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May 20, 2009

Word of Wizards - D&D Insider Announcement

D&D Insider Announcement

There's the good news and the bad news. Well, except that it isn't really major bad news but it definitely isn't good news. So let's get that out of the way first.

If you remembered when Wizards started charging for DDI subscriptions, they had lowered the actual rate because they barely had the bare bone features. Well, since then they have already delivered the Character Builder and greatly improved the Compendium, along with online issues of Dungeon and Dragon and some other bonus tools

So in order to 'reflect the increasing value and new content', Wizards have raised their subscription rates. The new subscription rates are;

  • U$9.95 for 1 month (formerly at U$7.95)
  • U$23.85 for 3 months (formerly at U$19.95)
  • U$71.40 for 12 months (formerly at U$59.40)

However this doesn't take effect right away and in fact will only start from July 2. So in case you subscribe before July 2, you still pay at the introductory rate (the ones listed in parentheses).

Now for the good news or if you can't make up your mind to subscribe, perhaps this will entice you further. Starting on July 7, subscribers will be getting their hands on playable and final sections from the Player's Handbook 3.

This is not a playtest version. This is the actual completed version of rules that will be printed. This means that subscribers will be able to play with 102 pages worth of Player's Handbook 3 material 9 months ahead of its release date!

What better incentive is there to be a subscriber now? Get your subscriptions before July 1 at 12 midnight EDT before the new rates kick in.

4 comments:

Marcel Beaudoin said...

Note that they have also added the ability to extend your current subscription by up to a year at the current subscription prices.

Questing GM said...

Hey Marcel,

Welcome to the blog and thanks for the info. I wouldn't have known that since I'm not a subscriber myself.

Mike Leger said...

What bugs me is before 4e was even out we know about ddi, and all the features it had to offer. Problem is we still don't have what was offered. Were is the 10 day free trial as advertised in the back of the PHB? (i know there is a free up to level 3 version, but that's not a free 10 day free trial of ddi now is it)

what about the rest of the tools, can we expect a price increase every time they finish a product that should have been out by now?

luckily the price change doesn't affect me much. I split the cost with my group, and we all save money buy only buying the books we want. As a group we have all 4e books, everyone takes a turn.

Questing GM said...

Hey Mike,

Yeah. Wizards screwed up the launch of DDI big time. Being behind schedule for nearly 6 months IIRC before the Character Builder was even up.

I look at the DDI advertisements and sidebars in the first 3 core books as a real big stain (and probably a waste of page space) to Wizards which sticks out like a nasty reminder for gamers about Wizards and their DDI. I wonder if they will remove those ads and sidebars from future printings until they've got everything back.

The free 10 day trial is probably off their plans now as they probably think that having a 'free' version of the DDI tools would be sufficient for trial anyway.

As for the price, I can't be sure with Wizards will ever increase the price as more features are rolled out but it's best to be prepared for that, just in case. There is still Virtual Tale and the Character Visualizer that hasn't been rolled out yet. Plus from their surveys, Wizards might be heading in a different direction of developing tools altogether.

As for me, every dollar counts thanks to the exchange rate from my local currency to USD. Unless my group is willing to pay for it (but I doubt it will be at an affordable amount), I don't think I will be a subscriber anytime soon. It's going to be a huge hole in monthly expenses.

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