I wrote my thoughts here:
I think the centralization of RPGs around D&D Beyond is bad for the hobby overall but I don't really see that happening so far. The sorts of products WOTC is publishing exclusively on D&D Beyond aren't products I think are vital to the hobby. I think they're temporary. We know they won't be around forever. WOTC has proven themselves unwilling to preserve previous digital products and efforts:
- Removal of decades of content form dnd.wizards.com.
- Complete removal of all of Dragon+ Magazine.
- Removel of all 4e tools, including downloadable ones.
- Removal of lore from products purchased on D&D Beyond – Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse.
So anything we license from them on D&D Beyond, including core products, we can't assume we'll continue to have access to it. Just read their
Terms and Conditions (seriously, go read it). You have no rights. They have all the rights. They can change anything they want at any time and you can't do anything about it. This is sometimes referred to as a Darth Vader EULA ("I'm altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further").
Now the nice thing is we have a nice high lower floor for how bad things can go:
- The important books are in print and we can actually own those.
- The rules are in the Creative Commons so others can build their own material around them, build their own tools, and so on.
- We have complete alternative 5e systems that are generally compatible and do have PDFs (Tales of the Valiant, Level Up Advanced 5e, and Fateforge come to mind).
- We have a ton of other RPGs we can play that harken back to 50 years of D&D.
- Every other edition of D&D and like 95% of all D&D supplements pre-5e are available as PDFs now.
So however bad D&D Beyond gets, we can always walk away and go somewhere else. But that gets harder to do the more material you have on there.
Another disturbing trend are publishers changing their publication schedules and products specifically to support D&D Beyond. Kobold Press has books like an update Creature Codex and a book of adventures for Northlands that aren't built for their own Tales of the Valiant system but are instead made for D&D 2024 so that they can get them on D&D Beyond. The money is really good there from what I understand and there's no exclusivity – although some publishers like Chaosium are making products exclusive themselves. Don't count on having access to that Cthulhu 5e variant in ten years.
I think RPGs have a fundamental resistance to enshittification. The game is still largely played with physical books, pencils, paper, and dice. There are tons of viable digital tools from several companies to play online. We have tons of openly-licensed rulesets to build future games and accessories.
But I think it's clear that WOTC sees D&D Beyond as a big profit generator – selling fungable licenses to digitial products from themselves and their partners along with a monthly fee for services. I don't expect them to walk away from publishing physical books as long as they're profitable but I bet D&D Beyond is seen as the real profit generator.
And yes, WOTC should totally release all their books in PDFs for several reasons:
1. They're already available in PDF and other digital downloadable formats – just not legally!
2. They'd follow through on their statements to be good stewards of D&D's past and future legacy.
3. They'd very likely make a good amount of money. I'm guessing the money they make selling old D&D products on the DM's Guild isn't zero!
4. They won't cannibalize D&D Beyond subscriptions because people still want a centralized character builder and integrated maps application.
5. Every other RPG publisher does it.
There's no good reason not to sell D&D products as PDFs and it would go a long way to show WOTC's commitment to their customers and the legacy of D&D.
