D&D 5E Initial D&D Next Releases Showing Up on Barnes & Noble Website

[Mistwell]

Kind of sucks for your FLGS if they have to retail at $50 for a brand-new product release and compete against a $35 price on line.

Why do they have to retail it at $50?

 

[Blackbrrd]

Except that if history is any guide, you'll only get 2-3 years before they release v5.5, 5E Essentials, or whatever the name for the next in-edition product refresh will be...

*ducks*

... except, 4e essentials was 100% backwards compatible with 4e, unlike 3.5 which had some small but important changes. It's a 2-3 year refresh that really only adds value.

Anyway, I don't get the complaining about the 50$ price point when it's obvious you won't be paying that if you don't want to, seeing it's "on sale" for under 38$ already.

PS: in Norway, you wouldn't be allowed to use the 50$ before price because they haven't had it on sale for that price for long enough. It's legally as if the book never had been on sale for 50$. In other words, purely a misleading marketing stunt.

PPS: in Norway, the price for the AD&D PHB was around 200 NOK twenty years ago, and if I can order it online for 38$, that's about 250 NOK now. In the mean time, the average wage in Norway has increased by something like 150%. In other words, it's basically half price now compared to 1994.

PPPS: Norway does have a oil-fueled economy. Anything imported is dirt cheap (except cars, alchohol and sigarettes, due to taxes), anything made in Norway is relatively very expensive. It's pretty weird, but we actually have an "oil fund" of arond 150,000 USD per capita.

Yeah, and I am looking forward to 5e, but I have no idea if I am actually going to play it. I recently started a 4e campaign as a DM and am about one third through a campaign run by a friend of mine. Maybe in 2017?

 

[JEB]

Well, it's absolutely true, as I understand it, that our salaries are not, on average, keeping up with inflation and cost of living. But that's not a problem with Wizards, that's a problem with economics.

Wizards charges what the market will bear -- and the market /will bear/ this price.

The market may bear the price, but I wouldn't expect the market to grow very much either. $50 suggests that outside of the Starter Set (which could be great or terrible, no way to know yet) Wizards doesn't care about D&D's appeal to novice gamers anymore. Which is not only unfortunate, it's a bad long-term strategy.

Starter Set - This will be the Basic game, as described by Mearls, probably very much resembling Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. Full game, at least 10 levels, with long-term campaign adventure. Just spitballing, I suspect it'll come with a Players Book that contains rules to play and chargen, and a DM's book that contains the adventure, DM advice, and bestiary. They could quite easily go with the physical contents of the Essentials Red Box: 2 books, maps, and tokens, and all they need to do is beef up the written content. And y'know, one way that I think it would be really cool to control costs is to go old school layout: forego the colorful, glossy paper for some black & white artwork on sturdy paper.

This would be a good approach. I wish I was confident Wizards was doing that.

Kind of sucks for your FLGS if they have to retail at $50 for a brand-new product release and compete against a $35 price on line.

Agreed that this is another problem with the price, but a) until now, D&D had been the exception and not the rule in saddling FLGS with expensive core rulebooks and b) I don't think Wizards is worried about FLGS (which is also unfortunate).

 

[Holy Bovine]

I don't know how scientific it is but every edition feels like it needs to 'prove itself' more then the last...

I think they should sell the first print of PHB (and only PHB not MM or DMG) at cost -10% and first print of MM and DMG at cost. they should be small print runs, and the second print runs and on should then be at normal price (although I think $40 is the most)

Imagine PHB 1st run at $24.95 later at $39.99 PDF @ $15
DMG 1st print at $32.95 then later at $39.99 PDF @ $15
MM 1st print at $32.95 then later at $39.99 PDF @ $15

then they could have a gen con exclusive you get all 3 books for $69.99

Really? I mean...just...really? See at a loss or (at best) a break even point is the way to "win" people over.

Maybe they should be handing out free ice cream and $100 bills with every PHB sold too?

Nah - someone is bound to complain that the ice cream is only in vanilla or the $100 bills are not crisp enough.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Starter Set - This will be the Basic game, as described by Mearls, probably very much resembling Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. Full game, at least 10 levels, with long-term campaign adventure. Just spitballing, I suspect it'll come with a Players Book that contains rules to play and chargen, and a DM's book that contains the adventure, DM advice, and bestiary. They could quite easily go with the physical contents of the Essentials Red Box: 2 books, maps, and tokens, and all they need to do is beef up the written content.

Considering the Red Box was at the same price point; and the fact that 5e doesn't need maps, tokens, or cards; it seems like there's a lot more room for content this time around.

 

[darjr]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ons-Next-Release-Date-New-Product-Leak-Update

the escapist got an official 'no comment' back from WotC. the author of the above article speculates that means the dates are real.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Why do they have to retail it at $50?

I don't know. They may not have to, but it sure seems like every brick-and-mortar place I go to sells books (not just game books) at full retail until they go into the bargain bin.

 

[Jester David]

Why do they have to retail it at $50?

They don't have to, but as they have staff and retail space to pay for (unlike most online retailers) they can't sell it for much less if they want to stay in business. Game stores aren't exactly doing so hot that they can discount things too much.

 

[Shadowsoul]

I would say that Wizards of the Coast are a little too sure of themselves and their product.

What they need to realize is there are a number of people who felt they were burned by 4th edition and will not go in headlong again without at least checking it out first.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I would say that Wizards of the Coast are a little too sure of themselves and their product.

What they need to realize is there are a number of people who felt they were burned by 4th edition and will not go in headlong again without at least checking it out first.

The change this time (assuming previous statements are still true) is that the $20 starter set is the actual buy-in point, rather than being just an advertisement for the PHB.