TheAlkaizer
Game Designer
I've expressed in many details of the further stages of this path as it is now in the video game industry. It is not good for the products, it is not good for the consumers in the end.What, exactly, is the problem? It makes me feel a little crazy that several people have already posted and seem to agree on the existence of some problem, but no one, including the OP, has clearly expressed what that is.
My issue with the image is not so much that the current state of things is terrible. But I saw the exact same thing appear a decade ago in video games and here we are. Many know where this is headed, and that is terrible.
It is unclear what you find to be such a death-knell. The fact that they give you a discount if you buy all three? That they give you some digital art bits along with if you're using D&D Beyond?
Note that they aren't offering different playable content in different tiers. The benefits are getting at it a little early (as if that matters - you hope folks play for years, a week one side or the other ain't a thing), and having some bits to spruce up your digital characters sheets.
Or, is it the fact that they have digital offerings at all? If so, with respect, this is the 21st century.
As mentioned above, the current state is not so terrible. I certainly don't like it. There's no need for these tiers; the only reason they exist is so they can put candies in bigger bundles and get people to climb the stairway. Ubisoft is notorious for it in the video game industry. You could buy the base game. But you could buy the other edition that gives you a rebate on four undisclosed expansion to come. Now's the only time to get this deal. Also, if you spend 50$ more, you get all this extra content that could have, and should have been in the main game, but we've split it to make you spend more.
They're not moving into digital because it will make for a better product (albeit it could arguably make one). They do it because they want you to buy third party content on their platform, where they have control and can change the terms. They want to go digital so that they can pull off what they tried to with the OGL without you having any recourse. They do it because they'll monetize it. If you buy the new book digitally, you'll get all of this. But if you pay more, you'll get three exclusive spells for your wizard.
It's just not a good path. Some good will come out of it, but the bad will be magnitudes bigger.