D&D (2024) 3,000 Player's Handbooks Available At Gen Con

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At Gen Con (August 1-4), there will be 3,000 copies of the Player's Handbook available. These copies will include a gold foil D&D logo and a commemorative bookplate.

RENTON, WA – July 18, 2024 – It’s a banner year for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS! Coming off the acclaimed film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the smash hit video game Baldur’s Gate 3, D&D is celebrating 50 years of the WORLD’S GREATEST ROLEPLAYING GAME. More than 64 million D&D fans love rolling dice, slaying monsters, and envisioning themselves as the amazing heroes they all are inside. This year at Gen Con 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS will be debuting the 2024 Player’s Handbook making D&D more accessible than ever before. Wizards is bringing 3,000 copies of the 2024 Player’s Handbook hot off the presses to Gen Con 2024 – each of which features the 50th anniversary logo in gold foil, along with a commemorative "Gen Con 2024" bookplate making it even more exclusive and distinguishing it from other first-run copies.

"The energy at Gen Con is always electric. Being able to put copies of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, fresh from the printer, directly into players' hands on the floor of the convention is something truly special,” said Jess Lanzillo, VP of D&D Franchise and Product at Wizards of the Coast. “We can't wait to see the excitement as our fans dive into the possibilities contained within!”

The Player’s Handbook goes on sale everywhere on September 17, 2024, and fans can pre-order the D&D Beyond Digital edition and/or bundlenow for character sheet bonuses: 10 frames, 5 backdrops, and 12 digital dice sets—one for each class!

Pre-order the core rulebooks bundle now on the D&D Beyond Marketplace to receive the Dragons of D&D digital art book, D&D BEYOND Gold Digital Dice set, and a 50th anniversary digital Gold Dragon mini in the upcoming 3D sandbox. Fans will learn how to sign up for the closed beta at Gen Con!

How to Purchase the First Publicly Available 2024 Player’s Handbooks

Gen Con attendees will be the first fans to have an opportunity to purchase the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Here’s how:

Where to Buy

The 2024 Player's Handbook will be available at Lucas Oil Stadium, Northwest Concourse. It will be in a shared sales area with the USPS D&D Stamps.

Sales Dates

August 1: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT
August 2/3/4: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Pricing

The 2024 Player’s Handbook is $49.99 plus tax. Credit card sales (Discover, Mastercard, Visa) only.

At 7:00 AM EDT on each sales day, tickets to reserve an opportunity to purchase will be released in the Gen Con event ticketing system as an event. The event will be listed as a free ticket and will be titled “D&D 2024 Player’s Handbook Early Release Sale.” A Gen Con attendee may claim one digital ticket for that day, subject to availability. The digital ticket serves as your access to purchase for that day only.

Once you have your digital ticket, you will show up at the sales location during the sales hours listed for that day. Sales will not be processed outside of those hours. You must be in line by the end of the sales window to ensure you are able to purchase for that day.

Rules and Restrictions

Only one digital ticket will be redeemable per person per day. Upon redemption, we may issue a wristband to denote that you have been checked in for your purchase, even while in line - this means you no longer need to show your digital ticket. There will be no sales to non-ticket holders (e.g., no "walk ups"). One book per redeemed ticket only; all sales are final.
 

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They are providing digital tools. They've stated that they will continue to publish books for the foreseeable future. I see no reason they would lie, the cost of printing a book is relatively minimal compared to the cost of development.

It's possible that at some point printing a book may not be profitable for any publisher, I see no reason for it to be any time soon. I really don't get why people keep repeating this.
The reason to go digital is it is far more lucrative financially than printing books that people will get a free copy of online, avoiding paying for your book. Professor Dungeon Master talks about it on his recent episode:

 

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The reason to go digital is it is far more lucrative financially than printing books that people will get a free copy of online, avoiding paying for your book. Professor Dungeon Master talks about it on his recent episode:

There are three groups of D&D players:

1) Those who prefer digital assets and are willing to pay for them.
2) Those who prefer physical books and are willing to pay for them.
3) Those who would rather use a crappy pirated PDF than pay for either.

People in group 3 were never going to provide WotC with much revenue anyway. That leaves groups 1 and 2, and as long as both are substantial enough to generate a decent ROI (which they appear to be), we can expect Wizards to continue providing both.
 

The reason to go digital is it is far more lucrative financially than printing books that people will get a free copy of online, avoiding paying for your book. Professor Dungeon Master talks about it on his recent episode:


There's a lot of people out there who have posit extreme views to get eyeballs. They've stated they intend to continue to sell books, a significant portion, likely the majority of people play don't have a DDB account.

I simply don't believe the hype, negativity sells. That doesn't make it true.
 


There are three groups of D&D players:

1) Those who prefer digital assets and are willing to pay for them.
2) Those who prefer physical books and are willing to pay for them.
3) Those who would rather use a crappy pirated PDF than pay for either.

People in group 3 were never going to provide WotC with much revenue anyway. That leaves groups 1 and 2, and as long as both are substantial enough to generate a decent ROI (which they appear to be), we can expect Wizards to continue providing both.


There are a lot of gamers today that use pirate wiki websites (one in particular) for 5E, especially character generation. Not PDFs, but not poor quality either.
 

Going "all in on digital" does not mean "abandon print". If nothing else, people that buy a book or two will be more likely to buy a DDB subscription. If they can make a profit selling books, they will. After all, the development of the rules that go into the books has to be done for digital anyway.

I'll believe we won't have books when we have a truly paperless office and nobody buys physical books anymore. Both of which have been predicted for decades now. There's less paper in the office and fewer physical books sold, but neither is going away in the foreseeable future.

Don't let any measly facts like Amazon still selling tens of thousands PHBs every month get in the way of conspiracy theories and fear mongering. 🤷
 





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