D&D 5E D&D Beyond: No More À La Carte Purchases But US Customers Can Buy Physical Books

WotC has announced some changes to D&D Beyond's marketplace. These include physical products (for US customers), the removal of à la carte purchases, and various navigational changes.

You can no longer buy individual feats, subclasses, etc. -- you'll need to buy the whole book. The full list of changes includes:

• US shoppers can now buy physical books
• More info on product listings, including previews
• UI improvements to makee finding your purchased content and redeeming keys easier
• No more à la carte purchases (though your previous ones still count)

 

[Micah Sweet]

They literally just left money on the table by cancelling the microtransactions in DNDBeyond, which has some fair popularity and were priced to make them money from people who didn't want to buy entire books. It seems they did this to quiet accusations of microtransactions...though it's only strangely fueled them because apparently it's opposite day.

There is no evidence it was competing with macrotransactions - and if there were, that would be further evidence they're less likely to create systems that involved microstransactions and just learned a lesson about them detracting from a primary product.

I mean this whole topic was intermingled with the "and they want to get rid of print books" while this announcement also increased the accessibility of print books.

I really think we've reached the "Any WOTC news will be spun as negative WOTC news and twisted to further whatever anti-WOTC spin we're trying to put on things" stage of these discussions. If WOTC were rescuing babies I suspect people would claim they were doing it just to distract from some other bad thing.

They literally removed functionality from DDB. How is that not a negative?

 

[FrogReaver]

That's purely more rumors and guesswork. A thing which doesn't exist, and which we have no details about, will have microtransactions because...reasons?

They had microtransactions. THESE were the microtransactions. They just removed them. The VTT is planned to be part of DNDBeyond. Right now, they model they're demonstrating is not microtransactions. So what is the evidence they will have microtransactions in the VTT and where do you get your 95% number?

So classify what constitutes a micro-transaction however you want. 99% maybe 100% of people weren’t complaining about being able to buy just the parts of the book they wanted when they complained about micro-transactions.

Does it make their concerns any less valid if you classify ala carte book content purchases as a micro-transaction?

 

[wedgeski]

I believe the removal of piecemeal transactions had been forecast, but I'm still very disappointed to see it happen. The majority of my money went that way into DNDB. Ah, well.

Presumably, we'll see some kind of god-tier subscription option in the near future, giving you access to everything as long as you stay at that level.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't view that as micro transactions.

I mean, not that I am condoning getting rid of it, but this is by definition microtransactions.

In general, I recall hearing that very few Beyond users actually did a la carte purchases, so...if it took effort on the backend to support, getting rid of it might make sense.

 

[Mistwell]

They literally removed functionality from DDB. How is that not a negative?

The primary part of this announcement was, "D&D Beyond shoppers shipping to the U.S. can now purchase physical books. They can also purchase physical and digital bundles at a discount!"

That is something people have sought for a long time and a big positive. But it went so ignored it's not even mentioned in the summary initial post in this thread - even though that's the primary announcement and biggest change!

I honestly think WOTC news issues here at ENWorld are becoming like Twitter/X. News comes out, and tribes gather to decide how they're going to spin that news for their longstanding narratives. It doesn't matter what the news is, it's now a game to see who can spin it to the most extreme the fastest and with the most vigor.

 

[Dire Bare]

Microtransactions are not inherently consumer unfriendly or a bad thing . . . as evidenced by folks upset WotC removed them from D&D Beyond.

Microtransactions have, of course, been used in a consumer unfriendly way by many video game publishers, which has led to some folks feeling that ALL microtransactions in a game are bad.

WotC has not given any reason for the removal of the a la carte microtransactions from DDB, the only speculation that really makes any sense is that this simply wasn't working for them in some way. The idea that they removed them to quiet online criticism is possible, but unlikely.

Will microtransactions return to DDB in some form, at some point? Unlikely, but who knows? Will the new VTT include microtransactions? Unlikely, but we'll see. Why would the VTT use a different marketplace model than DDB? The two services will be tied together, you won't have to purchase your books again on the VTT.

The microtransactions folks worry about for D&D . . . I think . . . are purchasing game items singly, without the option of purchasing them in a book. Like a new subclass (or feat, spell, monster) only available as a microtransaction, rather than as an a la carte option from a larger book.

Folks are nervous about pay-to-win microtransactions that gave the marketing model a bad name in the video game industry. This doesn't worry or bother me at all, as long as the game items are reasonably balanced and not over-priced. I'm fairly confident D&D isn't going to become a pay-to-win sort of game.

As usual, most of the online kvetching is sky-is-falling hyperbole. It is a bummer that the DDB Marketplace lost a la carte options, but I suspect most folks weren't using them anyway.

 

[cranberry]

WotC has not given any reason for the removal of the a la carte microtransactions from DDB, the only speculation that really makes any sense is that this simply wasn't working for them in some way. The idea that they removed them to quiet online criticism is possible, but unlikely.

Will microtransactions return to DDB in some form, at some point? Unlikely, but who knows? Will the new VTT include microtransactions? Unlikely, but we'll see. Why would the VTT use a different marketplace model than DDB? The two services will be tied together, you won't have to purchase your books again on the VTT.

My guess is that they'll move the microtransactions to the VTT. Having the option to dress up your 3D token will be very appealing to many people.

 

[Dire Bare]

My guess is that they'll move the microtransactions to the VTT. Having the option to dress up your 3D token will be very appealing to many people.

I was thinking game items . . . like subclasses, feats, spells, etc.

But yeah, being able to purchase a digital item for the virtual tabletop itself, like a 3D miniature . . . I can see that.

And again, it doesn't worry me. Microtransactions can be done well and they can be done poorly. If WotC wants me to make a microtransaction to purchase a digital miniature, similar to HeroForge but for the virtual tabletop . . . I'm okay with that.

We'll have to wait and see how WotC structures things. They have to actually bring that VTT itself past the finish line before we get all worried about microtransactions.

 

[mamba]

The primary part of this announcement was, "D&D Beyond shoppers shipping to the U.S. can now purchase physical books. They can also purchase physical and digital bundles at a discount!"

couldn’t I get bundles at a discount already or was that only during preorders?

As to getting books shipped, they cost more and it takes longer than Amazon, so not sure anyone was clamoring for this

 

[Zaukrie]

I mean, not that I am condoning getting rid of it, but this is by definition microtransactions.

In general, I recall hearing that very few Beyond users actually did a la carte purchases, so...if it took effort on the backend to support, getting rid of it might make sense.

This.....also this idea that people here know why it happened is silliness. We don't have any idea at all. Though your explanation fits Occam's razor....