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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Entirely agree with this. I still purchase books (Cities Without Number is my latest purchase) and the quality of WotC's books is just terrible. If you're going to charge a premium price (and this is that) then give me high quality paper and bindings. That's doubly true with the size of the print runs WotC does in comparison to the competition.

Yeah, it's really hard to look at many comparably priced books off of Kickstarter and not see how cheap WotC books are. Where are the printed endpapers, the thick paper, the sewn-in bookmarks? And that's to say nothing of the skimpy content.

The folks who only buy WotC content, even if they think it's terrible, are WotC's biggest asset, because in a head-to-head comparison, many of their products get blown out of the water by the competition.

 

[deganawida]

As someone who works for a company owned by a hedge fund, "barely breaking even" isn't what their corporate masters care about. They have a target number to hit, even if it's unreasonable -- and even worse, even if it requires unsustainable growth each quarter forever -- and they will hit it, or they will be replaced by people who will.

Is it insane? Yes. Is it incredibly common? Also yes.

10% RoI MoM? Hate that, that growth rate is crazy. Yes, I’ve been in same situation.

 

[JEB]

$60 for a 192 page book with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. Certainly doesn't seem to bode well for the 2024 release of the new edition of the core books, which will probably be significantly more expensive.

I expect they'll keep the core books at the presumably now-standard $60 cover price, and treat them as a relative loss leader.

However, it is true that this might be a bad omen for future page counts (which may go further down) or cover prices (which may go further up) for any non-core book in the One D&D era.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just wish anything beyond the Core Rulebooks was actually worth the purchase. But the truth is that almost none of my D&D books (of any edition) have really justified their sticker price.

I will go to the mat for the 1E Fiend Folio, sir.

 

[SteveC]

I can't tell you if I'm going to trust the video you're talking about or not. At this point, you haven't even named the podcast. Is it a serious interview, or a comedy show? Is the guy giving a real cost breakdown, or is he making an off the cuff estimate? How much detail does he go into?

Stephen Glicker from Roll for Combat is the source. He is a long time industry insider and one of the first people to break the OGL story. I was especially amused at the people who called him out as a liar early in the OGL story and never said boo since then.

Stephen has been outspoken about his belief that WotC is moving to an almost entirely online D&D with physical books being a luxury prestige item, and that's something I don't like but agree with to a strong degree. I've watched Stephen's video where he talks about costs as well. He knows ENWorld and might even have an account here. I don't know him, but I'm going to shoot an email over to ask him to clarify.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Stephen Glicker from Roll for Combat is the source. He is a long time industry insider and one of the first people to break the OGL story. I was especially amused at the people who called him out as a liar early in the OGL story and never said boo since then.

All of these people who want to be the story for breaking the story need to chill out.

 

[Mercador]

Considering that games are going from 80 to 90 CDN here, I think it makes sense that books increase prices as well. We're just used to low inflation for several years so it surprises us all. However, I feel @FitzTheRuke because entertainment is the first thing that people generally cut on their budget.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Glad I don't ever buy these products. Know friends who share them to me instead...

 

[Oofta]

Stephen Glicker from Roll for Combat is the source. He is a long time industry insider and one of the first people to break the OGL story. I was especially amused at the people who called him out as a liar early in the OGL story and never said boo since then.

Stephen has been outspoken about his belief that WotC is moving to an almost entirely online D&D with physical books being a luxury prestige item, and that's something I don't like but agree with to a strong degree. I've watched Stephen's video where he talks about costs as well. He knows ENWorld and might even have an account here. I don't know him, but I'm going to shoot an email over to ask him to clarify.

So from what I gather he's still just some podcaster who's trying to get eyeballs. I mean, yes, obviously WOTC is going all in on digital. So? I don't buy physical books any more and DDB works well for me and I get to share all my books with 9 people now across two groups. I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

Want the dead tree version? You can still buy them. Me? I don't care if I never get another physical book ever again. Same way that I've cut my cable cord, the times they are a' changin'.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So from what I gather he's still just some podcaster who's trying to get eyeballs. I mean, yes, obviously WOTC is going all in on digital. So? I don't buy physical books any more and DDB works well for me and I get to share all my books with 9 people now across two groups. I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

Want the dead tree version? You can still buy them. Me? I don't care if I never get another physical book ever again. Same way that I've cut my cable cord, the times they are a' changin'.

Then why do you care that the prices of physical books are going up, if you don't buy them?