D&D 5E (2024) Where Are All The New Books In 2026 (D&Dfans article)

[LuisCarlos17f]

It seems there are some very serious internal reforms underway.
Perhaps some licensing agreements are expiring and they need to negotiate renewal or some possible modification. Perhaps the silence is due to negotiations with other companies. Maybe WotC wanted to publish a "Stranger Things" RPG with the characters from Hawkins, using a 5e version of d20 Modern, with psionic powers.

Other possibility is Hasbro wanted to acquire IPs from 3PPs.... "whose glory days ended". If Hasbro angreed some merger or acquisition then WotC would have at its disposal more IPs.

WotC web says about the upcoming M:tG set "Reality Facture" and the phrase "the multiverse has a new rival". I imagine something like the event "DC crises of infinity earths" causing a reboot and this could affect D&D. The secrecy is to avoid possible spoilers linked to Magic: the Gathering.

What could happen? For example a planar disaster causing a crossover between Ravenloft, Innistrad and Duskmourn.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I'm not going to argue about the speculation, but I think the "...there’s evidence that suggests it hasn’t quite been the home run WotC was hoping for" for example is speculation reframed as fact. There were some people claiming evidence such as book scan numbers that have been thoroughly debunked. The conclusion of the article is also pretty much standard doom and gloom of D&D losing market share for reasons. They may lose market share, they may gain, honestly we don't really know. I could just as easily speculate that HASBRO has been taken over by Martians and are currently laying the groundwork for invasion. That would be slightly less plausible but it's just speculation, right?

Did you miss these sentences in the article?

"What new D&D books might be coming in 2026
While Wizards hasn’t announced anything concrete, two recent Unearthed Arcana playtests offer some intriguing possibilities."

"Why hasn’t Wizards of the Coast announced any new D&D Books for 2026?
While it’s not entirely clear why WotC hasn’t yet announced any new products for 2026, there are few possibilities:"

Pretty hard to reconcile your opinions on this article with either of these statements honestly.

 

[AlViking]

Did you miss these sentences in the article?

"What new D&D books might be coming in 2026
While Wizards hasn’t announced anything concrete, two recent Unearthed Arcana playtests offer some intriguing possibilities."

"Why hasn’t Wizards of the Coast announced any new D&D Books for 2026?
While it’s not entirely clear why WotC hasn’t yet announced any new products for 2026, there are few possibilities:"

Pretty hard to reconcile your opinions on this article with either of these statements honestly.

I was commenting on the statements:

"...there’s evidence that suggests it hasn’t quite been the home run WotC was hoping for"
There is no evidence. There was purported evidence from book scan sales that has been widely debunked. It's reasonable to assume the sales patterns have changed because of DndBeyond, other than that we have no information.

"...the D&D community is experiencing a vacuum in official game releases"
Are we? Other people can answer this better than I can, I don't keep track of it but not announcing new releases this far ahead does not mean we will not have new releases.

"...this level of silence from the world’s most popular roleplaying is anything but normal."
It was normal until 4 years ago and there are plenty of reasons to revert back to the previous pattern.

So pretty hard to not see gloom and doom being manufactured out of thin air and supposition honestly.

 

[tetrasodium]

I was commenting on the statements:

"...there’s evidence that suggests it hasn’t quite been the home run WotC was hoping for"
There is no evidence. There was purported evidence from book scan sales that has been widely debunked. It's reasonable to assume the sales patterns have changed because of DndBeyond, other than that we have no information.

"...the D&D community is experiencing a vacuum in official game releases"
Are we? Other people can answer this better than I can, I don't keep track of it but not announcing new releases this far ahead does not mean we will not have new releases.

"...this level of silence from the world’s most popular roleplaying is anything but normal."
It was normal until 4 years ago and there are plenty of reasons to revert back to the previous pattern.

So pretty hard to not see gloom and doom being manufactured out of thin air and supposition honestly.

You can find general sales of physical books from bookscan(?) and see Amazon sales rankings showing things like 2014 phb higher ranked than the new one, same with ddb. Some of that may or may not have changed by now, but I feel like I've still seen it reported about fairly recently.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I was commenting on the statements:

"...there’s evidence that suggests it hasn’t quite been the home run WotC was hoping for"
There is no evidence. There was purported evidence from book scan sales that has been widely debunked. It's reasonable to assume the sales patterns have changed because of DndBeyond, other than that we have no information.

I have no idea if there is evidence or not. I don't follow this issue closely enough. The fact that this article makes this statement, but then fails to provide the evidence, though, is an issue. Point to you.

"...the D&D community is experiencing a vacuum in official game releases"
Are we? Other people can answer this better than I can, I don't keep track of it but not announcing new releases this far ahead does not mean we will not have new releases.

It's poorly expressed, but my impression here is that the author is saying that the perception that there is a vacuum, as evidenced by the lack of announcements, leads to the ensuing opinion. I don't think the author is stating that there actually is a vacuum (although this wording makes that ambiguous).

I can see why you would take your stance though. You might be right, I might be right, but the fact that neither one of us is sure is on the author of this article.

"...this level of silence from the world’s most popular roleplaying is anything but normal."
It was normal until 4 years ago and there are plenty of reasons to revert back to the previous pattern.

Sure. But it has been normal for the past four years. I don't see this as a reasonable quibble.

So pretty hard to not see gloom and doom being manufactured out of thin air and supposition honestly.

No need to be rude! I'm trying to understand your perspective. Kudos though for cogently pointing out the bits of the article that were posing a problem for you. Genuinely appreciated!

 

[AlViking]

You can find general sales of physical books from bookscan(?) and see Amazon sales rankings showing things like 2014 phb higher ranked than the new one, same with ddb. Some of that may or may not have changed by now, but I feel like I've still seen it reported about fairly recently.

Bookscan numbers are not an indication of actual sales as others have clarified. The books have been put under the game category in Amazon so we don't know how many they're selling. We don't know how many people buy the books on DndBeyond or whether it's more profitable for WOTC to sell fewer books but make up for it in subscription fees.

We have no way of knowing how well the 2024 books are doing.

 

[AlViking]

I have no idea if there is evidence or not. I don't follow this issue closely enough. The fact that this article makes this statement, but then fails to provide the evidence, though, is an issue. Point to you.

It's poorly expressed, but my impression here is that the author is saying that the perception that there is a vacuum, as evidenced by the lack of announcements, leads to the ensuing opinion. I don't think the author is stating that there actually is a vacuum (although this wording makes that ambiguous).

I can see why you would take your stance though. You might be right, I might be right, but the fact that neither one of us is sure is on the author of this article.

Sure. But it has been normal for the past four years. I don't see this as a reasonable quibble.

No need to be rude! I'm trying to understand your perspective. Kudos though for cogently pointing out the bits of the article that were posing a problem for you. Genuinely appreciated!

Didn't mean to be rude but it's early in the morning and I still get affected by SAD* a bit.

*Seasonal Affective Disorder - depression/grumpy because of lack of sun. I have one of those super bright lights sitting on my desk right now, but it only helps so much.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Didn't mean to be rude but it's early in the morning and I still get affected by SAD* a bit.

*Seasonal Affective Disorder - depression/grumpy because of lack of sun. I have one of those super bright lights sitting on my desk right now, but it only helps so much.

I have TSD*. No worries! I hope you had (and are having) a great holiday.

*Thick Skin Disorder. I understand what you're trying to say and that you might be a bit defensive from being a punching bag due to the position you've taken in this thread.

 

[Christian Hoffer]

The most likely answer to this is that D&D's marketing cycle has been focused on the glut of new releases that only ended earlier this month. Then, marketing didn't want to compete with the holidays.

The 2025 releases outside of the Monster Manual weren't announced until January 2025. I'd expect something similar for next year's books.

 

[AlViking]

I have TSD*. No worries! I hope you had (and are having) a great holiday.

*Thick Skin Disorder. I understand what you're trying to say and that you might be a bit defensive from being a punching bag due to the position you've taken in this thread.

I don't take offense at anything anyone says here - or if I did it would have to be something that violated the code of conduct and then I'd just report it. Slightly mild annoyance exacerbated by not getting enough sun is all.