D&D (2024) D&D 2024 Core Rulebooks: 'We'll Still Be Working On Them In May'

In a recent Unearthed Arcana video, Jeremy Crawford at WotC revealed that the new core rulebooks would definitely not be available in May of this year, as reported in the (withdrawn) infographics released by WotC on social media and at last year's Pax Unplugged 2023 panel.

I just want to confirm with you and as well with everyone watching this video - that is definitely not the release date. That was never the release date. In fact, we will still be working on the books in May.

 

[Zaukrie]

But my question, Zaukrie, is getting at why is the absence of a release date now indicative of poor planning? I mean, the books are going to come out when they are ready, no doubt in time to honor the anniversary in some capacity. They will receive more-than-adequate announcement at a time that Wizards of the Coast think is sufficient to promote them and when they are certain they can actually hit such a date given all the various minutiae of publication.

Why on earth is it poor planning that a bunch of nerds on Enworld have not been informed of the release dates in February? I simply do not follow. It merely sounds like impatience to me....which is understandable. I am looking forward to the books...but in this case, it seems like blame is also being aimed at Wizards of the Coast...which seems a bit like scapegoating to me. If we're impatient for the books, we can own up to that..we don't have to always create a villain.

The post I replied to wasn't about an announcement, it was about not knowing when they be done for sure.... I'm not impatient at all, I've got plenty of books.

As a marketing and product management professional..... I'll just say if they don't know when their biggest release in a decade is coming out, that's bad. If they do, and they aren't spending the entire year hyping it, that's bad. It's been five weeks, and there been virtually no hype this year outside a couple tweets.

 

[Hatmatter]

The post I replied to wasn't about an announcement, it was about not knowing when they be done for sure.... I'm not impatient at all, I've got plenty of books.

As a marketing and product management professional..... I'll just say if they don't know when their biggest release in a decade is coming out, that's bad. If they do, and they aren't spending the entire year hyping it, that's bad. It's been five weeks, and there been virtually no hype this year outside a couple tweets.

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

As for me, I don't really see what the big deal is.

Also, I haven't read anything that suggests that Wizards of the Coast does not know the target release date. Perhaps they are not announcing a release date because they want to make sure that the book can be published by that date -- given the publication troubles of the last couple years -- before announcing it. Lord knows that if a date was announced and had to be then changed, there would be endless posts criticizing Wizards. It seems like no matter what they do, they receive criticism in places like these forums...at least that is the impression I receive from reading these forums for the last 15 years or so.

 

[Parmandur]

Big corporations that don't know when they are releasing massive products have poor planning. That's not even debatable. It's stuff you learn in first year business school.

Big difference between knowing and announcing

 

[Mercurius]

While I agree that there's some wobbly professionalism going on and can understand disappointment at a delay, it does sound like they want to do it right, which is never a bad thing (especially considering how hard-to-please their customer base is). Plus, they're working with the problem of printing so many copies.

So give 'em a chance. I can see missing the 2024 50th anniversary year as veering towards significant blunder, but we're not there yet. And even so, it would be kind of amusing for "5.1E" to come out on the 51st anniversary.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The question though is what actually is meaningful to the people who will buy/play the game? The "anniversary" or the actual updated 5E24?

For the most part anniversaries are just arbitrary dates that we all use to symbolize the passage of time. There is nothing inherently more important about the 50th year versus the 51st year, other than we humans liking numbers on the 5s and 10s in most cases. But at least in this case, what is going to be more important for any of us-- the release of new 5E24 books, or the "50th Anniversary"? I would say that the actual books being released means much more to us than any anniversary, so it doesn't actually matter when the new books appear. Sure, you might get a bit of a bump marketing-wise for being able to release new books in the year that we would demarcate as a worthwhile "anniversary"... but I don't happen to think that that marketing bump would be all that significant over and above the standard marketing we'd have for just "NEW BOOKS!"

Releasing on the 50th Anniversary is nice but not actually necessary-- same way releasing a Baldur's Gate 3 tie-inn product is nice, but not actually necessary. The actual products themselves upon release will garner more than enough marketing push on their own.

 

[Hatmatter]

The question though is what actually is meaningful to the people who will buy/play the game? The "anniversary" or the actual updated 5E24?

For the most part anniversaries are just arbitrary dates that we all use to symbolize the passage of time. There is nothing inherently more important about the 50th year versus the 51st year, other than we humans liking numbers on the 5s and 10s in most cases. But at least in this case, what is going to be more important for any of us-- the release of new 5E24 books, or the "50th Anniversary"? I would say that the actual books being released means much more to us than any anniversary, so it doesn't actually matter when the new books appear. Sure, you might get a bit of a bump marketing-wise for being able to release new books in the year that we would demarcate as a worthwhile "anniversary"... but I don't happen to think that that marketing bump would be all that significant over and above the standard marketing we'd have for just "NEW BOOKS!"

Releasing on the 50th Anniversary is nice but not actually necessary-- same way releasing a Baldur's Gate 3 tie-inn product is nice, but not actually necessary. The actual products themselves upon release will garner more than enough marketing push on their own.

Now this I entirely agree with. Nicely written, Defcon!

I really don't know why most people here would care about marketing...we are all role-players, most of us are not members of this business industry that contributes to the annoying, continuous noise that constitutes contemporary culture....aka "marketing."

I feel similarly about the online chatter about how much money a film makes upon its release. It seems like that has become so important to an increasing number of people over the last 20 years. When I was a kid I didn't care how much money a film made for the millionaires who created it, I cared about whether it was a good film or not. Marketing, finances: yikes! I find that stuff tedious enough in my private life...in fact I probably role-play to escape from thinking about that stuff.

Anyway, I am very much excited about the anniversary editions and looking forward to seeing the great 2014 books get some tweaking to make them even better even while the fundamental game stays the same and I don't need to learn a whole new system such as the switch from 3.5 to 4th edition and then the switch from 4th edition to 5th. I am very happy about that. Cheers everyone!

 

[SteveC]

I really don't know why most people here would care about marketing...we are all role-players, most of us are not members of this business industry that contributes to the annoying, continuous noise that constitutes contemporary culture....aka "marketing."

Just to comment about this: people who play D&D enough to be on a message board about it are pretty invested in the game. We discuss tons of topics that aren't relevant to our experience and backgrounds. We care and want the game to succeed. Or we want it to fail. And nerds in general (and I'm speaking of myself here, I am completely a nerd) tend to be intense with the things we all like and want to discuss it too much. I know my poor wife is a particular victim of this.

 

[Hatmatter]

Just to comment about this: people who play D&D enough to be on a message board about it are pretty invested in the game. We discuss tons of topics that aren't relevant to our experience and backgrounds. We care and want the game to succeed. Or we want it to fail. And nerds in general (and I'm speaking of myself here, I am completely a nerd) tend to be intense with the things we all like and want to discuss it too much. I know my poor wife is a particular victim of this.

Gotcha, thanks, Steve. Thanks for responding. I share in your enthusiasm. I still don't care about marketing.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Gotcha, thanks, Steve. Thanks for responding. I share in your enthusiasm. I still don't care about marketing.

A lot of people on these boards actually DO have a reason to care about the marketing - we have DMsGuild writers, 3rd Party Publishers, and Game Store owners (like myself) to go along with the armchair quarterbacks (some of which have marketing experience in other fields, which can apply too).

AND we have people that like to talk about how they don't care if the game sells or not, as if they'd get to play it either way. (Which of course, they can, but it's kind of funny when they want changes made to the core that even they acknowledge would probably make it sell worse).

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This means my group will have time to play Tales of the Valiant and other systems for a while before evaluating the new books. I'm cool with that!