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.

 

[Deset Gled]

Stephen Glicker, owner of Battlezoo. I can't remember the specific 3 hour podcast he said it in, but it's one of them.

Information insufficient for googling.

Citation still needed.

 

[aco175]

I feel you cannot be a billion dollar business unless you charge more, but I also feel that after 10 years, and especially the last couple with inflation, they get a pass by me on this.

I read the OP and thought that the increase was softened some by offering a digital also blah, blah. Feel like a push to go online to DDB. Even my crack dealer gives out the "First one free."

 

[Eyes of Nine]

It will probably do what it's designed to do - force more people who hold out for print copies to finally switch to digital.

For what it's worth, I have been considering switching to going just D&D Beyond, just because their character sheet is way better than R20's. And I don't think I can afford to buy both dead tree and physical. And in point of fact, I am even now using R20 for the D&D campaign I use for my in-person play

 

[Eyes of Nine]

On the other side of the coin though, the alt covers of the new books are so pretty!!! I am truly facing a conundrum

 

[Vaalingrade]

I feel you cannot be a billion dollar business unless you charge more.

I feel like there probably shouldn't be billion dollar businesses.

 

[BovineofWar]

That's good. I haven't been able to find the actual information on it yet. Distributors are increasingly slow at posting information relative to online hype (and Amazon!)

So if it's $60 USD, which is more reasonable, if unfortunate, that would be ~$80 CAD. While that seems terribly expensive to me ($65 was already pretty steep), it's not totally insane.

Hey look, it's up for $78.95 CAD
Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants (Dungeons & Dragons Expansion Book): Wizards, RPG Team: 9780786968985: Books - Amazon.ca

While I agree that economics is a thing, ouch, that stings. I picked up Spelljammer for $50 CAD and Dragonlance for $40 CAD...

 

[el-remmen]

Remember! None of these books are necessary and homebrewing is free!

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

This is outrageous! Okay, I've got that internet rage out of my system. I don't know about anyone else, but when I play a game as frequently as I play D&D, I'm getting a lot of value out of those books.

You're not only playing d&d at this point but BUYING WotC books? What do they have to do to get you to stop at this point, burn down the entire Amazon rainforest?

 

[Vincent55]

well again they seemed to have put their foot in their mouth again, increasing the price of books on subpar game resources, I quit buying their books as the last few I got just seemed to be half-baked ideas and other stuff tossed in. More fluff and talk than reusable stuff to pull from, and even with the books that appeared to be just that was still disappointing. Anyway, good luck to those who buy them.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah, I'm sure Hasbro has been running at a loss for years...

I never said that. I hope they're making a profit, I like the game. You can download the core rules for free and each core book costs less than a dinner for 2 at a decent restaurant if you get drinks. If money is an issue, have all the players chip in and it's dirt cheap for the number of hours of entertainment you get.