Dungeons & Dragons Is About To Get More Expensive
Dungeons & Dragons is raising prices on physical copies of games due to increased costs in production.
Wizards of the Coast, the company that sent a detective agency against a YouTuber, also announced a price increase, following the footsteps of its cousins from the digital side of the gaming industry—most notably Xbox and PlayStation, but also other major game developers. The new price increase affects Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, at least for the time being. According to Kotaku, the rising cost of book production will bring the price of physical copies up to approx. $60 for new books, which is a 20 percent bump-up from the previous price.
The first to receive a new price will be the upcoming hit Bigsby Presents: Glory to the Giants, followed by the Planescape supplement, which aims to bring novelty to the campaign setting of the game’s PC counterpart, Planescape: Torment. WotC’s digital content and previously published material will remain unaffected by the price increase.
Please note that we’re discussing pre-order prices for the physical editions of major Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rulebooks. Once the pre-order window closes, the price will jump to $70, which is perhaps worth considering a digital-only PDF copy, unless you’re a collector. This spells bad news for Dungeons & Dragons fans.
WotC is preparing monthly releases starting in August, and those wanting to pick up each of the four books will have to shell out anywhere between $240 and $280 if they miss the pre-order promotion.
To be entirely honest, Dungeons & Dragons isn’t really that expensive to play, even with the endless maps, miniatures, dice, and rulebooks altogether—especially if you compare it to more expensive franchises produced by Games Workshop, like Warhammer 40k, which is considered a bottomless money-sucking pit of a hobby to many. The good news is that the company has finally loosened up around its IP, and just like we recently got the Dungeons & Dragons movie that perfectly captures the playing experience, GW decided to adapt its franchise, with Henry Cavill taking the helm. Thankfully.
As for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop, Wizards of the Coast has had a very successful financial year. Still, the price increase isn’t actually out of the blue. Besides the price of production, the price of shipping has also gone up, not to mention that some parts of the US and Europe still haven’t recuperated their workforce since COVID, which has affected shipping and transport companies the most.
In fact, faulty logistics and shipping issues led to the shutdown of one of the best game companies, Holy Grail Games.
Of course, there are some who believe that the Dungeons & Dragons price increase is the reflection of pure greed, which has previously led Wizards of the Coast to release a $1000-worth Magic: The Gathering set, which actually harmed the brand, leading them to try and dispute the OGL, a licensing agreement they themselves have created. Many have perceived this as the company’s attempt to pave the way to a new virtual tabletop future, which, once you add internet connectivity—and they will—basically changes a tabletop RPG into an MMORPG.
