Buying things Individually was LITERALLY THE ONLY Reason to use DNDBeyond over any of the 3rd party sites. Like Roll20 or Foundry. Going entirely back to 3rd party Sites now, have fun eating your profit loss over this WotC <3
Out of curiosity for the people who only bought piecemeal, how often were you buying things here? Once a month, twice a month, every two months? And how much did you typically spend at a time?
At least once a month and the cost of a beer off the shelf.
It is the only way I have been purchasing the whole books
I look at the price and for a hobby of mine I cannot justify the price of the whole book. I have a lot of other competing priorities in life that take precedence over an online copy of a D&D book.
But I can justify the cost of a beer to treat myself some down time. For me the a la carte purchases fell into this level of expenditure. Can I skip a beer and buy part of the book to use now? I can justify that to myself (granted I’ll have the beer anyway - it’s downtime), but I can’t justify the full purchase right at that moment.
These piecemeal purchases overtime then brought down the price for the remainder to the point where I could justify buying the final part.
I will not be buying the content again as part of a whole book (I don’t buy it a second time on the VTT I use either) and I will not jump through hoops to contact customer service to get them to deduct my existing purchases off the ticketed price of the remainder.
I simply will not purchase the full books.
Exactly the same with me, I was dropping a fairly reliable $10 or so a month on random piecemeal stuff based on if I was suddenly in the mood to use different monsters or give a different magic item. When I’d chipped away at enough of the book price that that price was sub $20 I’d then grab the rest. Built up a pretty respectable library like that. Now I need to justify the full price of a book which is much harder to do when times are tough enough anyway
What if this is the start of the legacy transition?
It's something they want online for the rollout for the new books, so they can push selling the bundles.
No idea what you mean by "the legacy transition".
Still what gets me is that in the physical and digital bundle, they price the digital at 10$. Now, rather than continuing to push digital at 30$ and removing a-la-carte, they might start selling digital full content at 14.99$?
Is that not reasonable?
Seems very unlikely.
The reason they can sell the digital at only $10 above the physical without really hurting their margins is because the margins for a physical book directly from them are much higher, because there's no intermediaries taking a cut. When you buy it from the game store, there's both a distributor and the store who need to make money on the deal. (Amazon and big chain stores are probably getting it straight from Hasbro.)
While their margin on phisical books is higher for direct sales they are not higher than digital content, which is why a reduction in price for digital is an not unrealistic wish. That being said, the stupidly high price of the digital books is unlikely to change because...why would it?
The funny thing is, this move may backfire becasue they are trying to sell bundles, but if you don't need the digital content you can still buy the paper book on Amazon for a fraction of the price. This is exactly my plan for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. I want that book, but don't need the digital content becasue I am never going to run it. Still, I was considering pre-ordering the bundle just so I can support DND Beyond, as I have with a few others since bundles have come into being. Now I am just going to buy the physical book on Amazon and save myself ~$30.
This is incorrect. Major announcements about general site practices or D&D/Wizards wide policy updates or changes never allow commenting. This includes both announcements players want and ones they might be less thrilled about - the lack of comments on this article is a content-neutral neutral policy, not part of some conspiracy.
What if this is the start of the legacy transition?
It's something they want online for the rollout for the new books, so they can push selling the bundles.
No idea what you mean by "the legacy transition".
As for Legacy Transition, the coin is the fact that this is the start of DDB beginning to convert the 2014 CORE Three ( PHB, DMG,& MM), plus various other content that is rules antithetical to newly released content and rules. Read how they classified the reason for the transition of previous content into legacy and not wonder if this is how the process starts?
Replacing the marketplace is only connected to discontinuing sales of the old core books and putting the new, extremely mechanically similar, ones on sale in that they want it to happen in time for the rollout of the new ones, because it's a big marketing event, and they want it up and running, and all the bugs shaken out, before everyone comes clamoring for their new books.
Since the previous books have been rolled over to legacy just by "Book X is on sale, Book Y is now legacy", I'm not sure why you think this is a Portentous Event for the inevitable transition. (The core rules update is going to be a bigger deal than that, since they need to roll out character builder updates to make it work, but the marketplace is largely orthogonal to that transition.)
An absolutely bone-headed move by WotC Management. As so many have commented, this was a massive selling point of D&D Beyond. You would think that having recovered from the OGL debacle (depending on your point of view), you would think WotC would avoid any further damage to the trust of their consumers. Someone is now holding their beer...
The ONLY way I would've considered this appropriate action is when the 2024 books would be released. They could've ended piecemeal for 5th Edition BUT introduced it for One D&D - with the new edition incoming and those interested in purchasing 5th Edition content potentially waning, I think this would have been an acceptable compromise for most users - people inevitably move onto the next big thing. However, this SHOULD have been done with a prior announcement, not sprung on the loyal customers that have been using and supporting this website and the team since it's inception and through the Natural One that was the OGL saga.
As someone who is hyped to see the next edition and try out the VTT when it releases, this is a really despicable and dishounorable move
(* Insert Adam Bradford saying "look how they massacred my boy" picture here *)
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
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I've spent hundreds of dollars purchasing things ala carte on DDB. I'm sorry, but I will notpurchase a $50 book when I'm only interested in a single section of it. Even if I could afford to buy every whole book as it comes out, I would not. Instead of earning $2-15 from me every time I want something, you'll now be earning $0.
I may purchase physical copies of the 5.5 core books from my local game store. But only after they've been vetted by reliable third party sources. I will not purchase anything else through DDB until they bring back ala carte purchasing. & honestly, I kinda miss the pen & paper. So while I'll still use what I've previously purchased as a resource, I'll probably stop actively using DDB for games as well.
hypothetically say it costs dndbeyond $20 to be able to sell a single copy of a book, they in return sell it to the customer for $40 (a potential $20 profit), now if the customer only spends say $6 to cherry pick out what they want creates a potential lose of $14 per book
you know what's worse than a $14 loss? a 100% loss from people not buying the book at all
Replacing the marketplace is only connected to discontinuing sales of the old core books and putting the new, extremely mechanically similar, ones on sale in that they want it to happen in time for the rollout of the new ones, because it's a big marketing event, and they want it up and running, and all the bugs shaken out, before everyone comes clamoring for their new books.
Since the previous books have been rolled over to legacy just by "Book X is on sale, Book Y is now legacy", I'm not sure why you think this is a Portentous Event for the inevitable transition. (The core rules update is going to be a bigger deal than that, since they need to roll out character builder updates to make it work, but the marketplace is largely orthogonal to that transition.)
While I understand eventually the old will discontinued and mothballed for the new, what about the new requires piecemeal a-la-carte’ to have to be discontinued and not implemented in the new look and functionality of the redesigned marketplace.
Mechanically, we know a fair bit is getting altered to the core due to playtesting feedback, and the 2014 core will be transitioned to legacy, but what else about the 2014 core will also be discontinued that the general might not realize is changed till it’s gone?
The biggest reason ppl are upset is not so much the removal, but that absolutely no word or forewarning was given about the change. When can the general public expect the changes to the Basic Rules, character builder, and other features that is closely tied to the 2014 core that will have to be ether reconfigured to accommodate the new features, or completely sacked as the time and cost to update are now greater than the cost to just redesign, be notified such changes are being made?
( Does this also mean that we can expect certain features that are currently available to suddenly change without warning, practically forcing users to accept the changes whether they like it or not, or walk away forsaking all that was invested? [ IMHO they ( company ) is betting those who have committed significant funds will not want to simply walk away, and those who don’t care for the previous rules that are part of that high-roller tier, will continue to support funding content regardless of quality.])
As for the physical, anyone who follows the news on that front knows Hasbro/WotC was eventually going to push physical though the marketplace, they cut some middle man handling to increase profits, but at least they could offer a cascading discount for the digital books that will enviably be discontinued by the time the new stuff is ready for release.
Another thing I personally wonder is, whats the word on that 250$ million dollar project on their Unreal 3D VTT? I understand they are working on it, but as of late its been nether hide nor hare on how things are going. ( while I understand some measure of a preview of VTT has been shown in trade shows, and to select individuals, general public has gotten very little information. Where’s the hype? Where’s the excitement? Where is the push to prepare for a grand 50th anniversary of the game? Nothing, nada. )
As someone who doesn’t have massive interest in the new revision, other than to compare it to what was previously available and asses whether it’s worth the change, the marketplace changes just have me personally feeling this place is done, and it’s just a matter of time if whether or not we will see a foreclosure sign on the front door of the site, or a place were it just doesn’t pay to even stop and shop when other competitors are taking advantage of the opportunity to provide better value.
as a side note piece-meal purchases were nice but was mainly a financial convenience that i personally never used without the intention of purchasing the full book, and can see the possibility that using piece-meal to avoid buying a book in full could potentially cost dndbeyond money - hypothetically say it costs dndbeyond $20 to be able to sell a single copy of a book, they in return sell it to the customer for $40 (a potential $20 profit), now if the customer only spends say $6 to cherry pick out what they want creates a potential lose of $14 per book
That's not how it works. Giving access to someone, whether piecemeal or as a whole, literally costs pennies. The cost of DDB is mostly creating the book and maintaining the servers, and my access barely moves the needle on that (hence why homebrew can be free, despite costing similar for maintenance). Neither of which is affected by whether I buy a book or buy piecemeal, and only marginally by whether I buy anything at all. The costs that I pay are, other than profit, to help pay for the mostly fixed costs of producing the work in the first place and a bit for server maintenance. Whether I bought piecemeal or not is irrelevant to that (they've already paid for that and giving me a product isn't going to noticeably change it) - it's just a question of how much money they get from my wallet. It's possible they need larger margins, but I was lead to believe that DDB was quite profitable for them.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Giving access to someone, whether piecemeal or as a whole, literally costs pennies. The cost of DDB is mostly creating the book and maintaining the servers...
That's not really accurate. (Disclaimer: I am not a dndbeyond developer, but I am a software developer.)
It's my understanding that the "cost" is/was, for the most part, the complexity of the system for divvying up the permissions (ownership) of all the little character creation options. For example, I recall hearing that that was the reason it took so long to implement many of the features from Tasha's (and why some of Tasha's features are still not implemented). Implementing the systems in such a granular, modular fashion may have been significant extra work.
So I wouldn't be surprised (but, note, I'm not certain) if they decided that, going forward, they were going to support whole books and not split them up. That could make all their future/upcoming work much easier to develop, simpler/cheaper to maintain, and faster to grow.
(Who knows? Under the hood, some of the OneD&D changes may very much exist to make things easier to code. I recall that that was a big driver of the 3e changes, from 2e, back in the day.)
To be clear, I'm not trying to defend or even condone the change they've made. But there could very well be some cost/benefit sense to it.
What from Tasha's hasn't been implemented? I have the book and haven't noticed anything not working.
Some infusions aren't fully working.
Some dynamic statblocks from some features and spells are not able to be added and used properly.
Certain items that affect specific class spellcasting DCs do not function properly for multiclass spellcasters.
Spell swapping for Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul subclasses is not yet supported, requiring clunky workarounds by homebrewing copies of the subclass and changing it yourself.
Some feats like Eldritch Adept and Fighting Initiate do not work fully.
Some feats add spells as once-per-day plus use of spell slots but the second part is still not supported, which required workarounds by homebrewing race/subclass to add the "use spell slot" aspect for scaling and such.
Sidekicks are not yet supported.
- There's probably more but I can't recall of top of my head and have a headache.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Guess I waited to long to pick up a couple subclasses I was thinking about. Oh well, I guess WOTC doesn't want my money cause I am not going to buy two or three source books for one subclass each. But I would have spent the few dollars that each of them cost if I was allowed to do so. How can they think this is going to make them more money? This only gives people less reason to spend money on their site.
Look, I know you're being genuine, and I appreciate you hearing us all out, but as long as WotC continues to make D&D Beyond more and more prominent in D&D and continues to offer zero digital support for in-store purchases whatsoever any talk of trying to "incentivize shopping your FLGS" is just meaningless corporate gas lighting.
All of your competitors offer some kind of digital support for their products, whether that is working through Bits and Mortar, providing PDFs with proof of in store purchase, putting digital access codes in the books, or just sending the PDFs to anyone that asks and shows proof of a physical copy. We're talking Paizo, Modiphius, Free League, Evil Hat, Goodman Games, Exalted Funeral, pretty much everyone else offers SOMETHING. WotC is the ONLY major RPG publisher that does not do this in any way whatsoever, and because of that it cannot be argued that D&D Beyond now direct selling all the books in exclusive physical + digital bundles isn't undercutting FLGS'. DDB isn't poaching sales from retailers because DDB ships a week earlier, it's poaching sales because WotC refuses to provide digital support for retailers, and WotC knows that and is still trying to eat the lunch of FLGS'.
The narrative, whether true or false, that pretty much the entire gaming community believes is that Hasbro is trying to find any way they can to turn D&D into a digital subscription product of some kind and to cut everyone else out; following up the OGL mess and the totally uncalled for mass firings in December with pulling all the a la carte options with no warning in the dark of night while at the same time pulling the rug out from local game stores with the secret roll out of DDB selling all the books direct now and with an exclusive digital plus physical bundle only feeds into that perception. Please tell your bosses to stop making the same choices that 80's movie villains would make.
I canceled my subscription because of this. I am not interested in buying 100+ magic items or maps or whatever. I just want to buy the character options that my players are using. I was more than happy to spend a few bucks here and there (usually like 2 or 3 purchases per book), but I am not shelling out for an entire book. Most of my friends have been talking about switching games, but I have always argued that DnD beyond made 5e simple. Now I'm thinking I might be interested in another game as well.
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Buying things Individually was LITERALLY THE ONLY Reason to use DNDBeyond over any of the 3rd party sites. Like Roll20 or Foundry. Going entirely back to 3rd party Sites now, have fun eating your profit loss over this WotC <3
Also anyone else notice that https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1709-d-d-beyond-marketplace-redesign-see-whats-new-here is the 1st and only "News Post" they have released that doesn't allow commenting! I wonder why....
"Not getting cut into bloody littles slices, That's the key to a sound plan."
So we will just migrate to Foundry or Roll20...
That would just kill the use of the website completely. Its one of the main features of the hobby, sharing your books.
That is just too stupid to actually happen, its already locked behind a subscription
Exactly the same with me, I was dropping a fairly reliable $10 or so a month on random piecemeal stuff based on if I was suddenly in the mood to use different monsters or give a different magic item. When I’d chipped away at enough of the book price that that price was sub $20 I’d then grab the rest. Built up a pretty respectable library like that. Now I need to justify the full price of a book which is much harder to do when times are tough enough anyway
While their margin on phisical books is higher for direct sales they are not higher than digital content, which is why a reduction in price for digital is an not unrealistic wish. That being said, the stupidly high price of the digital books is unlikely to change because...why would it?
The funny thing is, this move may backfire becasue they are trying to sell bundles, but if you don't need the digital content you can still buy the paper book on Amazon for a fraction of the price. This is exactly my plan for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. I want that book, but don't need the digital content becasue I am never going to run it. Still, I was considering pre-ordering the bundle just so I can support DND Beyond, as I have with a few others since bundles have come into being. Now I am just going to buy the physical book on Amazon and save myself ~$30.
This is incorrect. Major announcements about general site practices or D&D/Wizards wide policy updates or changes never allow commenting. This includes both announcements players want and ones they might be less thrilled about - the lack of comments on this article is a content-neutral neutral policy, not part of some conspiracy.
Replacing the marketplace is only connected to discontinuing sales of the old core books and putting the new, extremely mechanically similar, ones on sale in that they want it to happen in time for the rollout of the new ones, because it's a big marketing event, and they want it up and running, and all the bugs shaken out, before everyone comes clamoring for their new books.
Since the previous books have been rolled over to legacy just by "Book X is on sale, Book Y is now legacy", I'm not sure why you think this is a Portentous Event for the inevitable transition. (The core rules update is going to be a bigger deal than that, since they need to roll out character builder updates to make it work, but the marketplace is largely orthogonal to that transition.)
An absolutely bone-headed move by WotC Management. As so many have commented, this was a massive selling point of D&D Beyond. You would think that having recovered from the OGL debacle (depending on your point of view), you would think WotC would avoid any further damage to the trust of their consumers. Someone is now holding their beer...
The ONLY way I would've considered this appropriate action is when the 2024 books would be released. They could've ended piecemeal for 5th Edition BUT introduced it for One D&D - with the new edition incoming and those interested in purchasing 5th Edition content potentially waning, I think this would have been an acceptable compromise for most users - people inevitably move onto the next big thing. However, this SHOULD have been done with a prior announcement, not sprung on the loyal customers that have been using and supporting this website and the team since it's inception and through the Natural One that was the OGL saga.
As someone who is hyped to see the next edition and try out the VTT when it releases, this is a really despicable and dishounorable move
(* Insert Adam Bradford saying "look how they massacred my boy" picture here *)
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
I've spent hundreds of dollars purchasing things ala carte on DDB. I'm sorry, but I will not purchase a $50 book when I'm only interested in a single section of it. Even if I could afford to buy every whole book as it comes out, I would not. Instead of earning $2-15 from me every time I want something, you'll now be earning $0.
I may purchase physical copies of the 5.5 core books from my local game store. But only after they've been vetted by reliable third party sources. I will not purchase anything else through DDB until they bring back ala carte purchasing. & honestly, I kinda miss the pen & paper. So while I'll still use what I've previously purchased as a resource, I'll probably stop actively using DDB for games as well.
you know what's worse than a $14 loss? a 100% loss from people not buying the book at all
While I understand eventually the old will discontinued and mothballed for the new, what about the new requires piecemeal a-la-carte’ to have to be discontinued and not implemented in the new look and functionality of the redesigned marketplace.
Mechanically, we know a fair bit is getting altered to the core due to playtesting feedback, and the 2014 core will be transitioned to legacy, but what else about the 2014 core will also be discontinued that the general might not realize is changed till it’s gone?
The biggest reason ppl are upset is not so much the removal, but that absolutely no word or forewarning was given about the change.
When can the general public expect the changes to the Basic Rules, character builder, and other features that is closely tied to the 2014 core that will have to be ether reconfigured to accommodate the new features, or completely sacked as the time and cost to update are now greater than the cost to just redesign, be notified such changes are being made?
( Does this also mean that we can expect certain features that are currently available to suddenly change without warning, practically forcing users to accept the changes whether they like it or not, or walk away forsaking all that was invested? [ IMHO they ( company ) is betting those who have committed significant funds will not want to simply walk away, and those who don’t care for the previous rules that are part of that high-roller tier, will continue to support funding content regardless of quality.])
As for the physical, anyone who follows the news on that front knows Hasbro/WotC was eventually going to push physical though the marketplace, they cut some middle man handling to increase profits, but at least they could offer a cascading discount for the digital books that will enviably be discontinued by the time the new stuff is ready for release.
Another thing I personally wonder is, whats the word on that 250$ million dollar project on their Unreal 3D VTT? I understand they are working on it, but as of late its been nether hide nor hare on how things are going. ( while I understand some measure of a preview of VTT has been shown in trade shows, and to select individuals, general public has gotten very little information. Where’s the hype? Where’s the excitement? Where is the push to prepare for a grand 50th anniversary of the game? Nothing, nada. )
As someone who doesn’t have massive interest in the new revision, other than to compare it to what was previously available and asses whether it’s worth the change, the marketplace changes just have me personally feeling this place is done, and it’s just a matter of time if whether or not we will see a foreclosure sign on the front door of the site, or a place were it just doesn’t pay to even stop and shop when other competitors are taking advantage of the opportunity to provide better value.
That's not how it works. Giving access to someone, whether piecemeal or as a whole, literally costs pennies. The cost of DDB is mostly creating the book and maintaining the servers, and my access barely moves the needle on that (hence why homebrew can be free, despite costing similar for maintenance). Neither of which is affected by whether I buy a book or buy piecemeal, and only marginally by whether I buy anything at all. The costs that I pay are, other than profit, to help pay for the mostly fixed costs of producing the work in the first place and a bit for server maintenance. Whether I bought piecemeal or not is irrelevant to that (they've already paid for that and giving me a product isn't going to noticeably change it) - it's just a question of how much money they get from my wallet. It's possible they need larger margins, but I was lead to believe that DDB was quite profitable for them.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
That's not really accurate. (Disclaimer: I am not a dndbeyond developer, but I am a software developer.)
It's my understanding that the "cost" is/was, for the most part, the complexity of the system for divvying up the permissions (ownership) of all the little character creation options. For example, I recall hearing that that was the reason it took so long to implement many of the features from Tasha's (and why some of Tasha's features are still not implemented). Implementing the systems in such a granular, modular fashion may have been significant extra work.
So I wouldn't be surprised (but, note, I'm not certain) if they decided that, going forward, they were going to support whole books and not split them up. That could make all their future/upcoming work much easier to develop, simpler/cheaper to maintain, and faster to grow.
(Who knows? Under the hood, some of the OneD&D changes may very much exist to make things easier to code. I recall that that was a big driver of the 3e changes, from 2e, back in the day.)
To be clear, I'm not trying to defend or even condone the change they've made. But there could very well be some cost/benefit sense to it.
What from Tasha's hasn't been implemented? I have the book and haven't noticed anything not working.
Read through the first post at https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/87774-tashas-cauldron-of-everything-issues-and-support. And the second post (and the whole thread, really) can give you a sense of how long they spent working on what does work.
Some infusions aren't fully working.
Some dynamic statblocks from some features and spells are not able to be added and used properly.
Certain items that affect specific class spellcasting DCs do not function properly for multiclass spellcasters.
Spell swapping for Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul subclasses is not yet supported, requiring clunky workarounds by homebrewing copies of the subclass and changing it yourself.
Some feats like Eldritch Adept and Fighting Initiate do not work fully.
Some feats add spells as once-per-day plus use of spell slots but the second part is still not supported, which required workarounds by homebrewing race/subclass to add the "use spell slot" aspect for scaling and such.
Sidekicks are not yet supported.
- There's probably more but I can't recall of top of my head and have a headache.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Ah, you're right. I forgot about spell swapping for Aberrant Mind sorcerers. Yeah, that's annoying.
Guess I waited to long to pick up a couple subclasses I was thinking about. Oh well, I guess WOTC doesn't want my money cause I am not going to buy two or three source books for one subclass each. But I would have spent the few dollars that each of them cost if I was allowed to do so. How can they think this is going to make them more money? This only gives people less reason to spend money on their site.
Look, I know you're being genuine, and I appreciate you hearing us all out, but as long as WotC continues to make D&D Beyond more and more prominent in D&D and continues to offer zero digital support for in-store purchases whatsoever any talk of trying to "incentivize shopping your FLGS" is just meaningless corporate gas lighting.
All of your competitors offer some kind of digital support for their products, whether that is working through Bits and Mortar, providing PDFs with proof of in store purchase, putting digital access codes in the books, or just sending the PDFs to anyone that asks and shows proof of a physical copy. We're talking Paizo, Modiphius, Free League, Evil Hat, Goodman Games, Exalted Funeral, pretty much everyone else offers SOMETHING. WotC is the ONLY major RPG publisher that does not do this in any way whatsoever, and because of that it cannot be argued that D&D Beyond now direct selling all the books in exclusive physical + digital bundles isn't undercutting FLGS'. DDB isn't poaching sales from retailers because DDB ships a week earlier, it's poaching sales because WotC refuses to provide digital support for retailers, and WotC knows that and is still trying to eat the lunch of FLGS'.
The narrative, whether true or false, that pretty much the entire gaming community believes is that Hasbro is trying to find any way they can to turn D&D into a digital subscription product of some kind and to cut everyone else out; following up the OGL mess and the totally uncalled for mass firings in December with pulling all the a la carte options with no warning in the dark of night while at the same time pulling the rug out from local game stores with the secret roll out of DDB selling all the books direct now and with an exclusive digital plus physical bundle only feeds into that perception. Please tell your bosses to stop making the same choices that 80's movie villains would make.
I canceled my subscription because of this. I am not interested in buying 100+ magic items or maps or whatever. I just want to buy the character options that my players are using. I was more than happy to spend a few bucks here and there (usually like 2 or 3 purchases per book), but I am not shelling out for an entire book. Most of my friends have been talking about switching games, but I have always argued that DnD beyond made 5e simple. Now I'm thinking I might be interested in another game as well.