WotC Hasbro's Tabletop Is On The Up Again

After a disappointing 2023, with hobby channel sales struggling and a reported decline in Dungeons & Dragons, the latest earnings call from Hasbro, covering the first quarter of 2024, shows tabletop games starting to recover.

Total gaming sales (which includes everything from Magic: the Gathering to Monopoly) were up 6%, with Wizards of the Coast in particular showing strong growth of 7%.

• Hasbro's overall revenues: -24%
• Digital and licensed game sales: +14%
• Overall tabletop gaming: +5%
• Magic the Gathering: +4%

Overall, Hasbro showed a 24% drop in revenues, partly attributed to the sales of Hasbro's film and TV business. Tabletop sales, however, showed growth, led by Magic: the Gathering.

The report calls out the success of Baldur's Gate 3, and talks about new licensing agreements with video game studios Resolution Games and Game Loft, along with partnerships with companies like LEGO.

Magic: the Gathering is expected to be down in 2024 after a record 2024, with WotC's revenue expected to drop by 3-5%.

Also mentioned are "more exciting innovations from our D&D team later this year as we continue to scale D&D Beyond and expand the richness of tabletop gameplay to digital."

 

[Cadence]

Transcript at: Hasbro (HAS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

A CCG site Summary at: Hasbro Investing In Long-Term Refresh For MTG Arena With Emphasis On Commander And Collectability

In terms of MtG and D&D:

and

Commander and collectibility coming to MtG Arena?

 

[CleverNickName]

Hm. Not stellar, but not the doomsday scenario that YouTube would have me believe.

That $47M loss for "Consumer Products" is gonna sting. I'm assuming this is for their non-D&D board games and such, since it's not under the Wizards of the Coast column. I wonder how that tracks with other board game/toy companies, like Mattel or Fisher-Price--like, is this loss typical for all toy/board game companies this quarter? or is it unique to Hasbro?

 

[Cadence]

That $47M loss for "Consumer Products" is gonna sting. I'm assuming this is for their non-D&D board games and such, since it's not under the Wizards of the Coast column. I wonder how that tracks with other board game/toy companies, like Mattel or Fisher-Price--like, is this loss typical for all toy/board game companies this quarter? or is it unique to Hasbro?

For both of these start about 3/4 of the way across the first line...

and

 

[Scribe]

Trying to boost 'collectability' revenue while they print everyone's collections into dust and degrade the value of MtG via ruining various formats?

 

[Cadence]

Trying to boost 'collectability' revenue while they print everyone's collections into dust and degrade the value of MtG via ruining various formats?

Still lots of not cheap cards out there.

The part that got me is that they brought collectibility up in regards to online play too...

 

[Scribe]

Still lots of not cheap cards out there.

The part that got me is that they brought collectibility up in regards to online play too...

There are some yes, I'm still in the process of selling parts of my collection and some values surprise me. Maybe it's just my collection that was mostly gutted.

Online and collectible? Hell no. Either people are even more foolish than I am, or that's just all kinds of terrible in concept.

 

[Meech17]

Online and collectible? Hell no. Either people are even more foolish than I am, or that's just all kinds of terrible in concept.

Skins sell battle passes in many online games.

Also, how many dorks bought those NFT Apes?

Lots of people willing to shell out for collectable pixels.

 

[Scribe]

Skins sell battle passes in many online games.

Also, how many dorks bought those NFT Apes?

Lots of people willing to shell out for collectable pixels.

Yeah, so its going from something that has a potential value. To skins that you dont own, tied to an account that can be deleted at any time.

So yeah, more foolish than I.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yeah, so its going from something that has a potential value. To skins that you dont own, tied to an account that can be deleted at any time.

So yeah, more foolish than I.

You cannot even trade cards on Arena.