Really disappointed to see that the "black friday deals" for 2025 did not include any of the new 2024 core books at the very least. I wasn't expecting the stuff that came out within the last few weeks to be on sale, but at least the 2024 books? 

I personally had a calendar reminder to myself to get the new DMG and MM but I guess WotC is just having a seasonal allergy to money.

Run me through the logic here. You're WotC and you want more people to get invested in the online platform you've set up. You have a new-ish set of rulebooks that are widely adopted and you're trying to get folks to use your maps VTT. A really, really basic marketing pitch would be to put a sale (even a nominal one) on the core books or bundles at a time when the north american market typically drops a lot of money on things.

But no. Zilch. Nada. 

Good job, team! You have successfully avoided getting people to buy things at a time when people want to spend money on things! Great job!

There is more to marketing than that actually.  Disney for one example didn't have sales on it's VCR movies, they just removed them from sale for years at a time so that when they did release those movies for sale they were a limited commodity and generated huge sales. 

Japanese car manufacturers never had rebates for many years, allowing their strong products to "sell themselves" while the American brands offered rebates.  The result was that no one would purchase an American vehicle without a rebate, waiting for the next "sale".  

Perhaps Hasbro thinks D&D is strong enough to generate sales without resorting to constant price reductions, which leads to people being conditioned to only purchase during sales.

I personally didn't see anything I couldn't live without either so I also kept my money in my pocket.  Anyway, enjoy the holidays!

To be honest, DDB sales have been lackluster for a while now. I make a token effort to check each time, but with little expectation. Normally only a few items and the discounts aren't deep. Maybe CyberMonday will bring better deals, that's happened before.

I just wouldn't have any expectations for sales. They've made a few decisions that reduce the likelihood of selling stuff...so just accept what they have a face value. And to be fair, I've noticed that sales have been less impactful in general anyway. It's not often shops get me to open my wallet on account of sales anymore.

I agree this sale is pretty underwhelming, but there’s two things to remember. 
One, just because I didn’t find anything I wanted doesn’t mean others didn’t. For someone who’s been waiting for vecna or deck of many things, this is a pretty solid sale. 

Two, they don’t owe me a sale. They are not required to lower prices because I’d like them to. There are many, many companies who don’t do Black Friday sales at all. Particularly when they have a global reach, as Black Friday doesn’t mean anything in many parts of the world.

Sales must be such that WorC doesn’t feel compelled to put up a strong sale. It isn’t that big of a deal. I checked for one too, but when I saw there wasn’t one, I clicked my tongue and bought City of Mist bundle, which was 70% off (the sale is still going for three more days for anyone interested in trying a new system). $150 down to $40 is fantastic.

Just a little fact check: The digital core books are on sale for $25.49 each (along with a handful of other digital books normally at the $29.99) price point. WotC is doing a sale, just not on physical books. Sure, a 15% sale isn't huge, but I'm going to indulge in a bit of nitpicking and point out that it is indeed a sale even if it isn't a very big one. It's certainly more than "Zilch. Nada."

Also, WotC literally gives away a basic version of the rules for free. That's the draw to pull in new players who don't already have the books and get them using the digital platform.

Fact check - all six digital core rule books are currently at $29.99, not on sale. 

2024 PHB Marketplace Screenshot

Curious.

Legendary Bundle Discount. It even says so on your screenshot.

 Well dang. I forgot I even had that. I bought the bundle after I already owned most everything, so the bundle only cost like $20 at the time. Good catch.

Egg on my face.

Still, the basic rules being free obviates the need for sales to get people onto the platform. And as Xalthu said, they're not obligated to run sales.

They don't have to do sales. On the other hand, I'm a lot more likely to hand money over when the books aren't $30-$50. At the moment, I'm not very likely to blink - I've got most of what I need to not need anything new. There are a couple of books that I'm wanting and even a modest sale would be enough to persuade me to part with my money. Otherwise, they can wait until I actually need them. There are other books that I'm somewhat interested in but I'm not going to gamble $30+ on.

If WotC isn't interested in that money, that's fine. I'm not angry or anything. On the other hand, if I never point out the barriers to me buying their products, they can never know what they need to do to get my money.