreasonable. How many others things have you bought in the past decade that are the same price today? Maybe a television because the technology has gotten so cheap but not your house, car, phone or even food items. It’s not my preference of course but I understand it.

You gotta keep in mind that it's precisely BECAUSE the price of EVERYTHING is going up that we might not want our (already a luxury) hobby goods to go up as well. Also: Very few people are upset that the price is going up in itself, aside from the principle of the thing. It's more how much the price is going up, why the price is going up, and what we're getting for the price hike.

Speaking of which, the idea presented that the books were going to get bigger page counts is not happening, I'm afraid. Bigby's is 192 pages. In fact, the books have been steadily dropping in page counts for awhile now. The standard WotC HC used to be 256 pages. Recently it dropped to 224, and then ~208 (IIRC - I looked at all the recent books earlier today).

Now the first book with the new MSRP is going to be 192.

I mean, look: I'm literally IN BUSINESS with WotC. IF I thought that this change would actually lead to increased profits in a sustainable way, I certainly wouldn't be complaining. I don't think that it's going to do that. I think it will do more harm than good.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I'm mostly done with WotC with everything that has happened in the last few months. But even though 5E books have never impressed me with their quality, a price increase is absolutely reasonable. I actually think that the whole industry could do better by selling their products at a higher level and have customers be a bit more selective onto where they throw their money. So many companies underprice their products.

 

[Parmandur]

Speaking of which, the idea presented that the books were going to get bigger page counts is not happening, I'm afraid. Bigby's is 192 pages. In fact, the books have been steadily dropping in page counts for awhile now. The standard WotC HC used to be 256 pages. Recently it dropped to 224, and then ~208 (IIRC - I looked at all the recent books earlier today).

That's specifically about the new Core books, which are aiming to be bigger.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That's specifically about the new Core books, which are aiming to be bigger.

Sure, they're going to be big, but we also don't have a single clue what their price points are going to be, so I don't think that it had anything to do with the discussion of page counts in this thread when it comes to the price increase.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, they're going to be big, but we also don't have a single clue what their price points are going to be, so I don't think that it had anything to do with the discussion of page counts in this thread when it comes to the price increase.

Probably $60 USD. WotC is price increase adverse, so this is probably the price point for hardcovers moving forwards

 

[Deset Gled]

While I have no insight into WotC’s business, I do publish similar hardcover books. He’s correct. It costs very little to print each hardcover book when done at scale. It costs us about $4, and it gets cheaper as your print run size increases, and their print runs are a thousand times ours.

Printing is only one of a thousand costs when producing a book, of course. (Not counting the 50% of retail you immediately lose to the distributor). So in isolation it’s not really a useful data point when deciding whether a company is making a decent profit or not.

Thanks much.

Can you elaborate on what the $4 covers in this scenario? Does ~8.5x11" size, full color, glossy paper, 300-400 pages, hardcover sound about right? Are there significant price changes for different binding, cover, paper, or color options? Does this include shipping to your office? Where would this be printed (China, similar, or more local)?

Just curious. Any info you can provide is appreciated.

 

[delericho]

I will go to the mat for the 1E Fiend Folio, sir.

Heh.

The specific list of purchases that were value for money will differ from person to person, of course. In my case, my copy of the FF has never been used at my game table, I've never used it while preparing a game, and I've never actually even read it properly. (That said, I got it because I decided to pick up a complete set of 1st Ed hardbacks a number of years ago. It was never really intended to be used. And who knows what use it saw before I got it?)

But I'm increasingly disturbed by the amount of shelf space I have dedicated to books that were intended to be used but didn't live up to that promise - 3e's "Complete X" line, most of 5e's big campaign-style adventures, innumerable Vampire clanbooks... In many cases it's not even that they're bad - just not really worth the purchase. (Of course, then there are the books that are just bad - 3e's "Deities & Demigods" and "Epic Level Handbook", "Scourge of the Howling Horde"...)

The answer is, of course, to stop buying - simple, effective, and really really difficult.