Just got an email detailing the price increase of DDi (effective July 1 at 12 midnight EDT)
1 Month - 9.95 (up from 7.95)
3 Months - 23.95 (up from 19.95)
12 Months - 71.40 (up from 59.40)
If you renew or upgrade before the deadline, you can lock in at the current price for the next cycle (so you could get it for 59.40 for a year, but after that it would be at 71.40)
The also talked about the upcoming changes which I put below:
Starting Tuesday, July 7, D&D Insider will debut complete sections of final, playable, Player's Handbook® 3 material each month leading up to the book's release in March 2010. As a D&DI subscriber, you will be the first to receive nine months of content totaling 102 pages available only through your D&DI subscription.
Each month, the PH3 content will be made available to you through the Character Builder and Compendium accompanied by a comprehensive article. You can read more detail about the debut content in Bill Slavicsek's upcoming Ampersand column.
As a yealry subscriber, it's not too bad...only upping the per month price by $1.00
Actually there's more fun if you go to the WotC site here.
Very nice cover shows a minotaur & githzerai, and the subtitle is psionic, divine, and primal heroes. (!!)
Interesting that they are doubling up on primal and divine apparently. I'm certainly looking forward to the PHB3 preview material. I was disappointed that the preview later this week is MM3 rather PHB3 like I originally misread. I just find the PHB's far more interesting than the MM's for some reason.
This is technically tripling up on the Divine as PHB2 was Primal, Divine, Arcane. And PHB was Martial, Divine, Arcane.
From reading the posts over on the other forum (boy there are a lot of angry people over there), it seems I was incorrect in my initial assumption.
If you uprade or renew your current subscription before the deadline, it gets locked in at your current price, but it also restarts at that date. If you had time left over you will need to contact Customer Service to get a credit for the difference.
I was actually expecting a much higher increase, even expecting them to start dividing costs - i.e. one would have to buy Dragon and Dungeon separately from the Character Builder and Compendium, etc. This announcement actually pleased me as I thought it was going to be much worse.
Here is the full note that I received in e-mail:
Dear Insider,
As a valued D&D Insider™ subscriber, we wanted to make sure that you were among the first to know about some changes to D&DI that will be coming this July.Starting Tuesday, July 7, D&D Insider will debut complete sections of final, playable, Player's Handbook® 3 material each month leading up to the book's release in March 2010. As a D&DI subscriber, you will be the first to receive nine months of content totaling 102 pages available only through your D&DI subscription.
Each month, the PH3 content will be made available to you through the Character Builder and Compendium accompanied by a comprehensive article. You can read more detail about the debut content in Bill Slavicsek's upcoming Ampersand column.
Beginning July 2, introductory pricing for D&D Insider will expire and subscription prices will change to reflect the increasing value and new content. Starting today, you have 44 days to take advantage of the introductory pricing before it is no longer available. As a current subscriber, you can extend or upgrade your current subscription to get the most value possible. To ensure that you're getting the most value for your money, be sure to visit our FAQ to determine whether a subscription upgrade or extension is right for you.
The deadline for taking advantage of introductory pricing is July 1 at 12 midnight EDT.*
New pricing for D&D Insider beginning July 2:
$9.95 for 1 month
$23.85 for 3 months (save 20%)
$71.40 for an annual subscription (save 40%)If you have any questions about either of the changes listed above, or about your subscription, you can visit the FAQ or contact the Wizards of the Coast Customer Service team by visiting http://wizards.custhelp.com.
* expiration of your subscription and subsequent renewal or renewal after July 1 will be at the increased rate.
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From reading the posts over on the other forum (boy there are a lot of angry people over there), it seems I was incorrect in my initial assumption.
If you uprade or renew your current subscription before the deadline, it gets locked in at your current price, but it also restarts at that date. If you had time left over you will need to contact Customer Service to get a credit for the difference.
Extending is better if you have a year currently.. it adds a year on top of it.
By the way so you all know.. This like from the email is b%+&@$%$.
Beginning July 2, introductory pricing for D&D Insider will expire and subscription prices will change to reflect the increasing value and new content.
They have added nothing other then the normal monthly content. There is has been nothing new added since they started the subscription on the site.
They are basing this price hike on nothing.. I am soo freaking pissed about this.
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From reading the posts over on the other forum (boy there are a lot of angry people over there), it seems I was incorrect in my initial assumption.
If you uprade or renew your current subscription before the deadline, it gets locked in at your current price, but it also restarts at that date. If you had time left over you will need to contact Customer Service to get a credit for the difference.
Huh? Not according to WotC. And I'd bet, in light of #6 below, that they didn't do it from the Accounts Page.
EDIT: I just added another year and it correctly extended me just fine.
From the FAQ:
Extend: When you extend your subscription, you’re adding the same subscription you currently have to the end of your existing subscription. (annual to annual, or three month to three month). For example: you have a 3 month subscription and you extend it with another 3 month subscription. Now you have 6 months on your subscription. To extend your current subscription now, click here.
Also from the FAQ:
6) I have a 1 year subscription right now, what happens if I buy another 1 year before July 2?
If you extend your subscription from the My Account pages, the additional one-year subscription will be added to your current subscription’s remaining time. For example, if your current one-year subscription doesn’t expire for 10 months, and you purchase another one year subscription by July 1 at 12 midnight EDT, you would then have a 22 month D&DI subscription at the introductory price. It’s important that you do this from the My Account area, because if you buy a brand new subscription, rather than extending your existing subscription, it will not add the additional time to the end of your current subscription.
The way I look at it, it'd be foolish to not expect a yearly price hike. I'd be pleasantly surprised if a year goes by without a price hike, but I certainly wouldn't expect it.
In my mind, it's still a great deal, but like others have said, it's up to everyone to decide for themselves. Personally, between good ol' inflation, and the fact that the compendium and character builder grow each month, and therefore are more and more valuable as time goes by, I'm willing to pay an extra buck a month.
All that aside, I'm jazzed to see psionics finally get the full treatment, and at the very least those two races look to be plenty o' fun.
I wonder if any of the divine and primal classes that will be in PHB3 are also ki-castoff's. I can see some divine classes, obviously (thinking back to previous edition OA classes), but none of them are jumping out as primal to me right off hand. Thoughts?
From reading the posts over on the other forum (boy there are a lot of angry people over there), it seems I was incorrect in my initial assumption.
If you uprade or renew your current subscription before the deadline, it gets locked in at your current price, but it also restarts at that date. If you had time left over you will need to contact Customer Service to get a credit for the difference.
Huh? Not according to WotC. And I'd bet, in light of #6 below, that they didn't do it from the Accounts Page.
EDIT: I just added another year and it correctly extended me just fine.
From the FAQ:
Extend: When you extend your subscription, you’re adding the same subscription you currently have to the end of your existing subscription. (annual to annual, or three month to three month). For example: you have a 3 month subscription and you extend it with another 3 month subscription. Now you have 6 months on your subscription. To extend your current subscription now, click here.Also from the FAQ:
6) I have a 1 year subscription right now, what happens if I buy another 1 year before July 2?If you extend your subscription from the My Account pages, the additional one-year subscription will be added to your current subscription’s remaining time. For example, if your current one-year subscription doesn’t expire for 10 months, and you purchase another one year subscription by July 1 at 12 midnight EDT, you would then have a 22 month D&DI subscription at the introductory price. It’s important that you do this from the My Account area, because if you buy a brand new subscription, rather than extending your existing subscription, it will not add the additional time to the end of your current subscription.
That's great! That's what I get for relying on the message boards for my info ;)
By the way so you all know.. This like from the email is b&~@!~&&.
Beginning July 2, introductory pricing for D&D Insider will expire and subscription prices will change to reflect the increasing value and new content.They have added nothing other then the normal monthly content. There is has been nothing new added since they started the subscription on the site.
They are basing this price hike on nothing.. I am soo freaking pissed about this.
Um, the Character Builder was introduced after the subscription service began and the DDI Compendium has had several upgrades.
Um, the Character Builder was introduced after the subscription service began and the DDI Compendium has had several upgrades.
Not to mention both are products that grow more valuable with time as the data contained within keeps growing and growing every month.
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Um, the Character Builder was introduced after the subscription service began and the DDI Compendium has had several upgrades.By the way so you all know.. This like from the email is b&~@!~&&.
Beginning July 2, introductory pricing for D&D Insider will expire and subscription prices will change to reflect the increasing value and new content.They have added nothing other then the normal monthly content. There is has been nothing new added since they started the subscription on the site.
They are basing this price hike on nothing.. I am soo freaking pissed about this.
Both those products where part of the subscription we are paying for, The subscription we are paying for is for those updates. Them updating them does not warrent a raise since we already paying for that. Compendium more the the CB. The CB did come out after the subscription started, but not very long after and they never gave any hint the price was going to be raised because of the CB.
That said I have calmed down since the email went out. When I read the the posts on WotC, they reminded us the original price was going to be an introductory price and at some point the price would be raised, but they have done a terrible job in reminding us that when the subscription started, they just said they would raise the price sometime in the fututre based on the product. So when they did raise the price that is the first thing I thought and I did not see any additional product so was upset.
I looked further back in the wotc archive and they did mention an introductory price at first, about 5 months before the subscription started.
WotC did not do a very good job with this. WHen the subscription started they should have reminded that the original price was introductory and that the price raise was not based on additional product as suggested in the email.
Good news though, they do not plan to raise the price when there is additional products in DDI.
WotC did not do a very good job with this. WHen the subscription started they should have reminded that the original price was introductory and that the price raise was not based on additional product as suggested in the email.
Good news though, they do not plan to raise the price when there is additional products in DDI.
I would suggest that they likely didn't really plan for it to happen this way. Initially it seemed, at least to me, that their implication was that there was going to be a short period of time until the Virtual Tabletop was released and they would release the pricing plan.
It would seem that things didn't go as planned, dates possibly pushed back until possibly the introductory plan had gone longer than intended. In which case they are still giving you a good amount of warning before things changed, it isn't like it is being changed within the day, week, or even month.
Prices are prone to change, whether or not they are introductory. One can't expect them to stay the same forever.
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whether or not they are introductory. One can't expect them to stay the same forever.
When was the last time they price for a MMO Subscription was raised?
I don't expect them to stay the same forever... But I do expect there to be years between raises... The current price they have now should not be raised again for years.
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It's a few dollars - say 20. Spread over a year. It is hardly a massive cost. An MMO (usually) enjoys very serious economies of scale and DDI probably doesn't get that. It is suggestive that the DDI hasn't maybe been as successful as maybe they hoped (though I should point out I have no other evidence that is the case), maybe their overheads have increased, or maybe it was always intended to hike the price a bit. People have got worked up because the relative increase is fairly large, a common and illogical reaction to these things. But the actual cost in overall terms is still fairly trivial, and once I managed to get in and subscribe (which was NOT easy - v. poor) I was impressed with the content in it (even if the "amateur" element in it is very small, at least at the moment - virtually everything seems to be by WotC staffers).
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It's a few dollars - say 20. Spread over a year. It is hardly a massive cost. An MMO (usually) enjoys very serious economies of scale and DDI probably doesn't get that. It is suggestive that the DDI hasn't maybe been as successful as maybe they hoped (though I should point out I have no other evidence that is the case), maybe their overheads have increased, or maybe it was always intended to hike the price a bit. People have got worked up because the relative increase is fairly large, a common and illogical reaction to these things. But the actual cost in overall terms is still fairly trivial, and once I managed to get in and subscribe (which was NOT easy - v. poor) I was impressed with the content in it (even if the "amateur" element in it is very small, at least at the moment - virtually everything seems to be by WotC staffers).
Saying a price increase is small is not an excuse for a price increase. Continual increases in fees in small increments at some point becomes too much.
This time like I said, this increase is excusable because they are ending the 'introductory price'.
But if they were to continue raising the price say $.50 every 6 months, would you say that is fair? or say $1 every year? When is enough enough?
I am not saying they are going this route, I am afraid they may though.
From the beginning I set a price limit I was willing to pay a month, Mine is at 8 a month for a yearly subscription, for a fully planned out DDI service. Right now I am nowhere near that, but also we are nowhere near having all the tools we were told we would have. If they would raise the subscription fee without adding more stuff to the page to those levels I would cancel right away.
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From the beginning I set a price limit I was willing to pay a month, Mine is at 8 a month for a yearly subscription, for a fully planned out DDI service. Right now I am nowhere near that, but also we are nowhere near having all the tools we were told we would have. If they would raise the subscription fee without adding more stuff to the page to those levels I would cancel right away.
Dragn, like you, I'm not quite at my breaking point. I'm quite happy to pay my $5.00 a month for what I am getting. I wish I would read the magazines more, but I just hate the online format - makes my eyes and head hurt. However, the original planned $15 a month for content I think I have a hard time buying. We'll see how I feel about it when I get there, but right now I'm still good.
Now - if we REALLY need to b!7ch about price increases, lets talk milk prices!!
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It's a few dollars - say 20. Spread over a year. It is hardly a massive cost. An MMO (usually) enjoys very serious economies of scale and DDI probably doesn't get that. It is suggestive that the DDI hasn't maybe been as successful as maybe they hoped (though I should point out I have no other evidence that is the case), maybe their overheads have increased, or maybe it was always intended to hike the price a bit. People have got worked up because the relative increase is fairly large, a common and illogical reaction to these things. But the actual cost in overall terms is still fairly trivial, and once I managed to get in and subscribe (which was NOT easy - v. poor) I was impressed with the content in it (even if the "amateur" element in it is very small, at least at the moment - virtually everything seems to be by WotC staffers).Saying a price increase is small is not an excuse for a price increase. Continual increases in fees in small increments at some point becomes too much.
This time like I said, this increase is excusable because they are ending the 'introductory price'.
But if they were to continue raising the price say $.50 every 6 months, would you say that is fair? or say $1 every year? When is enough enough?
I am not saying they are going this route, I am afraid they may though.
From the beginning I set a price limit I was willing to pay a month, Mine is at 8 a month for a yearly subscription, for a fully planned out DDI service. Right now I am nowhere near that, but also we are nowhere near having all the tools we were told we would have. If they would raise the subscription fee without adding more stuff to the page to those levels I would cancel right away.
20 dollars over a year - it isn't much. You are reacting to the relative change. Prices go up. It happens. I'm pretty price insensitive, frankly, and it is also a lot cheaper than WoW. If it leads to you having financial problems, that is obviously different. But frankly, I'm not very interested in b%#%~ing about it when the overall cost, never mind the increase, is fairly trivial. Booze, drugs and prostitutes are all much more expensive hobbies - DDI is cheap, good clean fun.
When was the last time they price for a MMO Subscription was raised?
Don't MMO's charge you for the expansions? In fact, if memory serves, they charge in the $30 - $40 range. That's almost the same price as the original software.
Sigh...
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20 dollars over a year - it isn't much. You are reacting to the relative change. Prices go up. It happens. I'm pretty price insensitive, frankly, and it is also a lot cheaper than WoW. If it leads to you having financial problems, that is obviously...
Prices just don't go up. There are reasons for it. This time it was because they decided to end the introductory price, which is understandable. Though they did a poor job in introducing the subscription fee as introductory when it first started.
I am worried about the possibility of them raising prices beyond what the product is worth. There is a point where that happens, and though they are not near it now, I am worried that they may go back to their original plan of 14.95 a month, which IMO is way more than the product is worth. Hopefully that will never happen. But I have a point where I will not continue the subscription, so I will just cancel if they ever reach that point, or if they have a huge raise in the fees for no reason *Say going from the current $5.95 a month I am paying to $7.95 over a very short period*.
From what I am getting from you, is that WotC could raise the price to anything and you would still pay it. Is there seriously no point when you would think you would be paying too much? Or a pattern of raising prices that make no sense?
Much of this is speculation, and I am hoping it does not come to pass, but I do not have the trust in WotC I used to.
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When was the last time they price for a MMO Subscription was raised?Don't MMO's charge you for the expansions? In fact, if memory serves, they charge in the $30 - $40 range. That's almost the same price as the original software.
Sigh...
Not all, and expansions don't happen all the time. But that is different. For that I am paying for a Large increase of the pruduct, that was not originally part of the subscription and is logical and a one time fee, usually around $10-30 depending on the size of the expansion.
I was playing Dungeons and Dragins online for 3 years with 8 expansion and in fact my subscription went from $14.95 to $9.95, and never once paid for an expansion, but that is not the norm.
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Obviously there is a point. However, I am getting both Dungeon and Dragon (while online may be a pain on the one hand, a PDF occupies much less space on my computer drive than on the shelf, and much less dust), the Compendium and the Character Builder. All of that is extremely useful, and probably more than I used to get for the old magaizne subscriptions (though the quality is not as high, admittedly). If they hike the cost by another $20 next year, then I might think again.
But I can flip your question round - any price rise seems to be too much for you (or one so low as to be not worth reprogramming the computers for). The economic impact is low. The psychological impact is not. It depends on your priorities. I'm prety happy with what I have, you expected much more which hasn't been delivered. Maybe my expectation of what WotC can deliver is lower than yours. I dunno. It's not worth falling out over, obviously, but I spent £10 (or $14 dollars, roughly) buying a small round of drinks yesterday in a London pub. I didn't balk at that (well, not much - £4 for a beer is a rip-off, but I work in Central London) so the increase in cost of DDI over a year doesn't bother me overly when put in context. And there are many more expensive hobbies (even not including the ones I mention above) and pastimes. I mean, you're married - compare how much your wife costs you with the cost of DDI, and you will know what I mean.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Prices just don't go up. There are reasons for it. This time it was because they decided to end the introductory price, which is understandable. Though they did a poor job in introducing the subscription fee as introductory when it first started.
Server farms, data lines, program bloat, all of these are possibilities that they'd not advertise. It could also be something like they can't syphon profits from another line to cover costs anymore. Imagine if part of the DD Minis game was going to set up a mini's online like Magic online. They scrapped the minis game and there's another revenue stream down.
I am worried about the possibility of them raising prices beyond what the product is worth. There is a point where that happens, and though they are not near it now, I am worried that they may go back to their original plan of 14.95 a month, which IMO is way more than the product is worth. Hopefully that will never happen. But I have a point where I will not continue the subscription, so I will just cancel if they ever reach that point, or if they have a huge raise in the fees for no reason *Say going from the current $5.95 a month I am paying to $7.95 over a very short period*.
Um, that's basic economics, supply and demand. Right now they feel the price increase is something people will absorb. I had to cancel my planet stories subscription because while the value was high, other expences made the cost become too high. If it is raised beyond where it's a value to you, then you don't buy it anymore.
Much of this is speculation, and I am hoping it does not come to pass, but I do not have the trust in WotC I used to.
Neither do I, yet I find myself defending them on this. I will now have to go see a priest for my sins. ;-)
The new price is still a good deal imo. And since I had half of a year left on my first subscription I have until nov 2010 for ~100$. Damn good deal and a fraction of what I will pay for paper books/minis etc. in that time.
The thing that does seem iffy is raising the price on auto-rebilling arrangements. I am sure the terms of service allow this as legal but it would be off-putting to see that your bill has gone up without your express consent. Better to stop re-bills if one does not manually upgrade by the cut off date. I suppose that would cost them money from the forgetful who do not pay attention to their subscription though.
