Let's put the whole "boxed" game issue to the side for the moment and let's look at it purely from a book perspective.
Past history for the game was three core books (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual) for about $100 total. That gave you the rules to create everything you needed to run your 20 or 30 level campaign for years, and it was expected that your prototypical D&D gamer was going to buy all three of those books. One book for creating characters and the rules of the game, one book for instruction on how to run the game, and one book with the enemies needed to face in the game.
Now... how else could you arrange this information? Doing it in such a way that you only needed ONE book to actually run a basic game campaign (used to get new players into the fold)... with the OTHER TWO books meant to expand the game up to the level which your prototypical D&D players would come to expect? So that if you were to buy all 3 books... you'd get all the same information you would have gotten in the previous editions?
As an example:
Book One: The Dungeons & Dragons Game
- Character creation up to Level 10 for the Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling / Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Martial and Skill dice defaulted to a set average number as a basic bonus to damage/skills, a fair sized spell list, and no Backgrounds or Specialties.
- Basic Equipment.
- Rules of Gameplay - Ability checks for exploration & interaction, and combat rules.
- "DM Section" - how to narrate, how to adjudicate decisions, how to create encounters, how to give out treasure (with a very basic treasure list).
- "Monster Section" - a single BASIC statblock for each of the main monsters in the game (like all the main humanoids, undead, dragon, giant etc.)
- Starting town and introductory adventure, plus ways to expand that out to create a "campaign".
Book Two: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook
- Character creation up to Level 20 for all the additional races / classes / multi-classing, plus Levels 11-20 for the Core Four of the first book. Expanded spell lists, rituals, additional modules for Backgrounds, Specialties (plus feats), Maneuvers, Domains, Schemes, Traditions etc.
- Expanded equipment lists and modules on different ways to use equipment, encumbrance.
- Rules of Gameplay additional modules - Ability checks using skills, variant healing and damage rules, variant death and dying rules, air combat, underwater combat, expanded stealth and perception.
Book Three: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide
- additional modules for campaign building, deity pantheons, cosmology
- expanded tactical combat module for using grids and miniatures
- methods for exchanging / replacing modules within the game to create the type of campaign you want (including instructions on how to select which rules and modules to recreate versions of each previous edition)
- statblocks of additional monsters PLUS extra "elite" statblocks of monsters from Book One that have more interesting options to use as bosses etc. over the basic ones.
- statblocks and rules for traps and terrain
- additional and expanded magical items
And there you have it. The exact same info you would have gotten in your three core books in all the previous editions... EXCEPT the way they are presented is different. And no information is ever repeated in any book. The only difference is that a player could just buy Book One and stop... because that would be all that is necessary for he/she and friends to play D&D games to Level 10 for as many years as they want. But... if they find they really like the game and want MORE... they have those two Advanced books to give them all that extra stuff they might want.
And all us D&D experienced players and grognards? Well... we were going to be buying all three core books ANYWAY right from the beginning... so doing so again is no problem. The only thing that would take some time for us to get used to is the fact that not every rule /spell / monster is going to be found together in a single book. We will need to occasionally go to a second one.
But here's the thing (and yes, I'm giving WotC a big benefit of the doubt here)...
What if WotC realizes this? And they specific design their PDF and E-Reader versions of the books such that if you bought all three... they would rearrange themselves electronically so that all requisite sections get put together? Because by the time D&DN gets released... I think the laptop/tablet/e-reader market will have expanded to the point where there's a good chance that electronic users will outnumber the hardcover users. And thus... going that little bit extra to make their electronic options adaptable seems like a smart and good idea.
Throw in the D&DNext version of D&D Insider (where all the Character Builder, Monster Builder, Adventure Builder, Rules Compendium stuff is stored and accessed), and there again the idea that certain parts of the rules got split up over two hardcover books is completely ameliorated.
Now WILL any of this happen? No idea. But it's certainly not an impossibility. And it gets us what we want... a single core book that gives players a complete game (which can then be expanded upon with two additional advanced ones.)
