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."

 

[UngeheuerLich]

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.

I am totally not sorry for prices to drop. I sold my original dual lands for 40 dollars each. After that they unexpectedly went up to 400 dollars a few years later.

Prices of 400 dollars for a card that was 5 dollars to buy a few years ago is a form of gatekeeping.

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

Same here. If the only way to compete in online games after raising to a mediocre rank is throwing 100s of dollars at wizards or someone else is really not my cup of tea. I hate that. Sorry.

 

[Cadence]

I am totally not sorry for prices to drop. I sold my original dual lands for 40 dollars each. After that they unexpectedly went up to 400 dollars a few years later.

Prices of 400 dollars for a card that was 5 dollars to buy a few years ago is a form of gatekeeping.

Even in the late 90s when we ran the club at the University when I was in grad school they the ABUR duals were above that $8 (a bit after fallen empires iirc) and were up to around $15 (by 1998). Did they ever crash to $5 between 1998 and 2014 when I started playing again?

Why would you sell them for $40 if the market had them at $400? (10% is really bad, unless they were in the condition some of mine are).

Part of it is that those particular ones are supposedly out of print forever [avoid discussion of reserved list as it is way off topic].

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Even in the late 90s when we ran the club at the University when I was in grad school they the ABUR duals were above that $8 (a bit after fallen empires iirc) and were up to around $15 (by 1998).

It was 5 Dollars because in germany you could get them in german 4e boosters in 1995 or so.

Did they ever crash to $5 between 1998 and 2014 when I started playing again?

Probably not.

Why would you sell them for $40 if the market had them at $400?

They were not at 400 when I sold them. It was in the years between 1998 and 2006 or so when magic was close to dead.

(10% is really bad, unless they were in the condition some of mine are).

Condition was ok. Some were German translations.

Part of it is that those particular ones are supposedly out of print forever [avoid discussion of reserved list as it is way off topic].

Which is a big disadvantage for everyone who wants to play with them. This is why I call it gatekeeping.

 

[Scribe]

Prices of 400 dollars for a card that was 5 dollars to buy a few years ago is a form of gatekeeping.

It's a collectable. It's not gatekeeping.

 

[Meech17]

It's a collectable. It's not gatekeeping.

It's a game piece. Punishing someone for not getting in as early as someone else is 100% gatekeeping.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It's a collectable. It's not gatekeeping.

So you can come to a tournament with a copy and use it?
If so, I take it back. Back when I played MtG this was strictly forbidden.

 

[Scribe]

It's a game piece. Punishing someone for not getting in as early as someone else is 100% gatekeeping.

Ancient cards for non standard play. Outside of the rare event, nobody needs those cards, and other decks can be played.

 

[Scribe]

I get it. I started playing again in Modern with cheap mono red Burn. I eventually bought all the various expensive cards over months/years to play what I wanted.

I was still able to play Modern, with a budget deck.

 

[Alphastream]

Interesting that they claim OGL did impact the bottom line.

Am I reading that this is only a claim by ICv2? I’ve seen no OGL financial impact and no one attributing any other than ICv2. The Bookscan data is pretty clearly not showing any sales decline, while showing a strong rise for the movie’s release and advertising. In recent quarters, it’s impossible to separate D&D paper sales from other categories (BG3, DDB, and sometimes other WotC properties like MtG).

With some help I’ve been able to estimate probably paper publishing values, but these are in all cases doing better than other industry indicators, such as Kickstarter post-pandemic slumps, DriveThru sales post-pandemic, and board games and other sectors. I see absolutely no OGL impact whatsoever to the finances. (I wish I did, because I believe in community feedback.)

 

[bedir than]

Am I reading that this is only a claim by ICv2? I’ve seen no OGL financial impact and no one attributing any other than ICv2. The Bookscan data is pretty clearly not showing any sales decline, while showing a strong rise for the movie’s release and advertising. In recent quarters, it’s impossible to separate D&D paper sales from other categories (BG3, DDB, and sometimes other WotC properties like MtG).

With some help I’ve been able to estimate probably paper publishing values, but these are in all cases doing better than other industry indicators, such as Kickstarter post-pandemic slumps, DriveThru sales post-pandemic, and board games and other sectors. I see absolutely no OGL impact whatsoever to the finances. (I wish I did, because I believe in community feedback.)

It would make sense that ICv2's data which elevates the importance of die-hard gamers that shop at FLGS would see a decline related to the OGL while the general gaming population that shops at Amazon, DnDBeyond, Walmart, Target, etc would not decline because they aren't online all day every day complaining about D&D