D&D beyond International Store

Quote from toddhdow >>

And agreed with some of the above comments... it would make so much sense to have physical book purchases come with some sort of digital discount code that could be used to complete a bundle purchase - this would be a great way to accommodate international purchasers who now lack the option to buy bundles online.

 This is a logistical nightmare, especially if you want FLGS to have books on the shelf that people can look at, not to mention unscrupulous FLGS staff using or selling the codes.  I was adjacent to a similar sort of setup in another life, and that ended in litigation and a whole mess of international courts.

If they built the ownership of a book meaning ownership of the digital assets, it would also raise the shelf price of the content, and that means people who don't use D&D Beyond at all (and there's still a big chunk of that market) are paying for the effort to digitize all of the options, that they'll never need or want.

The reality is, the cost of putting digital options on D&D Beyond is a cost, as much as writing the book in the first place.  The reduction in digital cost is because there's a big chunk of that cost that's distribution and printing of physical media that may not get sold, which the digital doesn't require.

Having them tied together, given the strength of D&D Beyond, is a hard ask for companies trying to balance in-person pen and paper players, digital only players, and the mix between.

Quote from toddhdow >>

And agreed with some of the above comments... it would make so much sense to have physical book purchases come with some sort of digital discount code that could be used to complete a bundle purchase - this would be a great way to accommodate international purchasers who now lack the option to buy bundles online.

 Perhaps, but the WotC attitude in the past has not leant credence that this is likely. That they've closed down much of the international store suggests that they've found that it wasn't worth the resources. That they did it that way first (instead of giving codes, etc) suggests that they think that the international store was a more cost efficient method - and if that wasn't worth it, then codes etc aren't likely to be considered. Instead, they're likely to conclude that global bundles were a failure and just maintain them where they're considered profitable.

The best case scenario, I think, is that they noticed that certain areas have been very prone to distribution issues, are doing an overhaul to fix them, and having to temporarily close things down while they do that.

I could be wrong, but codes and the like are very unlikely be their solution to the problem.