D&D General D&D Book Prices Are Going Up

WotC announced today that D&D books will be increasing in price this year.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be $59.99 as a preorder and $69.99 thereafter. These will apparently come as physical and digital bundles, so you won’t need to buy the D&D Beyond version separately.

This space is dedicated to communicating clearly and transparently with our players- even when the topic isn’t particularly fun. Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We're committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.

This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.

Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.

 

[Morrus]

Thanks much.

Can you elaborate on what the $4 covers in this scenario? Does ~8.5x11" size, full color, glossy paper, 300-400 pages, hardcover sound about right? Are there significant price changes for different binding, cover, paper, or color options? Does this include shipping to your office? Where would this be printed (China, similar, or more local)?

Just curious. Any info you can provide is appreciated.

I can tell you what we use.

We print in Europe. China is cheaper (but shipping from there costs more), US is (slightly) more expensive.

We're talking about books similar to a WotC hardcover, yes. We often even add ribbons!

It does not include freight. Depending where you're shipping from and to, that can be very expensive. China to the US is a hefty bill. I (assume)
WotC prints in the US, but I don't know for sure, and so shipping to their US warehouse(s) won't be so bad, but they also need to ship cargo transatlantic to EN distribution hubs, and probably elsewhere in the world. And for them, they're shipping a lot of books; we only have to ship a couple of thousand at a time, which makes us wince when we see the bill, but they'll be shipping many, many times that.

 

[Jadeite]

I guess "being inclusive" doesn't include including the poor. Money is the ultimate gatekeeper, after all. It's not like they couldn't release A5 softcover versions of the books like Paizo or other publishers do.

 

[teitan]

$10, not $20. The MSRP is going up by $10 from $49.95, where it has been for a decade, to $59.95 (and only for new plbpoks, old books are still sticking to the original MSRP). I haven't seen a Burrito for as low as $10 in a long, long time.

And I can respect being done with aluxury item: I have a 5th kid on the way, myself, and I could stop tomorrow and have all the materials that I need, for sure.

For preorder yeah.

 

[delericho]

They've stated that the new books will have more content which means a higher page count.

Are you sure? The new PHB has been confirmed as 320 pages, same as the 2014 version. The 2014 DMG is also 320 pages, much of which could be better used. And the 2014 MM is bigger, and probably isn't far off the 500 monsters they're claiming for this new one.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I am a collector, not a true player. I have bought the books of World of Darkness 20 Anniversay for my collection, not to be played.

If I only wanted the rules, I can get the SRD, and this is totally legal.

I had to await several years to can buy the translated edition. And comparing I feel I am paying more for lesser number of pages. It is not comparing with my great number of 3.5 books, but also titles by other publishers, for example Starfinder, translated by Devir España, or World of Darkness 20A translated by Nosolorol.

And it is not only the rival publishers, but the time and the money for hobby in the age of the free-to-play videogames. Years ago I bought FortniteSave the World) before the Battle Royal became superpopular. I wanted to spend my money because I felt guilty playing totally free when some online videogames closed servers because they didn't earn enough. The last year I have spent money in other online videogame, Titan Shops, a fantasy management shop, because I believe that videogame studio has created a good game, and my spent money was a reward for them.

I have bought some books for my nieces.

In the years of university I could read totally free several novels of Dragonlance in the public library of the capital city.

I feel fustrated because for a time the translation of D&D sourcebooks was stopped, and when I hoped the new books to be cheaper, now they are going to be more expensive by fault of inflantion, and here it is worse. With one month salary you can buy more things, be here we can't. We pay too many taxes.

We aren't talking about some years of "thin cows" (= bad years for the economy) now our economy is in our worst moment since the end of the economy. Some time ago some voices warned Spain would become like Venezuela, and now it is becoming reality.

And several facts are happening behind in the global economy, not only a couple of countries. Before the end of this year the world economy could be radically different. It could be like the crack of 1929, but other say the best is going to arrive (after fixing some things).

 

[MerricB]

If the bundles are like the dragonlance one, you need to buy direct from WotC to get the digital with the physical copy. Considering the cost of postage to NZ for that one, it's actually better for me to purchase them both separately. At least I get a small discount when buying through dndbeyond.

The Dragonlance one - especially if you wanted the boardgame - was a horrible deal for people in the AUS/NZ. I was lucky that a local store got some, so I could get them at a "reasonable" price. And, it seems, before a lot of people who preordered them.

In fact, I couldn't preorder them at all because the marketplace site they used had a character limit on their addresses - and mine is longer than they'd allow. (Utterly, utterly incompetent).

Cheers,
Merric

 

[MerricB]

The price increases are probably fair. They're just unwelcome at present.

I remain unhappy about the digital bundles making buying from your FLGS a bad idea.

However, I do wonder how many people will shell out all the money for the Giants book. (You know, I could probably make a joke comparing it to Redfall - hopefully unwarranted!)

Will the Deck of Many Things be close to $100?

Cheers,
Merric

 

[MerricB]

We're talking about books similar to a WotC hardcover, yes. We often even add ribbons!

I feel I have unfairly ignored your (physical) books. Love me some ribbons.

(Storage space for books is now a big issue for me).

Cheers,
Merric

 

[mamba]

For preorder yeah.

That is the book + digital bundle, and preorder keeps the current pricing, it goes up by $10 after that

“Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.”

 

[Morrus]

I've just written a bit about printing costs here:

Let's talk about printing & shipping RPG books