D&D 5E D&D Beyond: No More À La Carte Purchases But US Customers Can Buy Physical Books

WotC has announced some changes to D&D Beyond's marketplace. These include physical products (for US customers), the removal of à la carte purchases, and various navigational changes.

You can no longer buy individual feats, subclasses, etc. -- you'll need to buy the whole book. The full list of changes includes:

• US shoppers can now buy physical books
• More info on product listings, including previews
• UI improvements to makee finding your purchased content and redeeming keys easier
• No more à la carte purchases (though your previous ones still count)

 

[Imaro]

WotC can't do that! How would they keep the lights on over there? They're barely scraping by as it is!

The point is that they are able to offer their consumers things for their games others can't BECAUSE they aren't barely scraping by.

 

[Maxperson]

Shipped direct from WotC, sane as the physical/digital bundles, I suppose.

Not good for stores, which is a shame, but more options fir purchase is positive for customers: not everyone has a local store, or wants to buy from Amazon.

That doesn't seem like an improvement to me and instead seems bad. Even if you don't have a local store and don't want to buy from Amazon, how hard is it to find an FLGS with a website that does internet ordering and have one shipped from there? That's a legitimate question by the way. I have many local stores so I've never had to look.

I hate see another nail driven into FLGS owners. Sooner or later it will bury them.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Indeed!

Not to mention also that a lot of us couldn't give a rat's ass about the companies themselves, our only care is about the product we are getting.

If I see something I want, I buy it. And that is the beginning and end of my relationship with whomever it is that made it. I have no care or concern about anything the company or some of the individuals within said company do otherwise.

And then they come back 3 months later and demand that you create an account with them if you want to continue to have access to the product you "bought".

 

[Parmandur]

That doesn't seem like an improvement to me and instead seems bad. Even if you don't have a local store and don't want to buy from Amazon, how hard is it to find an FLGS with a website that does internet ordering and have one shipped from there? That's a legitimate question by the way. I have many local stores so I've never had to look.

I hate see another nail driven into FLGS owners. Sooner or later it will bury them.

Indeed, that D&D seems to be doing just fine in the Haabro reports, while the hobby channel reports a 30% drop in the RPG industry when WotC started offer physical/digital bundles in direct sales...not good for stores.

 

[Dire Bare]

I prefer a free resource site containing all the rules that I can refer potential players to, combined with a continuously updated character editor that offers most of each features for free with some requiring a one-time purchase to unlock. Both legal without any fear of legal actions against them.
Sed suum cuique.
Edit: I guess I should mention EN Publishing being similarly generous: Home | Level Up

Paizo does some good stuff with Pathfinder, no doubt.

But . . . you only get the PDF free if you purchase your physical book directly from Paizo, not from your FLGS.

And the free online tools are cool, but are not at the same level as DDB. Paizo does license Pathfinder to all sorts of other online tools that ARE at the same level as DDB, but those resources are also not free with your book purchase.

If you like how DDB works and you are a Pathfinder fan, you can get PF2 on Demiplane with a very similar interface and tools to DDB. You have to "buy your books again", but you can link accounts with Paizo's store and get a discount on titles you already own through Paizo's webstore.

Quality online tools cost money to develop and maintain, and kvetching on how they cost money is silly, IMO. If you prefer simpler tools that are available for "free", more power to you.

Oh, WotC does make the basic rules and the SRD available for free. So there's that.

 

[Maxperson]

Indeed, that D&D seems to be doing just fine in the Haabro reports, while the hobby channel reports a 30% drop in the RPG industry when WotC started offer physical/digital bundles in direct sales...not good for stores.

And ultimately not good for Hasbro. A LOT of people get brought into D&D in those stores. They're biting the hand that feeds them.

 

[Dire Bare]

And then they come back 3 months later and demand that you create an account with them if you want to continue to have access to the product you "bought".

Huh?

When purchasing digital products, you almost always need an account with the webstore. Usually free, of course. 3 months later?

Are you talking about DDB? You need a free account to purchase books there, from Day 1, not months later. DDB does have subscription options, but none of them are necessary to access your content.

And technically, love-it-or-hate-it, you don't "purchase" digital content, you "license" it.

 

[SkidAce]

Huh?

When purchasing digital products, you almost always need an account with the webstore. Usually free, of course. 3 months later?

Are you talking about DDB? You need a free account to purchase books there, from Day 1, not months later. DDB does have subscription options, but none of them are necessary to access your content.

And technically, love-it-or-hate-it, you don't "purchase" digital content, you "license" it.

They might be talking as an example about the Helldivers 2 newly implmented requirement for a PSN account.

 

[Parmandur]

And ultimately not good for Hasbro. A LOT of people get brought into D&D in those stores. They're biting the hand that feeds them.

Sadly enough, not necessarily. Beyond and direct sales may reach more people than the FLGS could.

 

[Clint_L]

Why would I buy single pieces of rules when I can get them for free from a site supported by the publisher?
WotC's relationship with the fans of its games is increasingly toxic, yet those fans keep crawling back, celebrating minor concessions as major victories. At this point people should just accept that they won't be able to fix WotC and just look for other companies to support.

Minor concessions?

For 6 bucks a month, not only me, but all of my players have access to all of D&D, all the time, anywhere, as long as we have a phone. I get the character builder. I get the encounter builder, which is BY FAR the most useful feature for me, saving me huge time every week in both planning and running encounters - it literally saves hours. I get all my stuff organized. I get integrated, easy to use battle maps.

For 6 bucks a month I can run a game of D&D anywhere, any time, as long as I have my phone. It's the best value in my entertainment budget by far. By FAR. I'm not looking to "fix" anyone. I put my money where the value is. No one else offers anything close to the same value. Well, except Demiplane, which is getting there.

Minor concessions. Okay. At this point, people who hate WotC should just accept that they won't be able to fix it, look for other companies to support, and stop posting about it incessantly.