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)

 

[Umbran]

So you are speculating. Got it.

Everyone is speculating. Get that.

But the point that social media complaints should not be taken as representative of the population is a solid one. In terms of statistical sampling for opinions, social media is junk.

 

[Umbran]

No, there is no speculation that the option wasn't particularly widely used: Beyond devs habe been saying so for years

You'd really want a citation of them saying it to make that stick in this environment.

 

[Nikosandros]

You'd really want a citation of them saying it to make that stick in this environment.

Heh, I was actually going to ask for one. I don't remember this statement from the DDB staff, but I'm aware that they said a lot (there were a ton of videos) and much has escaped my attention. I'm actually curious to learn if they were a bit more specific in their statement. I've personally never used the option, but the few players in my "circle" that have bought from DDB have used it.

 

[Clint_L]

If they didn't offer anything a la carte for Fizban's, then they would have data on how that impacted sales. If the a la carte option was doing big dollars, they would keep it. Businesses aren't the Joker; they don't burn piles of cash for no reason. I suspect they found that the difference in profit was negligible, or possibly that they made more money by not offering a la carte, considering the additional operating expense it created and the impact on sales of the entire book.

If not being able to buy a la carte persuaded even a small number of folks to buy the entire book instead, then that would make up for a whole lot of folks buying little bits and pieces. There's a reason most businesses don't do a ton of a la carte products. You can wind up competing with yourself.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm simply interested in what the DDB staff said about this issue (in those statements are still available to be read/watched). I'm not looking to prove a particular point. As I wrote, I've never used the option myself.

 

[SteveC]

I guess it's time to reset the clock again. I'm genuinely surprised by this because it's going to mean less money for WotC. Why do I say that? Because people normally purchase an entire product. They only get one-offs when they're looking for something very specific.

I don't buy stuff this way, but one of the DMs for the game I'm playing in does. Maybe they'll say "Okay, I guess I'll just buy the whole product," in which case I'll give a mea culpa. But I suspect they'll just create the content manually.

The only other thought is I don't understand how anyone would say "Yay, no more microtransactions!" That would be the case if buying these a la carte was the only option. This is something that people who don't want the whole product choose to do. The default is to buy the whole product.

 

[Parmandur]

Heh, I was actually going to ask for one. I don't remember this statement from the DDB staff, but I'm aware that they said a lot (there were a ton of videos) and much has escaped my attention. I'm actually curious to learn if they were a bit more specific in their statement. I've personally never used the option, but the few players in my "circle" that have bought from DDB have used it.

It was Adam Bradford in one of his old regular videos, which frankly I'm not going to parse through to find: "it didn't make much money" is still the parsimonious explanation, at any rate.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The proof that it was not used much is that it got removed in the first place…

That doesn't follow at all. I think you're projecting how you would have made the decision, not how WotC, based on what we've seen of their past behavior, made the decision.

All it takes is for someone senior inside WotC/Hasbro having the gut feeling that most of the a la carte folks would purchase entire products if that was all that was available and having the seniority to make it so.

We know that WotC doesn't market-test their ideas or do research on some of their sweeping decisions, because less than 18 months ago, they got themselves into mainstream news around the world by trying to revoke the OGL, which even if they'd talked to their lawyers about first, they would have known was impossible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm simply interested in what the DDB staff said about this issue (in those statements are still available to be read/watched). I'm not looking to prove a particular point. As I wrote, I've never used the option myself.

With the Book of Many Things questions on DDB, for the past five months, they've just said the a la carte "option is not available at this time." They never said it was going away or that it was a bug, just acknowledged that, yep, you can't buy stuff a la carte from the book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am confident that it wasn't done for malicious reasons.

Given that every other publicly traded company does what's good for stockholders, and not anyone else, I'm not sure why you'd exempt WotC.