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)

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I'll be extremely surprised if the VTT doesn't have microtransactions, anything else would be leaving money on the table, and Hasbro hates that.

The D&D microtransactions were probably removed because they were competing with macrotransactions, and that's not good business.

 

[Nikosandros]

It also seems that PayPal is no longer accepted.

 

[DEFCON 1]

WotC will merely have to wait a few months or so to find out whether a la carte purchasing increases or decreases sales of their products and then will be able to decide whether or not their action was a mistake. And if it was, then they'll put al la carte purchases back in. But they'll never know how many a la carte purchasers actually will become full book purchasers until the try it.

Does it stink in the short term? Sure. Will it ultimately affect lots of players such that they don't spend as much money in the Marketplace? WotC is about to find out.

 

[Reynard]

100% my thoughts, this is not making things better, its forcing customers to buy stuff they don't want to get the stuff they do want. I increasingly am starting to hate WotC, instead of making D&D Beyond better they made it worse. WotC greed will be their undoing yet.

You mean like with any physical book you buy?

 

[Azzy]

Well, that's disappointing.

 

[mamba]

You mean like with any physical book you buy?

the difference is that with a book you have no easy option to buy the pieces you want, with digital that is no problem, they even already had built the capability

 

[Reynard]

the difference is that with a book you have no easy option to buy the pieces you want, with digital that is no problem, they even already had built the capability

Sure, but if it doesn't work for them (financially or otherwise) you can't really fault them for getting rid of it.

 

[mamba]

Sure, but if it doesn't work for them (financially or otherwise) you can't really fault them for getting rid of it.

whether getting rid of it works better is at best an open question. I am not gonna buy a full book when I want $5 material from it but not the rest.

Even if it does work for them, I can fault them for doing something consumer-unfriendly, no idea why you would think that I cannot… it makes it more understandable, it by no means makes it immune from criticism

 

[Reynard]

whether getting rid of it works better is at best an open question. I am not gonna buy a full book when I want $5 material from it but not the rest.

Even if it does work for them, I can fault them for doing something consumer-unfriendly, no idea why you would think that I cannot… it makes it more understandable, it by no means makes it immune from criticism

I'm not one to defend WotC generally, but this seems like a strange criticism. I can't think of any other companies that sell their RPG content a la carte.

 

[mamba]

I'm not one to defend WotC generally, but this seems like a strange criticism. I can't think of any other companies that sell their RPG content a la carte.

and because others don’t that somehow makes this move less consumer unfriendly?

If other marketplaces do no offer it, then other publishers basically have their hands tied, not everyone has their own marketplace