D&D Beyond Marketplace Gets Controversial Redesign
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D&D Beyond – the official online gaming platform for Dungeons & Dragons – has recently announced some major changes to their marketplace, including a controversial pricing change that has raised the ire of some fans.
The move comes at a unique time for D&D, as the game celebrates its 50th anniversary and prepares to launch a new set of updated D&D 5e Core Rules. It also may be related to a recent transition in leadership, with Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams stepping down from her role.
So just what do these changes on the D&D Beyond marketplace mean for fans? Below we break out all the details.
What is the D&D Beyond Marketplace?
The D&D Beyond Marketplace is a digital storefront within the primary D&D Beyond platform where subscribers can purchase digital content such as DnD 5e books, adventures and other materials to enhance their gameplay experience. This includes official D&D content published by Wizards of the Coast, as well as a small selection of curated third-party content (for example, Ghostfire Games’ Dungeons of Drakkenheim and Kobold Press’ Tome of Beasts).
Notably, players can buy and access digital assets directly through either the D&D Beyond website or app. The marketplace also allows players to make “à la carte” purchases of select materials. For example, a user could purchase a specific subclass, feat, spell, magic item or monster from an existing D&D 5e sourcebook without the need to buy the entire product.
What changed in the D&D Beyond Marketplace?
Wizards of the Coast recently announced that they would be doing away with à la carte purchases and as of April 30th, 2024, will now only allow materials to be purchased as complete product. Users who have already purchases individual items (such as a subclass or spell), will be able to buy the associated sourcebook at a discounted rate if they contact D&D Beyond customer service. Notably, players will still be able to access content via sharing, which allows someone who purchased sourcebooks on D&D Beyond to provide limited access to a contact who is also a subscriber.
In their official post, Wizards of the Coast also announced that they would also now be selling physical copies of books directly to users via D&D Beyond. This marks the first time a Hasbro-owned online marketplace has sold physical products (prior to this, D&D Beyond had sold only physical-digital bundles of their sourcebooks, such as the recent campaign book Venca: Eve of Ruin).
While Wizards of the Coast has not provided any rationale for why they have made these changes to the D&D Beyond Marketplace, the removal of the à la carte option is likely due to mounting financial pressures (with the company carrying out mass layoffs in December 2023).
The move to sell physical copies via D&D Beyond could also be in reaction to Wizards of the Coast’s recent separation with Penguin Random House, which had previously distributed their books through an extensive brick and mortar retail network.
Why should players care about these changes to D&D Beyond?
The change will definitely impact players who are either budget-conscious or interested in purchasing only a specific piece of content. For example, previously you could pick up a subclass on D&D Beyond for around $3 USD. In the new marketplace, to access a single subclass now means you will have to pick up the entire sourcebook (most of which run for around $29.99 USD).
On a slightly more positive note, selling physical copies of books exclusively via D&D Beyond does offer yet another channel for purchasing, although it’s not yet clear if you’ll be able to get the kind of savings on D&D products that are available on Amazon or other online retailers.
It’s also worth noting that despite these changes to the D&D Beyond Marketplace, players can still access a significant amount of free content, including 12 of the game’s 13 current DnD 5e classes and many of the subclasses. It remains to be seen, however, if these more recent changes to the marketplace will impact both player reception to new D&D products and Wizards of the Coast’s bottom line.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
