My issue with this line of thinking is that the physical publishing landscape seems to be steadily getting worse, not better.
Sure, but I think the hard part for Wizards is that gaming stores provide a major feature that has no real replacement right now: game hosting. If you want to get together with random people to play Magic, or a board game, or Adventurer's League, the default place to find that kind of thing is your FLGS, and there isn't a great alternative out there.
Wizards has consistently said that their primary method of sales is not Amazon, not digital, and not other big box stores - it is local game stores. That is why they give game stores extra bonuses, such as earlier releases than big box stores, same day release as digital early access, special covers, etc. Wizards recognizes their symbiotic relationship with game stores and works to provide them some additional boons to stay competitive.
Applying a little critical thinking to this situation, it is hardly difficult to figure out why digital is being delayed. Eberron is a huge release and one game stores are likely counting on - it is a popular plane, unveils a revised Artificer class, and is the first major product for 5.24. This is something game stores want - and they want to sell very well.
Releasing the product early on digital hurts game stores - for those who want the highly anticipated new content as early as possible, it drives them away from early-access game store purchases and to digital purchases. That is very likely to hurt LGS sales long term, as people might not be inclined to purchase a second, physical copy if they already rushed to digital.
It sucks to wait a little longer, but Wizards is doing the right thing here for the community at large by preserving tools the stores we love count on. This seems firmly a case where players are shooting off complaints based on their own desires, ignoring the bigger picture.
My issue with this line of thinking is that the physical publishing landscape seems to be steadily getting worse, not better. Supply chain issues from Covid haven't gone anywhere (including ongoing things like paper shortages and failing bookstores), we've had recent high-profile distributor closures like Diamond / Alliance that have been squeezing the whole industry, and I won't even comment on all the non-stop fun we've been subjected to from chaotic tariffs. All for a business model that likely has atrocious margins compared to digital regardless of its volume, and that has plenty of other drawbacks like costly print runs to incorporate even minor errata. I'm all for supporting FLGS, but at some point WotC needs to revisit whether continuing to prop them up through all these headwinds at the expense of their digital customers is worthwhile.
Maybe, but a vast majority of fans (as pointed out by the ~ 70% of overall sales being physical books) prefer physical books. Or at the very least supplement their digital collections with physical copies, that isn’t going away.
My issue with this line of thinking is that the physical publishing landscape seems to be steadily getting worse, not better.
Sure, but I think the hard part for Wizards is that gaming stores provide a major feature that has no real replacement right now: game hosting. If you want to get together with random people to play Magic, or a board game, or Adventurer's League, the default place to find that kind of thing is your FLGS, and there isn't a great alternative out there.
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
Maybe, but a vast majority of fans (as pointed out by the ~ 70% of overall sales being physical books) prefer physical books. Or at the very least supplement their digital collections with physical copies, that isn’t going away.
I don't want physical to go away either. But neither do I want to import all the challenges and headaches from physical to my digital marketplace.
To put it another way - if I preordered both, and they said "here's your digital copy, your physical copy unfortunately will be delayed several months because reasons" I would not be complaining at all, I'd be happily consuming the digital version I paid for until the physical version arrived. Which is exactly what happened with Book of Many Things, FYI.
It's hardly a mystery why. The digital version was also getting warped. They had to recall the entire digital version to make sure it's the best quality possible.
we left them out in the sun and they warped like vinyls
(also what a day for me to be off work when this gets announced, huh)
Questions or Refunds? If you need assistance with a pre-order, return, or refund, our Customer Support team is here to help. You can reach them here or learn more in our FAQ.
We know delays are frustrating. We’re committed to delivering a book that’s worthy of the world of Eberron and the fans who love it. Thank you for your trust, your passion, and for continuing to shape this game with us.
-The Dungeons & Dragons Team
From the Customer Support Team:
Customer Service Agent (D&D)
Jul 21, 2025, 1:36 PM PDT
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Support! We appreciate you taking the time to write in with your concerns. Per the Refund and Cancellations Policy and the FAQ on these items, customers are notified in advance of delayed payment processing or if an order will debit immediately upon completing the checkout process. Customers may cancel their order prior to automatic payment collection or before finalizing an immediate debit order.
After payment has been debited, orders are considered final and we do not accept refund requests or returns. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.
I’ll be glad to help you further if you have any other questions or concerns!
So there will be no refunds. But it's "weird" how they put the chargest through right before announcing the delay.
It's not "weird," it's just unfortunate. There's no reason to make it sound conspiratorial. Occam's Razor: the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is the most likely. They charged cards and started unpacking the containers with all the books for distribution and found too much stock was damaged to send out.
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
I'm pretty sure the big problem isn't actually D&D, it's Magic and board games. And yes, those also have digital versions, but that doesn't mean Hasbro wants to sacrifice their physical products.
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
I'm pretty sure the big problem isn't actually D&D, it's Magic and board games. And yes, those also have digital versions, but that doesn't mean Hasbro wants to sacrifice their physical products.
That's the "sacrifice" I'm questioning though.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
I'm pretty sure the big problem isn't actually D&D, it's Magic and board games. And yes, those also have digital versions, but that doesn't mean Hasbro wants to sacrifice their physical products.
That's the "sacrifice" I'm questioning though.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
Well, WotC have the sales data from the Book of Many Things, where they didn't delay the digital. It seems not unreasonable to suspect that their current actions are informed by that result.
Also, no, this one book won't kill local stores, but they have a vested interest in keeping them happy and healthy.
Edit: Also, there's a big difference between "the LGS market is large" and "the LGS market is healthy". In particular, right now, with the Diamond/Alliance bankruptcy, economic downturn, and tariffs making a lot of the product they carry unpredictably more expensive, it could suddenly contract significantly. Many of the problems will stabilize over time, but right now is not the moment to risk undermining that market.
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
I'm pretty sure the big problem isn't actually D&D, it's Magic and board games. And yes, those also have digital versions, but that doesn't mean Hasbro wants to sacrifice their physical products.
That's the "sacrifice" I'm questioning though.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
It's not a singular absolute, but it could have an impact on stores, which might discourage them from stocking as many books in the future, plus it's a matter of maintaining goodwill and communicating that they're taking the effect their actions have on retailers into account.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
The reality is:
Hasbro has somewhat better information than we do, but that doesn't mean they actually know what will happen.
The hobby market is struggling right now (and Diamond doesn't help). Hasbro has a (plausible) belief that it's valuable for them to prop up the hobby market.
Most likely we're talking death by a thousand cuts, not any one thing having a dramatic impact.
It may be worthwhile hassling Hasbro about their refund policy, as this is not the normal situation it's designed to cover.
Well, WotC have the sales data from the Book of Many Things, where they didn't delay the digital. It seems not unreasonable to suspect that their current actions are informed by that result.
Also, no, this one book won't kill local stores, but they have a vested interest in keeping them happy and healthy.
Point, but even if the results of that were unfavorable, they haven't tried this approach yet either, so it could just as easily turn out worse (there seem to be a number of folks trying to get refunds for instance.) I guess we'll have to see.
(Not to mention the waters are muddy - we're comparing the first major non-core release of this version of the game to the last major non-core release of the previous one, after all.)
Edit: Also, there's a big difference between "the LGS market is large" and "the LGS market is healthy". In particular, right now, with the Diamond/Alliance bankruptcy, economic downturn, and tariffs making a lot of the product they carry unpredictably more expensive, it could suddenly contract significantly. Many of the problems will stabilize over time, but right now is not the moment to risk undermining that market.
...That sounds like more reason to make digital consumers happy, not less. "All these factors point to print media being unhealthy/unstable and likely to contract" is exactly the point I was making; digital is their way to not have to deal with that.
Well, WotC have the sales data from the Book of Many Things, where they didn't delay the digital. It seems not unreasonable to suspect that their current actions are informed by that result.
Also, no, this one book won't kill local stores, but they have a vested interest in keeping them happy and healthy.
Point, but even if the results of that were unfavorable, they haven't tried this approach yet either, so it could just as easily turn out worse (there seem to be a number of folks trying to get refunds for instance.) I guess we'll have to see.
(Not to mention the waters are muddy - we're comparing the first major non-core release of this version of the game to the last major non-core release of the previous one, after all.)
Edit: Also, there's a big difference between "the LGS market is large" and "the LGS market is healthy". In particular, right now, with the Diamond/Alliance bankruptcy, economic downturn, and tariffs making a lot of the product they carry unpredictably more expensive, it could suddenly contract significantly. Many of the problems will stabilize over time, but right now is not the moment to risk undermining that market.
...That sounds like more reason to make digital consumers happy, not less. "All these factors point to print media being unhealthy/unstable and likely to contract" is exactly the point I was making; digital is their way to not have to deal with that.
So it's better to satisfy the minority of their customers while actively irritating the majority? Say what you will about the decision to delay both, but at least by mildly inconveniencing all their customers nobody is alienated.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
The reality is:
Hasbro has somewhat better information than we do, but that doesn't mean they actually know what will happen.
The hobby market is struggling right now (and Diamond doesn't help). Hasbro has a (plausible) belief that it's valuable for them to prop up the hobby market.
Most likely we're talking death by a thousand cuts, not any one thing having a dramatic impact.
It may be worthwhile hassling Hasbro about their refund policy, as this is not the normal situation it's designed to cover.
Not sure about the US but over here in the UK FLGS just can't seem to stay open, the group I play with has moved venues three times in four years because shops open and close again so quickly and we're currently playing in the back room of a Polish dumpling shop that rents space by the table to MTG players. Hard not to feel like the concept's days are numbered here
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
The reality is:
Hasbro has somewhat better information than we do, but that doesn't mean they actually know what will happen.
The hobby market is struggling right now (and Diamond doesn't help). Hasbro has a (plausible) belief that it's valuable for them to prop up the hobby market.
Most likely we're talking death by a thousand cuts, not any one thing having a dramatic impact.
It may be worthwhile hassling Hasbro about their refund policy, as this is not the normal situation it's designed to cover.
Not sure about the US but over here in the UK FLGS just can't seem to stay open, the group I play with has moved venues three times in four years because shops open and close again so quickly and we're currently playing in the back room of a Polish dumpling shop that rents space by the table to MTG players. Hard not to feel like the concept's days are numbered here
To be fair to WOTC (but never Hasbro), the plight of FLGS is far more tied up in trading cards, minatures, and the like these days, which are having their own struggles with the digital world. TTRPGs aren't holding the stores together. But FLGS are holding WOTC together.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
The reality is:
Hasbro has somewhat better information than we do, but that doesn't mean they actually know what will happen.
The hobby market is struggling right now (and Diamond doesn't help). Hasbro has a (plausible) belief that it's valuable for them to prop up the hobby market.
Most likely we're talking death by a thousand cuts, not any one thing having a dramatic impact.
It may be worthwhile hassling Hasbro about their refund policy, as this is not the normal situation it's designed to cover.
Not sure about the US but over here in the UK FLGS just can't seem to stay open, the group I play with has moved venues three times in four years because shops open and close again so quickly and we're currently playing in the back room of a Polish dumpling shop that rents space by the table to MTG players. Hard not to feel like the concept's days are numbered here
While a couple years out of date, the most recent information Wizards provided indicated US game stores were becoming more popular, not less with revenues increasing each year. As your anecdote demonstrates, the demand is there, and the data indicates it is a growing demand. The problem, however, are a number of external factors. Some of these are temporary and are likely to pass - broad inflation decreasing discretionary spending, for example - and some are paradoxically caused by their success - more players means more space dedicated to games… which means they either need larger spaces to rent or need to decrease the amount of retail space available, cutting into their product availability and some sources of revenue.
That is exactly when a company should be subsidizing their business partners - it is not only their base purchaser, but there is growth to be realized there. Wizards, who benefits from the purchasing is benefiting from the growth, while the stores are being eaten alive from other factors eclipsing the growth. Particularly since some is these factors might go away, it makes sense for Wizards to try and help push them past profit issues so they can all continue to grow long-term. Particularly since the costs are fairly small - special print runs of things just for stores, early access compared to larger competitors, etc.
And, who knows - maybe if and when this happens again, they might make different choices. The real unknown is whether the annoyance of digital players about the delay will hurt sales more than the benefit to game stores of delaying both. But they are not going to know that right now - Book of Many Things gave them data on the other side of the coin, this will give them data on what happens if you delay both. That is a sensible experiment to run, given all the factors at play.
The real interesting data point will be the next time this happens. That is unfortunately likely given the fact the printing industry is a mess right now. This and BoMT are experiments - the next time likely will be the results of those experiments.
Well, WotC have the sales data from the Book of Many Things, where they didn't delay the digital. It seems not unreasonable to suspect that their current actions are informed by that result.
Also, no, this one book won't kill local stores, but they have a vested interest in keeping them happy and healthy.
Point, but even if the results of that were unfavorable, they haven't tried this approach yet either, so it could just as easily turn out worse (there seem to be a number of folks trying to get refunds for instance.) I guess we'll have to see.
Fundamentally, there's no way for this not to hurt sales. (Although it coming out in the Christmas runup will likely help.) The question is how bad, and where the damage is centered.
In the unlikely event that sales suffer just as much overall, it still makes a difference where the sales suffer. If they suffer in digital, WotC loses money. If they suffer in print, WotC and the entire retail network that WotC makes the lion's share of their money from loses money.
And it's unlikely that sales suffer as much this way. While some people claim to be trying to get refunds, most people who preordered the book still want the book. "I can't get it now, so I will not get it at all" is a much less common reaction than "I will get this digitally now instead of waiting months to get it in print".
Edit: Also, there's a big difference between "the LGS market is large" and "the LGS market is healthy". In particular, right now, with the Diamond/Alliance bankruptcy, economic downturn, and tariffs making a lot of the product they carry unpredictably more expensive, it could suddenly contract significantly. Many of the problems will stabilize over time, but right now is not the moment to risk undermining that market.
...That sounds like more reason to make digital consumers happy, not less. "All these factors point to print media being unhealthy/unstable and likely to contract" is exactly the point I was making; digital is their way to not have to deal with that.
Not print media. Local game shops. Which have always been unstable businesses with a lot of churn.
But they're also where the money comes from.
They're the feeder system. Digital may be fine for playing stuff you're already into, but it's crap for the kind of random pickup play that gets people into games to start with. Most people aren't going to download MtG online, or make a DDB account on a lark. They do it because they're already interested, and a big source of prior interest is encountering it in the wild.
(Also, most people prefer engaging in person. They want to throw cards/dice around with their friends. They'll do digital if they must, but you're more likely to see RPG groups that go digital because of logistics than those that started that way.)
They're the long tail. More so for Magic than D&D, perhaps. I know nothing about what MtG sales are like, but they're almost certainly a power law distribution, because everything's a power law distribution. And a lot of the tail of that distribution happens in gaming stores. The impulse buy. The casual draft. Etc.
Prioritizing digital at the expense of retail print risks damaging all that.
And, who knows - maybe if and when this happens again, they might make different choices. The real unknown is whether the annoyance of digital players about the delay will hurt sales more than the benefit to game stores of delaying both. But they are not going to know that right now - Book of Many Things gave them data on the other side of the coin, this will give them data on what happens if you delay both. That is a sensible experiment to run, given all the factors at play.
The real interesting data point will be the next time this happens. That is unfortunately likely given the fact the printing industry is a mess right now. This and BoMT are experiments - the next time likely will be the results of those experiments.
I guess that's what I'm getting at. It's a reasonable experiment for them to run, I agree with that. It's just more than a little annoying to get stuck being one of the subjects of said experiment until it concludes months from now.
Not print media. Local game shops. Which have always been unstable businesses with a lot of churn.
But they're also where the money comes from.
They're the feeder system. Digital may be fine for playing stuff you're already into, but it's crap for the kind of random pickup play that gets people into games to start with. Most people aren't going to download MtG online, or make a DDB account on a lark. They do it because they're already interested, and a big source of prior interest is encountering it in the wild.
And yet, Baldurs Gate 3 got millions of people into D&D through a digital lens. So did liveplays like Critical Role. I think the accepted thinking that FLGS is the primary route into the hobby (and especially that it's the fastest-growing one) and every other avenue needs to be inconvenienced for their benefit is worthy of challenge.
BG3 was a big gamble that they put little faith in and only paid attention to after it bore them unexpected fruit, and as for CR, they had not been kind to it and other avenues outside their direct control during the OGL incident.
Sticking with FLGS is the more sure bet until they can mend some fences from the actions or previous leadership, and the FLGS have been the longest running source of steady revenue. If they were going to go all in on digital, that time is not now, it was Pre-OGL fiasco or it is down the road when they have mended those fences. Still, i think they are trying to not alienate any route so they don't have their eggs in one basket. The world is uncertain and trying to keep as many customers as possible is prudent. Which is ultimately why i think they chose this course of action. Don't 'play favorites' and 'everyone gets it at the same time' is most likely to irritate one sector or the other.
Personally, i would still have done the Digital release on time, and remunerated the physical pre-orders in a different way, like a discount or bonus stuff. I can see why they are taking this course of action even if i don't agree with it.
Lets also not forget that Digital is easier to pirate, no mater what safe guards are in place. They might be worrying that they will loose physical sales to leaked digital materials.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
Doesn’t even have to be leaked; someone shares the book here, people save PDFs of the pages, and it’s all pretty aboveboard and a decent approximation of a physical book.
And, who knows - maybe if and when this happens again, they might make different choices. The real unknown is whether the annoyance of digital players about the delay will hurt sales more than the benefit to game stores of delaying both. But they are not going to know that right now - Book of Many Things gave them data on the other side of the coin, this will give them data on what happens if you delay both. That is a sensible experiment to run, given all the factors at play.
The real interesting data point will be the next time this happens. That is unfortunately likely given the fact the printing industry is a mess right now. This and BoMT are experiments - the next time likely will be the results of those experiments.
I guess that's what I'm getting at. It's a reasonable experiment for them to run, I agree with that. It's just more than a little annoying to get stuck being one of the subjects of said experiment until it concludes months from now.
It's not like they're doing it purely in the name of scientific inquiry. Once the books were defective, they had to do something, and whatever it is will annoy some of their players.
Not print media. Local game shops. Which have always been unstable businesses with a lot of churn.
But they're also where the money comes from.
They're the feeder system. Digital may be fine for playing stuff you're already into, but it's crap for the kind of random pickup play that gets people into games to start with. Most people aren't going to download MtG online, or make a DDB account on a lark. They do it because they're already interested, and a big source of prior interest is encountering it in the wild.
And yet, Baldurs Gate 3 got millions of people into D&D through a digital lens.
"Millions" seems unlikely. The game sold a lot, sure, but we're talking low tens of millions. To get anything close to "millions" would mean you're looking at something like a 10% conversion rate; in practice you're talking much higher, because a significant percentage of people who bought BG3 already play D&D.
So did liveplays like Critical Role.
BG3 and CR are one-offs beyond WotC's control. They can't just assume that they'll keep happening. If they do, it's great, but abandoning the day-to-day grind of player acquisition because of them would be a poor choice.
I think the accepted thinking that FLGS is the primary route into the hobby (and especially that it's the fastest-growing one) and every other avenue needs to be inconvenienced for their benefit is worthy of challenge.
To challenge it meaningfully, you'd need more data.
So as an update on refunds, I'm 100% giving the credit to LaTiaJacquise (and Spamandtuna chased it up too) to getting Customer Support to pull their act together, and issue a refund.
Another case of the D&D Beyond Team being lightyears ahead in community building than the D&D group as a whole. We shouldn't need community managers to get customer support to follow their own instructions, but the team here on Beyond got it done.
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Sure, but I think the hard part for Wizards is that gaming stores provide a major feature that has no real replacement right now: game hosting. If you want to get together with random people to play Magic, or a board game, or Adventurer's League, the default place to find that kind of thing is your FLGS, and there isn't a great alternative out there.
Maybe, but a vast majority of fans (as pointed out by the ~ 70% of overall sales being physical books) prefer physical books. Or at the very least supplement their digital collections with physical copies, that isn’t going away.
Tell that to Startplaying, Maps, and all the other VTTs though. I'm not saying that the FLGS gaming experience isn't beneficial, but there are absolutely alternatives, and those alternatives are only going to grow as future generations continue to embrace digital gaming.
I don't want physical to go away either. But neither do I want to import all the challenges and headaches from physical to my digital marketplace.
To put it another way - if I preordered both, and they said "here's your digital copy, your physical copy unfortunately will be delayed several months because reasons" I would not be complaining at all, I'd be happily consuming the digital version I paid for until the physical version arrived. Which is exactly what happened with Book of Many Things, FYI.
It's not "weird," it's just unfortunate. There's no reason to make it sound conspiratorial. Occam's Razor: the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is the most likely. They charged cards and started unpacking the containers with all the books for distribution and found too much stock was damaged to send out.
I'm pretty sure the big problem isn't actually D&D, it's Magic and board games. And yes, those also have digital versions, but that doesn't mean Hasbro wants to sacrifice their physical products.
That's the "sacrifice" I'm questioning though.
The accepted line of thought seems to be that "if we don't move the digital release date, nobody will buy physical anymore and all the Magic stores will die, followed by us!" But the same folks who believe that are also saying "physical isn't going anywhere, digital will never be a substitute for sitting around a table with dead trees." And I'm left asking, well, which is it? Is letting the digital preorder folks have our 1s and 0s on time, or even just not months and months later, really going to kill the radio star here?
Well, WotC have the sales data from the Book of Many Things, where they didn't delay the digital. It seems not unreasonable to suspect that their current actions are informed by that result.
Also, no, this one book won't kill local stores, but they have a vested interest in keeping them happy and healthy.
Edit: Also, there's a big difference between "the LGS market is large" and "the LGS market is healthy". In particular, right now, with the Diamond/Alliance bankruptcy, economic downturn, and tariffs making a lot of the product they carry unpredictably more expensive, it could suddenly contract significantly. Many of the problems will stabilize over time, but right now is not the moment to risk undermining that market.
It's not a singular absolute, but it could have an impact on stores, which might discourage them from stocking as many books in the future, plus it's a matter of maintaining goodwill and communicating that they're taking the effect their actions have on retailers into account.
The reality is:
Point, but even if the results of that were unfavorable, they haven't tried this approach yet either, so it could just as easily turn out worse (there seem to be a number of folks trying to get refunds for instance.) I guess we'll have to see.
(Not to mention the waters are muddy - we're comparing the first major non-core release of this version of the game to the last major non-core release of the previous one, after all.)
...That sounds like more reason to make digital consumers happy, not less. "All these factors point to print media being unhealthy/unstable and likely to contract" is exactly the point I was making; digital is their way to not have to deal with that.
So it's better to satisfy the minority of their customers while actively irritating the majority? Say what you will about the decision to delay both, but at least by mildly inconveniencing all their customers nobody is alienated.
Not sure about the US but over here in the UK FLGS just can't seem to stay open, the group I play with has moved venues three times in four years because shops open and close again so quickly and we're currently playing in the back room of a Polish dumpling shop that rents space by the table to MTG players. Hard not to feel like the concept's days are numbered here
To be fair to WOTC (but never Hasbro), the plight of FLGS is far more tied up in trading cards, minatures, and the like these days, which are having their own struggles with the digital world. TTRPGs aren't holding the stores together. But FLGS are holding WOTC together.
While a couple years out of date, the most recent information Wizards provided indicated US game stores were becoming more popular, not less with revenues increasing each year. As your anecdote demonstrates, the demand is there, and the data indicates it is a growing demand. The problem, however, are a number of external factors. Some of these are temporary and are likely to pass - broad inflation decreasing discretionary spending, for example - and some are paradoxically caused by their success - more players means more space dedicated to games… which means they either need larger spaces to rent or need to decrease the amount of retail space available, cutting into their product availability and some sources of revenue.
That is exactly when a company should be subsidizing their business partners - it is not only their base purchaser, but there is growth to be realized there. Wizards, who benefits from the purchasing is benefiting from the growth, while the stores are being eaten alive from other factors eclipsing the growth. Particularly since some is these factors might go away, it makes sense for Wizards to try and help push them past profit issues so they can all continue to grow long-term. Particularly since the costs are fairly small - special print runs of things just for stores, early access compared to larger competitors, etc.
And, who knows - maybe if and when this happens again, they might make different choices. The real unknown is whether the annoyance of digital players about the delay will hurt sales more than the benefit to game stores of delaying both. But they are not going to know that right now - Book of Many Things gave them data on the other side of the coin, this will give them data on what happens if you delay both. That is a sensible experiment to run, given all the factors at play.
The real interesting data point will be the next time this happens. That is unfortunately likely given the fact the printing industry is a mess right now. This and BoMT are experiments - the next time likely will be the results of those experiments.
Fundamentally, there's no way for this not to hurt sales. (Although it coming out in the Christmas runup will likely help.) The question is how bad, and where the damage is centered.
In the unlikely event that sales suffer just as much overall, it still makes a difference where the sales suffer. If they suffer in digital, WotC loses money. If they suffer in print, WotC and the entire retail network that WotC makes the lion's share of their money from loses money.
And it's unlikely that sales suffer as much this way. While some people claim to be trying to get refunds, most people who preordered the book still want the book. "I can't get it now, so I will not get it at all" is a much less common reaction than "I will get this digitally now instead of waiting months to get it in print".
Not print media. Local game shops. Which have always been unstable businesses with a lot of churn.
But they're also where the money comes from.
They're the feeder system. Digital may be fine for playing stuff you're already into, but it's crap for the kind of random pickup play that gets people into games to start with. Most people aren't going to download MtG online, or make a DDB account on a lark. They do it because they're already interested, and a big source of prior interest is encountering it in the wild.
(Also, most people prefer engaging in person. They want to throw cards/dice around with their friends. They'll do digital if they must, but you're more likely to see RPG groups that go digital because of logistics than those that started that way.)
They're the long tail. More so for Magic than D&D, perhaps. I know nothing about what MtG sales are like, but they're almost certainly a power law distribution, because everything's a power law distribution. And a lot of the tail of that distribution happens in gaming stores. The impulse buy. The casual draft. Etc.
Prioritizing digital at the expense of retail print risks damaging all that.
I guess that's what I'm getting at. It's a reasonable experiment for them to run, I agree with that. It's just more than a little annoying to get stuck being one of the subjects of said experiment until it concludes months from now.
And yet, Baldurs Gate 3 got millions of people into D&D through a digital lens. So did liveplays like Critical Role. I think the accepted thinking that FLGS is the primary route into the hobby (and especially that it's the fastest-growing one) and every other avenue needs to be inconvenienced for their benefit is worthy of challenge.
BG3 was a big gamble that they put little faith in and only paid attention to after it bore them unexpected fruit, and as for CR, they had not been kind to it and other avenues outside their direct control during the OGL incident.
Sticking with FLGS is the more sure bet until they can mend some fences from the actions or previous leadership, and the FLGS have been the longest running source of steady revenue. If they were going to go all in on digital, that time is not now, it was Pre-OGL fiasco or it is down the road when they have mended those fences.
Still, i think they are trying to not alienate any route so they don't have their eggs in one basket.
The world is uncertain and trying to keep as many customers as possible is prudent. Which is ultimately why i think they chose this course of action. Don't 'play favorites' and 'everyone gets it at the same time' is most likely to irritate one sector or the other.
Personally, i would still have done the Digital release on time, and remunerated the physical pre-orders in a different way, like a discount or bonus stuff. I can see why they are taking this course of action even if i don't agree with it.
Lets also not forget that Digital is easier to pirate, no mater what safe guards are in place. They might be worrying that they will loose physical sales to leaked digital materials.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Doesn’t even have to be leaked; someone shares the book here, people save PDFs of the pages, and it’s all pretty aboveboard and a decent approximation of a physical book.
It's not like they're doing it purely in the name of scientific inquiry. Once the books were defective, they had to do something, and whatever it is will annoy some of their players.
"Millions" seems unlikely. The game sold a lot, sure, but we're talking low tens of millions. To get anything close to "millions" would mean you're looking at something like a 10% conversion rate; in practice you're talking much higher, because a significant percentage of people who bought BG3 already play D&D.
BG3 and CR are one-offs beyond WotC's control. They can't just assume that they'll keep happening. If they do, it's great, but abandoning the day-to-day grind of player acquisition because of them would be a poor choice.
To challenge it meaningfully, you'd need more data.
So as an update on refunds, I'm 100% giving the credit to LaTiaJacquise (and Spamandtuna chased it up too) to getting Customer Support to pull their act together, and issue a refund.
Another case of the D&D Beyond Team being lightyears ahead in community building than the D&D group as a whole. We shouldn't need community managers to get customer support to follow their own instructions, but the team here on Beyond got it done.