WotC WotC Generates 75% Of Hasbro's Profit

ICv2 is reporting that WotC generated $110M of Hasbro's $147.3M operating profits in the first quarter of this year, with an increase of 15% on last year.

Of overall sales, WotC generated (only!) 22% of Hasbro's $1.1B.

The growth is attributed to Magic: the Gathering and D&D. Recently, Hasbro restructured with 'WotC and Digital Gaming' getting it own division.

WotC - D&D Gets A New Division At Hasbro

Hasbro is reorganizing and giving tabletop gaming -- Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: the Gathering -- a higher priority. According to the Wall Street Journal, WotC's revenue last year was $816 million (a 24% increase on 2019). Brian Goldner, Hasbro's Chief Executive, says WotC is predicted to...

www.enworld.org

 

[guachi]

MtG Arena is a license to print money.
Current MtG physical products are coming out at a blistering pace and are starting to bypass traditional physical stores all together, leading to more pure profit for WotC.

If I want to run Candlekeep, worst case I'm buying it once physical and once either pdf or DnD beyond. To keep up in standard, thats not even the cost of ONE competitive deck. MtG is a hell of a drug.

The best I can say about Magic is I made a ton of money selling my Unlimited/Revised/4e cards with the associated Expansions when I decided to liquidate my Magic cards last year. More specifically, a few cards were what made me a ton of money.

 

[Morrus]

I’ve heard this before about the large majority of Magic players being casual players. A friend of mine who owns a few stores said to me that the majority of Magic purchasers participated in more formal play. But that’s just one point from his perspective. Even during the pandemic he sells lots of Magic.

The large majority of any fandom is casual. D&D. Football. Bands. Comics. Movies. Everything has a large casual following and a much smaller hardcore. We see this from the inside.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

With so much revenue, will Wizards of the Coast ever be able to purchase freedom from the Hasbro corporate enslavement? Like is there an escape clause in the contract that sold WoTC to Hasbro?

Sadly, no, best hope Paizo could one day purchase WotC from Hasbro. Although with their terrible decision on ditching a successful game for a completely different other game like the 3e-4e fiasco, I don't even trust them anymore. Still, it's better hands than Hasbro.

 

[Parmandur]

Sadly, no, best hope Paizo could one day purchase WotC from Hasbro. Although with their terrible decision on ditching a successful game for a completely different other game like the 3e-4e fiasco, I don't even trust them anymore. Still, it's better hands than Hasbro.

Hasbro will never sell WotC at this point: WotC is Hasbro.

 

[dave2008]

But the more I look at Wizards and Hasbro, the stronger my pasteurized Disney/Star Wars vibes become.

IDK, I find what Disney is doing with the SW IP more interesting than what Lucas did in the years before (in general).

 

[dave2008]

Sadly, no, best hope Paizo could one day purchase WotC from Hasbro. Although with their terrible decision on ditching a successful game for a completely different other game like the 3e-4e fiasco, I don't even trust them anymore. Still, it's better hands than Hasbro.

No paizo would be about as bad as bringing back TSR. I am the only person with the vision and wisdom to run D&D properly

That being said, I think WotC (and more importantly D&D) is doing just fine as part of Hasbro. I mean they are running the show now and D&D as a whole (including things like Reddit, EnWorld, DMsGuild, etc,) is better than ever IMO.

 

[Dire Bare]

If its bad, I don't think it'll be for lack of acting talent. Writing talent, maybe, but I'm cautiously not expecting the worst.

Nope.

They've lined up top acting, writing, and directing talent. Doesn't guarantee a good movie by any means, but certainly makes it more likely.

 

[dave2008]

Nope.

They've lined up top acting, writing, and directing talent. Doesn't guarantee a good movie by any means, but certainly makes it more likely.

Good writing and directing are very important IMO. However, good writing and directing talent does not guarantee a well written screenplay and well directed movie (which you noted). Good talent, IMO, fails to deliver on these fronts more often than not. It is a difficult thing to do well and even good talent misses more than it hits IMO

EDIT: I think in this context, familiarity with the content is also a good thing (along with talent).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nope.

They've lined up top acting, writing, and directing talent. Doesn't guarantee a good movie by any means, but certainly makes it more likely.

I think @dave2008 has a point re: writing, simply because looking at where medium-to-big budget movies fall down, 2010-present, it is very much usually in the writing, and even good writers often have bad scripts. For example, the same guy wrote the script for Arrival and the script for Bird Box, and not long apart either. Arrival was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, and Bird Box... well... also an adapted screenplay... and not a good one. Yet then he went on to be showrunner and one of the writers for recent Netflix Shadow and Bone adaptation (if anyone needs an "Eberron" show there you have something close), which is solidly better than the book its based on. Or look at the same guy writing the final draft on Prometheus (appalling tosh) and the Watchman TV series (somehow about as good as the original, astonishing comic series). Indeed he's done a lot of "Ooof bad" and "Wow great" stuff. This is very much not how it was in the 1990s, say, where a lot more movies got let down by terrible acting or bizarre directorial choices.

If we're looking at point of failure, and you have experienced writers, actors, and director, writers are the most likely point of failure.

 

[Nylanfs]

With so much revenue, will Wizards of the Coast ever be able to purchase freedom from the Hasbro corporate enslavement? Like is there an escape clause in the contract that sold WoTC to Hasbro?

Hasbro AFAIK has NEVER sold an IP, they put it on the shelf to use later.