D&D General Penguin Random House To Stop Distributing D&D [UPDATED!]

A memo which went out to retailers this week indicates that Penguin Random House will not be distributing Dungeons & Dragons products in mainstream bookstores from 2024.

Effective December 31, 2023, Penguin Random House LLC will cease distributing titles for Wizards of the Coast LLC. Depending on the product, please ensure that the vendor of record for Wizards of the Coast LLC titles is changed to one of their new distributors listed here: Distributors | WPN."

WotC uses a range of distributors, including Alliance, Diamond, GTS, and more in the US, and Asmodee and others in the UK and Europe. Most of these deal with hobby trade (game stores and the like) retailers, while Penguin Random House is a general book trade publisher. Of course, the game will still be available on Amazon, also.

This isn't brand new news--WotC announced this back at the beginning of September.

UPDATE--WotC spoke to ICv2:

Penguin Random House is a valued partner and publishing licensee of Wizards of the Coast. While we deeply appreciate the excellent service provided over the years by PRHPS, we are now shifting our distribution strategy to utilize the capabilities of Hasbro to sell and distribute D&D products to retailers, and we will continue to partner with PRH on licensed D&D titles like the recently released Lore & Legends and the upcoming Hero's Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse. This change to distribution of Wizards' D&D roleplaying game publications such as rulebooks and adventure content won't affect fans as they will continue to find Dungeons & Dragonsproducts at their preferred retailers.

 

[teitan]

Most of the 5e sales were Amazon. Period.

Bookstores are probably a very tiny slice and certainly not a major part of 5e’s success at all.

1.6 million is a HUGE loss

https://www.enworld.org/threads/5e-lifetime-sales-in-north-american-big-box-stores-revealed.698946/

that is 96 MILLION dollars. Even if WOTC is selling them for like 13 a piece to distribution, that is 14 million dollars lost. That is the PHB alone. The DMG at 800k would be 48 MILLION, or 10 million... it adds up fast to several million lost from losing that retail space, that is HUGE and DDB might be all fine and dandy but it isn't a fix all and isn't a permanent thing. One day that will go away and then what do you have?

 

[mykesfree]

This is interesting for sure, but what the above comments are forgetting is that Hasbro as a company has a mass product distribution to B&N, Target, Walmart, and Amazon.

What this action says to me, is that Hasbro wants Hasbro reps to sell D&D and therefore take a larger cut of profits rather than giving 10-15% to PRH.

With Hasbro controlling the sell-in process it means that D&D can participate in larger Hasbro retailing initiatives or even create a "D&D" section at a big box retailer.

I would not be surprised if the more recent Starter Box Sets which were not sold in the book sections at Big Box stores, were in fact tests to see if Hasbro reps could sell D&D.

Also, take a look at the setup for the New Starter Set Box on Amazon vs. Essentials Box Set. One box is set up as a TOY and the other as a BOOK.

So I think this is really just the case of WotC being a bigger deal at Hasbro and is now dedicating the resources to having D&D as part of the "real" overall offering from Hasbro.

 

[Hussar]

1.6 million is a HUGE loss

https://www.enworld.org/threads/5e-lifetime-sales-in-north-american-big-box-stores-revealed.698946/

that is 96 MILLION dollars. Even if WOTC is selling them for like 13 a piece to distribution, that is 14 million dollars lost. That is the PHB alone. The DMG at 800k would be 48 MILLION, or 10 million... it adds up fast to several million lost from losing that retail space, that is HUGE and DDB might be all fine and dandy but it isn't a fix all and isn't a permanent thing. One day that will go away and then what do you have?

And it would be.

Except that Penguin is not the only distributor to big box stores.

As has been pointed out repeatedly.

 

[Blue Orange]

01-10 Slovenly hovel
11-25 Brazen bungalow
26-35 Cheap rental
36-50 Typical home
51-65 Sleek apartment building
66-75 Windowless slum
76-85 Expensive mansion
86-90 Haughty country house
91-92 Aged villa
93-94 Wealthy compound
95-98 Sly fixer-upper
99-00 Rich palazzo

Oh, not that kind of random house.

 

[teitan]

And it would be.

Except that Penguin is not the only distributor to big box stores.

As has been pointed out repeatedly.

Way to miss the whole forest. Bye.

 

[Jer]

This is interesting for sure, but what the above comments are forgetting is that Hasbro as a company has a mass product distribution to B&N, Target, Walmart, and Amazon.

What this action says to me, is that Hasbro wants Hasbro reps to sell D&D and therefore take a larger cut of profits rather than giving 10-15% to PRH.

^ This.

Hasbro is interested in playing with the big boys. They have a history of direct partnerships with both Target and WalMart. They distribute directly to Amazon. They don't actually need to work with a distributor for the big stores because they're already their own distributor. Not sure about B&N, but I know that Books-a-million at least worked with Diamond/Alliance in the past and may continue to do so. Also I suspect though that if B&N and Books-a-million (and any other big bookstore chains that still exist - are there any?) want to keep D&D product on their shelves and want to buy in volume, Hasbro will be more than happy to set up a deal with them and keep the percentage that Penguin was taking.

But this is about Hasbro feeling like they don't need Penguin as a partner anymore. There's no way they're cutting them off and losing money from it - the only way they're ending that partnership is if they think there's more money in it for them to make those sales themselves or through different distribution partners.

 

[Hussar]

^ This.

Hasbro is interested in playing with the big boys. They have a history of direct partnerships with both Target and WalMart. They distribute directly to Amazon. They don't actually need to work with a distributor for the big stores because they're already their own distributor. Not sure about B&N, but I know that Books-a-million at least worked with Diamond/Alliance in the past and may continue to do so. Also I suspect though that if B&N and Books-a-million (and any other big bookstore chains that still exist - are there any?) want to keep D&D product on their shelves and want to buy in volume, Hasbro will be more than happy to set up a deal with them and keep the percentage that Penguin was taking.

But this is about Hasbro feeling like they don't need Penguin as a partner anymore. There's no way they're cutting them off and losing money from it - the only way they're ending that partnership is if they think there's more money in it for them to make those sales themselves or through different distribution partners.

Shhh. Apparently we're missing the trees somehow. We must all panic about how the sky is falling and of course the unspoken presumption that Hasbro and WotC are completely incompetent and are blindly sailing into the iceburg of collapse.

 

[Alzrius]

Shhh. Apparently we're missing the trees somehow. We must all panic about how the sky is falling and of course the unspoken presumption that Hasbro and WotC are completely incompetent and are blindly sailing into the iceburg of collapse.

Nah. Apparently it's better to snark on anyone even remotely entertaining the idea that WotC might be making a mistake. Because that's a completely insane idea after the OGL scandal, the Pinkerton scandal, the hadozee scandal, the Orion Black scandal, trying to weasel out of their contract with Weis and Hickman for Dragons of Deceit, the thousand-dollar M:tG set, and, oh yeah, 4th Edition. Clearly, anyone who thinks that this latest news could possibly be at all indicative of WotC making a mistake has no excuse for such conspiracy-minded nonsense.

 

[Jer]

Shhh. Apparently we're missing the trees somehow. We must all panic about how the sky is falling and of course the unspoken presumption that Hasbro and WotC are completely incompetent and are blindly sailing into the iceburg of collapse.

I mean, I'm perfectly willing to believe that Hasbro can be incompetent at some things - like generally realizing that their business moves are going to have PR fallout and not being good at thinking them through, or getting a bit too focused on "what will make money" over "what will be better long term".

But I have no doubts about their competencies about reading a balance sheet and being able to see where they can maximize their income through various maneuvers (arguably being good at that is what makes them bad at the examples above tbh.)

 

[kenmarable]

1.6 million is a HUGE loss

https://www.enworld.org/threads/5e-lifetime-sales-in-north-american-big-box-stores-revealed.698946/

that is 96 MILLION dollars. Even if WOTC is selling them for like 13 a piece to distribution, that is 14 million dollars lost. That is the PHB alone. The DMG at 800k would be 48 MILLION, or 10 million... it adds up fast to several million lost from losing that retail space, that is HUGE and DDB might be all fine and dandy but it isn't a fix all and isn't a permanent thing. One day that will go away and then what do you have?

Except the OP in that thread was incorrect. Amazon numbers are included in BookScan, at least for most years (I think they got finicky a couple times over feeling it was being too revealing, but overall Amazon is indeed included in that 1.6 million sales.)