WotC Hasbo Praises D&D Revenue Growth

[Morrus]

These have all said "record growth over last quarter/year etc." in every interview, earnings report, and chart since 2014 or so.

It's super awesome, and I'm really glad that the hobby is growing so fast and so constantly.

That said, it does make these semi-regular industry newsbites a bit samey!

 

[Dausuul]

For anyone who, like me, was wondering what the hell flywheels have to do with D&D, I found this link. Basically, "flywheel" refers to a positive feedback loop of business activity, where investments in any part of the cycle drive growth of the whole. (One of the examples: An appliance company sells maintenance contracts, which builds goodwill and establishes a relationship with the customer, which makes it easier to sell them a new machine down the line.)

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess the videogame of the Dark Alliance has been to get enough experencie.

I am happy if Hasbro is making a lot of money with D&D because I love this franchise and I wish a great future. Some times I think TTRPGs are becoming popular because fandom is discovering these can offer something the videogames can't, as creative freedom for your fanfic.

We can't foget Hasbro's main strategy for D&D is the digital market, the videogames, but these need a lot of time and work.

Let's remember Michael Bay's Transformers movies helped to the resurrection of the franchise. We should notice the importance of the action-live movie and teleserie to promote the IP even when the movie wasn't a total smash-hit. But I feel curiosity about the five-years Hasbro-Paramount partnership-deal. When this ended (in 2023?) or it is renewed or Hasbro will choose other producer, maybe Disney, but Netflix and Warner are also possible options.

 

[bedir than]

These have all said "record growth over last quarter/year etc." in every interview, earnings report, and chart since 2014 or so.

It's super awesome, and I'm really glad that the hobby is growing so fast and so constantly.

That said, it does make these semi-regular industry newsbites a bit samey!

They need an announcement of the announcement of sameness in order to pique your interest

 

[darjr]

They need an announcement of the announcement of sameness in order to pique your interest

Not without an announcement first.

 

[Dausuul]

We can't forget Hasbro's main strategy for D&D is the digital market, the videogames...

I keep seeing this claim pop up in the forums. Is there some basis--a statement from Wizards or Hasbro or Crawford or somebody--for believing this to be the case?

It seems like a very weird strategy, given the success of tabletop 5E (and the previous failure of 4E, which was explicitly designed per Ryan Dancey to be a launch point for digital offerings). Based on what we've seen thus far, it looks as if their strategy is to generate spinoffs of all kinds from the tabletop game--TV shows, movies, Magic sets, novels, video games--and see what sticks. Video games are just one piece of that. But maybe there was an announcement that I missed?

 

[bedir than]

I keep seeing this claim pop up in the forums. Is there some basis--a statement from Wizards or Hasbro or Crawford or somebody--for believing this to be the case?

It's Luis' oftrepeated dream, not a statement of intent. If there was an intent for D&D to transition away from the table-top game that would be part of the statements at the investors calls.

 

[darjr]

With 5e the plan was to follow the Marvell business plan. The RPG was to be the source of stories and the money was to be from movies/computer games/licenses.

It’s still the plan mostly just with the added icing of the RPG also being a huge success, and a money maker (I think, I actually have no real proof if the RPG itself makes them money but I suspect it does)

 

[Morrus]

I keep seeing this claim pop up in the forums. Is there some basis--a statement from Wizards or Hasbro or Crawford or somebody--for believing this to be the case?

Yes. Very specifically that. I’ve reported on it. Don’t have it to hand though. It was within the last couple of months, I think.

 

[bedir than]

(I think, I actually have no real proof if the RPG itself makes them money but I suspect it does)

There last two quarterly calls show that the RPG made over 100 million in 2020.

The movie biz lost tens millions, even after selling off the music assets. The movie biz also includes all branded movies/tv shows/streaming elements, not just D&D