PSA: The marketplace got rid of individual purchases! (Contact support to get discount on prior individual purchases.)

As a player who liked to buy individual races and classes this is a bummer. I'm not buying a $30 book for $5 of content i want to use. Scummy practices and I hope to see this rolled back after the reactions they are receiving.

I am only upset for those who piecemeal their purchases.
They do not get the chance to think about it and then buy the whole book they now only have half of.

This is one of the reasons I have always wished they would make a second web sight for all the new rules and leave the old stuff alone on these forums. That way we do not have mixed messages about new and old rules all on the same forum.
They could have also kept selling the old digital content to those who wanted it. Piecemeal or not. They could have also allowed a third party to print the 5E old rules with NO changes.(and taken a percentage of that cash).

But its looking more and more like they are dropping all support for 5E and going with the new content exclusively.
Trying to force a change and new purchases on the players and DM's.

I can personally live with my 5E physical copies of the core three. And as other players move to the new content i will buy up their old books at a steep discount.

Quote from Linklite >>

 Your post seems somewhat incoherent with the thread. Your post seems to be about putting the core rules into legacy - the thread is complaining about the withdrawal of a key selling feature of the website - piecemeal purchases.

 Correct. I'm showing the future, where all of it is unavailable. Step one is to remove it piecemeal. Step two is to move things to legacy. It's relevant because this single subtopic is just that—a subtopic.

There's a larger picture that should be easy to anticipate as the new books come out. This discussion should factor that in.

Quote from kayakingpoodle >>

This does not bode well for quality content, more like riding a brand into the ground for profits. 

 And that's the thing. They're chasing profits, even if it undermines long term viability. The piecemeal options were chasing people like me who bought a part of XGtE because I needed one bit..then got tempted into buying the whole lot later. My wallet has gotten a whole lot harder to access. The thing is, what is it that they're going to do next in the name of squeezing more profits?

Will I be happy to continue to invest in DDB then? 

How much money will I have wasted in the mean time if not?

Perhaps WotC and DDB need to remind me why I should buy their products.

PS what's the deal with 9th March '10?

I used to buy my friends piecemeal subclasses, magic items and races from the books as small gifts. I have bought the same ones I own a few times over. Sucks I can't do that anymore. More importantly, not telling us this change was coming is really not cool. At least telling us, I would have most likely bought the rest of the books I only partially owned, as well as my friends in the same situation. Guess what now? Just not buying anything anymore. so stupid and insulting.

Quote from MaximusCathril>>

  Now, before the nay-sayers and whatnot chime in, seriously look at how they ( the company) has handled recent events ( the OGL coups was roughly 18 months ago ). Piss poor PR handling, movie profit is probably a trickle considering box office numbers put it at just a hair over even, subs might have rebounded but I highly doubt they fully recovered, D&D sector has been a dead beholder dragging their bottom line down like a ship taking on water, upper management jumping ship at a really convenient time, and now this.

I expect this is both worse for the game than the OGL thing… and will get far less attention.  The OGL issue got a lot of press and fanfare, and a number of people cancelled their memberships… but more people subscribed during that time period than cancelled - the losses were less than the regular growth of the game.  Further, you look at things like the OGL survey vs the OneD&D surveys, and the OGL survey numbers were far, far eclipsed by the number of people excitedly responding to a poll about the game’s future.

But the OGL thing was flashy and unique and thus got media attention - which forced Wizards to respond to the vocal minority who were making it an issue.  A company changing its pricing model is hardly that interesting of a story - so, while this might cause more actual effect on the community than the relatively minor OGL issue, I doubt it will get the same level of attention in the general media that resulted in Wizards backtracking over the OGL.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Quote from MaximusCathril>>

  Now, before the nay-sayers and whatnot chime in, seriously look at how they ( the company) has handled recent events ( the OGL coups was roughly 18 months ago ). Piss poor PR handling, movie profit is probably a trickle considering box office numbers put it at just a hair over even, subs might have rebounded but I highly doubt they fully recovered, D&D sector has been a dead beholder dragging their bottom line down like a ship taking on water, upper management jumping ship at a really convenient time, and now this.

 

I expect this is both worse for the game than the OGL thing… and will get far less attention.  The OGL issue got a lot of press and fanfare, and a number of people cancelled their memberships… but more people subscribed during that time period than cancelled - the losses were less than the regular growth of the game.  Further, you look at things like the OGL survey vs the OneD&D surveys, and the OGL survey numbers were far, far eclipsed by the number of people excitedly responding to a poll about the game’s future.

But the OGL thing was flashy and unique and thus got media attention - which forced Wizards to respond to the vocal minority who were making it an issue.  A company changing its pricing model is hardly that interesting of a story - so, while this might cause more actual effect on the community than the relatively minor OGL issue, I doubt it will get the same level of attention in the general media that resulted in Wizards backtracking over the OGL.

 I think you're right. Since this only affects D&D players on this specific platform, I don't think enough people are going to care for this to be reversed back. Since both the bundles and the piece meal buying is gone, it seems they've done some sort of marketplace overhaul without telling us what is happening. How are they supposed to reward long time users and new users who don't want to spend too much money right away?

Unless they stop doing basic rules, it’s not like it’s that hard to dip your toe in still. And, at the end of the day, this is a for profit business venture; if their market research says they’ll make more overall with this shift, that’s what they’ll do.

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

Yes, you read that right. The marketplace no longer sells piecemeal options. All individual options that were purchased before you still get to keep though.

What I am not sure about is if purchasing piecemeal options before will discount the book anymore, but from what I read from other users so far, seems like you do not get the discount.

This seriously sucks big time. We got like zero announcements, zero heads up. The lack of communication is totally not cool.

https://dndbeyond-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/7747224960788-FAQ-D-D-Beyond-Sales
Are à la carte purchases of subclasses, feats, and other game listings no longer available?
While they are no longer available for purchase, any such items that you've previously purchased will continue to be available for use on D&D Beyond.

 

But no mention of no longer getting credit towards purchase of the full book for what you have already spent on its content. 

And the order history 'view' links go to an error page. 

I'm no legal expert, but could there be legal issues present with that?

Before it was advertised that buying a piecemeal portion would count as a discount towards the whole if you did so later on. So purchases were made under that agreement. And taking it away would be reneging there.

Granted digital licenses have a lot of leeway and I'm sure WotC had lawyers look such a move over so I won't be surprised if it is perfectly legal. But I have to ask.

This is a huge disappointment. I'm a teacher and I use DNDBeyond for my students, and I just can't afford to buy every book in full so they can have access to the character options. The piecemeal option was a big part of what made using DNDBeyond to manage the 5 weekly D&D classes I teach feasible. This change makes it prohibitively expensive.

Another thing that upsets me about this move is how it further squeezes out local game stores. I teach my students that it's important to support your FLGS, even if it means paying a little more than online. Even though WotC didn't provide any kind of digital redemption for in store purchases like many other game publishers, the piecemeal system at least made it so you could snag a copy at your local store and then get what you needed on DDB for a little bit more. Now you buy a physical copy or physical + digital bundle through DDB directly. This is gonna impact local stores a lot I think. It's a really crappy move, and I'm just wondering how long it will be until they start selling the exclusive FLGS covers online as part of the bundles too.

Doesn't sound like they're bleeding badly by any stretch. Maybe they've got a good shiner PR-wise, but the sheer inertia of being the pre-eminent TTRPG has been carrying them pretty well, and really they've done a good job teeing up the launch of the updated core books. Honestly I expect this shift to get maybe a few weeks or a month of forum outrage and then just become the new status quo, unless somehow people manage a mass boycott, which I seriously doubt will happen when the OGL doesn't seem to have seriously crimped their business.

Personally see piece meal purchases as a luxury for the online consumer that only applied to the digital player, it's not like you can go to a store and just buy a few pages of a physical book.

Also unsure how piece meal purchases works when it comes to third-party content, are d&d beyond allowed/able to sell third-party content as piece meal??

In saying that allowing those who have bought piece meal to finish their current book purchase at previous discount or at least a heads up would of been nice. Outside of that I don't see it as a big deal.

Hasbro wants the money so they want to force full book sales. Its a terrible misstep! My only fear is that they will also take away the DM's ability to share content with player to try to force more purchases. 

Unfortunately, things sit on an edge. Forcing unwanted things on players and fanbase don't ever come out well. 

We shall see what the days bring!

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Doesn't sound like they're bleeding badly by any stretch. Maybe they've got a good shiner PR-wise, but the sheer inertia of being the pre-eminent TTRPG has been carrying them pretty well, and really they've done a good job teeing up the launch of the updated core books. Honestly I expect this shift to get maybe a few weeks or a month of forum outrage and then just become the new status quo, unless somehow people manage a mass boycott, which I seriously doubt will happen when the OGL doesn't seem to have seriously crimped their business.

 I expect it won't matter much either way either (and I personally never used the feature, I like having full books) - but that's not going to stop me from asking them to revert the change and adding my voice to those who do use it, especially when I've seen people I know firsthand benefit from the functionality.

Quote from kayakingpoodle >>

Quote from AuroraMoon >>

Personally see piece meal purchases as a luxury for the online consumer that only applied to the digital player, it's not like you can go to a store and just buy a few pages of a physical book.

Also unsure how piece meal purchases works when it comes to third-party content, are d&d beyond allowed/able to sell third-party content as piece meal??

In saying that allowing those who have bought piece meal to finish their current book purchase at previous discount or at least a heads up would of been nice. Outside of that I don't see it as a big deal.

 All true, especially letting people know they should buy any books they have bought parts of BEFORE taking it away. That is what is borderline criminal, taking away the option for piece meal is a strange business choice, but what amounts to forcing people to pay for thing already purchased under an agreement by nullifying the agreement without notice is darn sure bumping the line of unlawful, but jumps right over the sleazy practices line. For many it is both a slap in the face while WotC's other hand is in your wallet.

That's both a bit overdramatic imo and the intimations that it's criminal is factually incorrect. A business has the right to cease extending an offer to future customers at any time, unless they have specifically indicated the offer will remain for some duration. I guarantee you in the ToS none of us actually bothered to read when we were making purchases there's language to that specific effect that offers being extended to previous customers are not of themselves a guarantee they will remain in place for the future. And no, this is not some evil legal loophole that only corporations get to use, it's a fundamental cornerstone of contract law; you can put an offer out there, but barring other circumstances until the agreement has been finalized by both parties you have the right to retract that offer at will. It would certainly have looked a bit better for them if they'd given a heads up, but at the end of the day this is a business that operates to make money, and if they felt it would be more profitable to do this cold rather than let people get some final piecemeal purchases in, it's unrealistic to expect them to do otherwise. And the ethics of it on a personal level are, frankly, immaterial. WotC is not a person, it's a business, and one in the disposable income market. It is not concerned with how its actions affects each and every current or potential consumer personally, it's concerned with the most effect way to generate a profit.

seems they made a post about it on the homepage in last 30mins or so 
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1709-d-d-beyond-marketplace-redesign-see-whats-new-here