With all the complaints about price, I did some checking about book prices and inflation costs, and $50 for one book is higher than average, but not outrageously so - in 1989, when the 2nd edition came out for $19.95, it was equivalent to about $40 in 2011 dollars, so higher, but not outside the ballpark.
And $50 for a 320-page book released by Hasbro is ludicrous when far smaller companies without economies of scale manage to release similar books for the same price or less.
From what I've seen, the shadowrun book is about 500 pages for $60 - the pathfinder Inner sea World guide from a couple years back was same size for $50, and FFG Edge of the Empire was $60 for about 450 pages, so again, not out of the ballpark.
Would I like to see it cheaper, to lower the barrier to entry? Sure! But it is what it is, and I can understand their pricing. I know I'm getting at least the PHB, but I'll need to really like it and make some converts to get into the rest.
But to be sure, for those saying that it's difficult or impossible to play 5e prior to november? Given all those other times that D&D edition releases have been staggered over a several month period (2nd ed, 3.0 edition, 4th ed) it never stopped us gamers before!

for 4e, I remember people on these very boards collecting monster stats in one document from all over just to cobble together a homebrew monster manual - and a couple of new adventures, to boot!