WotC Hikes Price On D&D Months After Calling the Game “Under-Monetized”
Wizards of the Coast announced today that they would be hiking the price of physical D&D books by 20%. How’s that for under-monetized?
In spite of continuous financial success, Wizards of the Coast has announced that they’ll be hiking the price of “print D&D books” starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. The new price increase will see D&D books cost $60 – well, $59.95 plus any applicable tax, that is.
Of course, it’s not out of the blue. Shipping and other production costs have gone up. But many in the community who are feeling that WotC is once again displaying the same sort of naked greed that led them to release a $999 Magic set that actively harmed the brand, and led them to try and deauthorize the OGL earlier this year in an effort to pave the way for their new virtual tabletop future.
Which of course, is the other rub. D&D books will be more expensive. However, D&D digital books won’t increase in price. A move that seems to further solidify that WotC considers their upcoming VTT the future of the game. After all, that’s where costs will be the cheapest.
And where a handy marketplace can help remonetize the brand.
WotC Announces D&D Price Hike Amid One Of Their Biggest Financial Successes
Per the community announcement:
Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We’re committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.
This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.
However, there’s a lot more at play here. Yes, pricing has gone up. But alongside that, so have profits. After all, this past February, Wizards of the Coast announced that D&D specifically was up some 13% in Q1 2023, compared to last year. And that in the first three months alone, D&D generated more than $200 million in revenue.
The question the community should be asking is, who will see the benefits of the cost increase? Since WotC has decided the consumer should pay for the increased production cost instead of just making marginally less profit during an already booming season, where will the increased revenue go? Surely the extra money is going to go to the writers, artists, and designers who make the game so that the books will be of better quality. Right?
The timing of the D&D price hike is certainly convenient, with a new edition set of core rulebooks for the same edition that just fundamentally change the way classes function just around the corner, folks will be primed to sink their wallets into the next edition evolution of D&D. But, outside of a bunch of gamers taking collective action, like the cancellation of D&D Beyond subscriptions that led WotC to reverse course completely on their decision to deauthorize the OGL 1.0, it seems like this is the way forward.
What do you think of the price increase?
