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.

 

[ad_hoc]

Are you sure? The new PHB has been confirmed as 320 pages, same as the 2014 version. The 2014 DMG is also 320 pages, much of which could be better used. And the 2014 MM is bigger, and probably isn't far off the 500 monsters they're claiming for this new one.

Apparently the new monster manual will contain a picture for every creature in it which I'm a big fan of.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

I'm personally okay with spending an extra $20/year on D&D.

Where I am grocery prices went up over 10% in a single year. Now that hurts.

This was exactly my thought. This is a one time luxury purchase…but grocery shopping is mind blowing. Actually fast food in outrageous at present. Not like it was 10 or even 5 years ago!

I hate to say it but many people outraged about this will go see a sensory overloading mind numbing super hero movie AND get the popcorn.

That said, WOTC is going to have to make some of this stuff must buy material or people will pass on it unlike the movies.

 

[aco175]

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).

I can see the page count and cost increase tying into marketing so that next year we are already used to the new prices. This way they can come out and show us that are being reasonable when the new books now a larger page count at the same price compared to what is coming out this year. Now, see how they are looking out for us.

 

[EternalDungeonMaster]

Does anyone happen to know, if I pre-order the physical + digital bundle on dndstore.wizards.com will I still get the pre-order bonus items (frames, backgrounds, etc.) that D&D Beyond typically gives away with a digital pre-order?

 

[Oofta]

Does anyone happen to know, if I pre-order the physical + digital bundle on dndstore.wizards.com will I still get the pre-order bonus items (frames, backgrounds, etc.) that D&D Beyond typically gives away with a digital pre-order?

I don't see any mention of the extras.

 

[teitan]

That is the book + digital bundle, and preorder keeps the current pricing, it goes up by $10 after that

“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.”

That’s what I said.

 

[EternalDungeonMaster]

I don't see any mention of the extras.

Yeah, same, I didn't see any mention of extras. The only reason I had hoped they might be included is because in the description of the pre-order bundle it mentions you get early access to the digital copy on D&D Beyond. So clearly there is some connection between the act of pre-ordering the bundle and receiving something other than the base digital book on the official release date.

 

[Velderan]

Does anyone happen to know, if I pre-order the physical + digital bundle on dndstore.wizards.com will I still get the pre-order bonus items (frames, backgrounds, etc.) that D&D Beyond typically gives away with a digital pre-order?

I just checked my account and the Dragonlance bundle did give me the leather armor dice set that was offered as a pre-order bonus. I can't remember if that was specifically called out when the bundle was listed though, I just remember them emphasizing the early access bonus.

 

[Velderan]

Transportation is from U.S printers, not China, for most WotC books (juat spot checked Keys from the Golden Vault, my copy was printed in the U.S.). That drives prices up, though, as U.S. wages are paid at the printer.

Which version do you have, standard or FLGS?

A quick review of the last few WotC books I had bought looks like most of the FLGS alt covers were printed in the US, while the standard release were printed in China (MotM being the last standard book I bought). Shadow of the Dragon Queen from the board game bundle was printed in China, which makes sense since the entire bundle was probably made and packaged in China.

I don't have any specific data to point to, but I'd wager you're accurate in saying US printing drives prices up if you're only looking at the cost of printing a book (which is mostly what the thread has been debating on the $4/book subject), but once you consider other factors like ocean freight I'd guess US printing becomes either cheaper or very close in cost depending on quantity which is why they're doing it. Printing in China for a company like Paizo probably still makes sense because they're printing less books, so ocean freight isn't going to be as costly as it would be for WotC shipping a larger print run.

This is all just me spitballing based on business articles I've read combined with insight from @Morrus on the thread he made.

 

[Oofta]

Which version do you have, standard or FLGS?

A quick review of the last few WotC books I had bought looks like most of the FLGS alt covers were printed in the US, while the standard release were printed in China (MotM being the last standard book I bought). Shadow of the Dragon Queen from the board game bundle was printed in China, which makes sense since the entire bundle was probably made and packaged in China.

I don't have any specific data to point to, but I'd wager you're accurate in saying US printing drives prices up if you're only looking at the cost of printing a book (which is mostly what the thread has been debating on the $4/book subject), but once you consider other factors like ocean freight I'd guess US printing becomes either cheaper or very close in cost depending on quantity which is why they're doing it. Printing in China for a company like Paizo probably still makes sense because they're printing less books, so ocean freight isn't going to be as costly as it would be for WotC shipping a larger print run.

This is all just me spitballing based on business articles I've read combined with insight from @Morrus on the thread he made.

I would assume that physical printing is probably one of the smallest expenses related to publishing a book. Shipping, handling, storage all add up quickly.