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)

 

[kenmarable]

And now that WotC is getting rid of the a la carte options, allegedly because they have been linked to micro transactions (though I've yet to see direct evidence of WotC's motives for this change), they are again being framed as the villains who are looking for another way to gouge us, I guess.

If there was a way to verify this, I could bet real money on the reasoning behind removing the a la carte options was more or less the following:

1. Redesigning the Marketplace was a large enough re-build of the old one that supporting a la carte options in the new Marketplace would be a decent amount of additional work costing X.
2. They looked at the percentage of customers who purchase a la carte vs entire books and/or percentage of revenue from a la cartes sales and determined continuing that option would earn them Y. (And a certain predicted percentage would shift from a la carte to buying full books, etc. etc.)
3. X > Y or at least close enough that it wasn't deemed a worthwhile ROI to support going forward.

I would consider eating my hat if the actual decision was because they were worried about people on social media claiming an option that has been around for almost 7 years are suddenly bad microtransactions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They do still support a la carte options, though, on everything released prior to 2024, so the functionality is still there, @kenmarable.

 

[kenmarable]

They do still support a la carte options, though, on everything released prior to 2024, so the functionality is still there, @kenmarable.

They no longer support them in the Marketplace unless I'm missing something.

This was a redesign of the Marketplace. Not of the Compendium, Character Builder, or any of the rest of the site. So, of course, they are still supported in those areas because nothing changed there.

 

[Nikosandros]

They do still support a la carte options, though, on everything released prior to 2024, so the functionality is still there, @kenmarable.

I don't think that's the case. You can no longer purchase individual pieces from a book, but you retain access if you bought them in the past.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They no longer support them in the Marketplace unless I'm missing something.

This was a redesign of the Marketplace. Not of the Compendium, Character Builder, or any of the rest of the site. So, of course, they are still supported in those areas because nothing changed there.

Yep, you're right. I was mistaken.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They also removed the secret disco wizard from the Marketplace section of DDB.

No more strobing menus there.

 

[kenmarable]

They also removed the secret disco wizard from the Marketplace section of DDB.

No more strobing menus there.

That's it! No more WotC for me!!! They've gone too far!

(Runs off to film a 60-minute rant for YouTube)

Unfortunately, things like that tend to be more of the start-up kind of culture that corporations smother out.

On the one hand, it's not a big deal. But on the other hand, it's a sad sign of culture change.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Unfortunately, things like that tend to be more of the start-up kind of culture that corporations smother out.

On the one hand, it's not a big deal. But on the other hand, it's a sad sign of culture change.

Yeah, pretty sure there was a skeptical manager standing with arms crossed in a developer's cubicle as they tried to explain what the feature was and why it would be cool to keep it.

 

[mamba]

Or WotC lied, at least at the time. None of those people lack a reason to deceive.

if either one person or 10 person lie that are otherwise the same (e.g. not the gang denying to have committed the crime vs the store owner), then I find it highly unlikely that the one person is telling the truth

 

[Parmandur]

if either one person or 10 person lie that are otherwise the same (e.g. not the gang denying to have committed the crime), then I find it highly unlikely that the one person is telling the truth

Really, it was the former WotC employees who had no reason to defend WotC at this point coming oit and sharing their experience thwt really sunk the lie. I honestly think he juat assumed that WotC people would maintain radio silence, and he could claim whatever he felt like.