D&D 5E (2014) Should I bother to subscribe to DDI if 5e is coming?

[Dannager]

Yeah, DDI gets a lot of crap for the work-in-progress Monster Builder, but people need to understand that DDI is worth so much to a 4e DM even without the Monster Builder. I would pay full price for access to just the Compendium or just the Character Builder.

 

[delericho]

There is speculation the WotC are working on 5e, but there has been no announcement. It's highly unlikely that 5e will be out before 2013 at the absolute earliest. That being the case, if you subscribe now, you can take full advantage of a year-long subscription without having to worry about the rug being pulled out from under you.

Basically, at this point I would say that fears over 5e should not be a consideration when considering subscribing. And if you are running a 4e campaign, I would argue that getting a DDI subscription is a no-brainer.

(Incidentally, it has been pointed out to me fairly recently that 2014 is a particularly auspicious date for a new edition. If Monte's hiring represents the 'go' for development, then 2 years' development + 1 year's hype gives us a 2014 release. And 2014 is also the 40th anniversary of D&D; 5e might well instead be marketed as the "Anniversary Edition".)

 

[Riastlin]

For starters, I personally believe that DDi is a great value -- particularly if you are a DM. The online monster builder is pretty decent now. Its certainly not perfect but I actually like it more than the old offline one (though I admit that this is in large part due to the fact that I don't need to export any of my monsters).

Second, as others have stated, WotC will almost certainly announce 5ed at GenCon, which means an announcement next August at the earliest. Factor in months of hype, previews and marketing, and you are probably looking at an April release at the earliest (much like with 4ed). Put that together and you have at least 18 months before 5ed hits the shelves.

Finally, based on their comments about trying to make out of print editions available, and based on some of what I saw in the VTT beta, I suspect that if and when they do come out with a new edition, they intend to keep the online tools for 4ed up and running. The only real catch would be that there would be a minimal amount of new material for 4ed. There's just too much money to be made with DDi for WotC to flat out dump the 4ed player base that does not want to convert to 5ed. They know they lost customers when they switched to 4ed (though also brought new customers in), but if they can still get $6 - $7 a month (or whatever the price ends up) from people who do not buy into 5ed, then why wouldn't they? Until it starts to cost them more to keep the online tools up for 4ed than they bring in with subscriptions for it, it just doesn't make sense to dump them.

All of this in my opinion of course as I do not work for WotC.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Yes, plenty of people believe 5e is coming - I think they're wrong. The speculated anniversary edition makes more sense for me, but purely for selfish reasons. I might pick up a cleaned up version of D&D that works with older materials, but I wouldn't buy a 5e unless its a huge improvement on 4e - and I'm really happy with 4e.

But to the OP, what you've got to decide is: is the money for DDi worth it to you, and is your campaign likely to continue longer than say 1.5 - 2 years (the earliest most people think 5e could really come out).
I subscribed to DDi when the online magazines and compendium were all I could use as a Mac owner. For me it was worth it, as the magazine subscriptions of the dead tree versions for a year was about the same, and the compendium was enough for me to run a game. Now that the character builder works on my machine without any hassles, and is almost good enough for my needs, I'm still satisfied - even if the magazine quality has gone down.

Edit: removed a rumor since I can't substantiate who the author was.

 

[Scribble]

Worrying about stuff that might happen based on something you hear someone on the internet say is GREAT...

If all you ever want to do is nothing for the rest of your life.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Why on earth would they just suddenly delete something they spent so much money on?

Stop updating, maybe, but why delete it?


Also, as far a 5E goes, live for the day!!!!!

 

[DEFCON 1]

My concern is that if WOTC launches 5e, they will immediately take down the current 4e character generator and monster generator to try to force customers to switch to 5e, and my subscription will become near-useless if I want to stay with 4e.

If it's really that much of a concern... then pay month-to-month.

You'd be spending an extra $4.00 each month to do so, but at least you'd know you could quit before anything happened to the Builders.

 

[Scribble]

If it's really that much of a concern... then pay month-to-month.

You'd be spending an extra $4.00 each month to do so, but at least you'd know you could quit before anything happened to the Builders.

Well... truth be told, with the rate they update the functionality... You could probably subscribe for a year before anything happened to the builders!

ZING! HIYOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Infiniti2000]

Has anyone any insight on the ROI for DDI? I'm curious that if there's enough people "waiting" before subscribing to DDI, then Hasbro may decide to just shut it down. That would really suck for people like me who subscribe and use it. I mean, if the turning point in lost sales are really a bunch of people not paying due to some perceived slights in marketing or bug fixes or what-have-you, a big company like Hasbro may not make the connection (despite a slew of internet posts) and decide instead that there's just not enough interest. So, imagine if Hasbro decided to shut down the DDI and never restart it? Would all the people who currently don't subscribe clamor for it or say good riddance?

 

[Nikosandros]

Has anyone any insight on the ROI for DDI?

I think that a detailed piece of information like this is very unlikely to be made available to the general public. SJ Games is very open about their status (I'm sure that having a single owner helps with that ;-)), but I've never seen SJ reveal such details about one of their operations and WotC is far more tight lipped about their own business...

My hunch is that DDI is doing very well indeed and I guess that the ROI can't be too shabby, seeing how the number of subscribers is good and probably increasing (judging by the online group membership) and the fact that apparently the team working on it isn't very large.