Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is going to be the first release from D&D in which you can order both the physical copy and get the digital version on D&D Beyond. This is a natural outgrowth of Wizards of the Coast's acquisition of D&D Beyond, and is, I think, a step in the right direction.
However, there's a flaw: You can only get this by purchasing the physical book directly from them. D&D, along with most tabletop hobbies, have a symbiotic relationship with game stores. My own local game store, NextGen, here in Los Angeles, is a great place where I know the manager, and whenever a new D&D book comes out, I order it from there. It's where we get our minis, and it's generally a place where I like to go and hang out.
It's certainly convenient to order these books online, but I'd rather be giving my money to a store like this, which is where I've been able to play through Descent into Avernus and meet new people who are into the hobby. I want to make sure that this place can continue paying what I have to imagine is ever-rising rent and keep their doors open.
So, at least in the case of the Dragonlance book, I'll be buying it from there. (I'll confess that the absolutely awesome-looking special cover for the book is tipping the scales for me in more selfish ways.) However, I've also had the frustration of not wanting to spend 60% of the price of books I already have to unlock their content on D&D Beyond.
I think when the 2024 Core Rulebooks come out, I'll probably be taking whatever physical/digital deal they have so that, at the very least, I can have my basics covered without relying on a DM to have that content available.
My hope, though, is that in two years, WotC will have figured out a way to work with local game stores so that the store can verify our purchase and then give us the code to unlock the book's content online.
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