WotC Hasbro Earnings Call: WotC/BG3 carrying Hasbro

[Zardnaar]

The "about to burst bubble" is, I think, a constant. Sometimes it's correct. I'm not sure this time. Hasbros seems possible, WotC's and D&Ds probably isn't.

I wouldn't be screaming doom wnd gloom share price is down a bit it seems.

OneD&D I d9nt think it will crash and burn if its a "dud" just won't be 5E numbers.


MtG not sure about I'm vaguely aware there's a glut of cards but bowed out 2010.

 

[darjr]

I wouldn't be screaming doom wnd gloom share price is down a bit it seems.

OneD&D I d9nt think it will crash and burn if its a "dud" just won't be 5E numbers.


MtG not sure about I'm vaguely aware there's a glut of cards but bowed out 2010.

Oh, make no mistake, Hasbro is in trouble. Not deadly yet. I think. I dunno. But it's gotta be uncomfortable over there right about now.

 

[Vaalingrade]

So I am seeing a lot of doom and gloom here; what makes it likely that there is a bubble about to be burst? What if by now there actually is an audience that can keep this release frequency going?

If I were to do a prediction, rather that listening to my gut, I would see decades of growth, and I would bet next year the revenue would keep increasing.

The thing is, when the Business Vultures see one thing experiencing growth, that thing gets their Attention.

And when they start paying attention, they start making suggestions and demanding the changes they want to it, completely ignorant of how that thing works. Because they're a big-brain Business Vulture and they went to school for busyness, so clearly they know better than the people who made the thing the business is selling. It needs to be leveraged and synergized and basted and amortized like it was a bunch of fax machines or pallets of paper or some other thing they understand more than Products People Want, and pretty soon you've got live action shows on cartoon network, a fully completed movie canned for tax purposes and Titans of Industry NFT Magic Cards, everything is on fire and absolutely no one was to blame, we swear, it must have just been a poor product from the Previous Guy. Now on to the next product to turn into a bloated corpse to feast on.

TL;DR: It is always bad when the investors start paying attention.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The "about to burst bubble" is, I think, a constant. Sometimes it's correct. I'm not sure this time. Hasbros seems possible, WotC's and D&Ds probably isn't.

I don't think D&D is in any trouble. Worst case for 2024, I think, is that the new books won't have quite the success of the first 10 years of 5e, which is pretty likely, but I can't see it doing any worse than a minor slow-down.

Magic is on the verge of a pretty marked collapse though. They can certainly cause that to be "only" a big downhill run and work their way back up from the bottom. It doesn't have to be a nose-dive into a canyon, but we're cresting a big hill for sure.

I'll be happy to be wrong, but I don't think I've ever been wrong about this sort of thing before. Maybe in the details, but not in the main thrust.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, make no mistake, Hasbro is in trouble. Not deadly yet. I think. I dunno. But it's gotta be uncomfortable over there right about now.

Hard to saying seen a few thumbnails on YouTube but don't want to click.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't think D&D is in any trouble. Worst case for 2024, I think, is that the new books won't have quite the success of the first 10 years of 5e, which is pretty likely, but I can't see it doing any worse than a minor slow-down.

Magic is on the verge of a pretty marked collapse though. They can certainly cause that to be "only" a big downhill run and work their way back up from the bottom. It doesn't have to be a nose-dive into a canyon, but we're cresting a big hill for sure.

I'll be happy to be wrong, but I don't think I've ever been wrong about this sort of thing before. Maybe in the details, but not in the main thrust.

People been claiming the Magic thing last year or two.

This the Amazon product dumping or something else?

 

[Hussar]

I don't think D&D is in any trouble. Worst case for 2024, I think, is that the new books won't have quite the success of the first 10 years of 5e, which is pretty likely, but I can't see it doing any worse than a minor slow-down.

Magic is on the verge of a pretty marked collapse though. They can certainly cause that to be "only" a big downhill run and work their way back up from the bottom. It doesn't have to be a nose-dive into a canyon, but we're cresting a big hill for sure.

I'll be happy to be wrong, but I don't think I've ever been wrong about this sort of thing before. Maybe in the details, but not in the main thrust.

Let's be honest here. "Not growing as fast as the past ten years" is still doing FANTASTICALLY well. Heck, simple math means that growth rates almost have to slow down. In any case though, we're not even seeing a slow down this year - it's just growing a bit less quickly than it has in the past.

We really are in untrodden territory. Never in the hobby have we seen a time when a new updated version of the core 3 is coming out while the game is still on the upswing. I know I've been pretty critical of the lack of innovation with One D&D, but, by the same token, if it's not broken, why fix it? Clean up the books, put in enough new goodies to justify buying the new books, and we're on the track for another ten years.

One hopes. I would love to keep playing the same version of the game for another ten years. Heck, for me, this is unheard of really. This is the longest version of D&D I've ever played now.

 

[mamba]

Oh, make no mistake, Hasbro is in trouble. Not deadly yet. I think. I dunno. But it's gotta be uncomfortable over there right about now.

yeah, at this point Hasbro is an anchor around WotC’s neck. WotC keeps growing while Hasbro keeps shrinking faster than that.

WotC + Digital is up 40%, yet Hasbro’s profit is half that of last year…

 

[Deset Gled]

yeah, at this point Hasbro is an anchor around WotC’s neck. WotC keeps growing while Hasbro keeps shrinking faster than that.

WotC + Digital is up 40%, yet Hasbro’s profit is half that of last year…

It's always easy for the division that's doing well to spout that rhetoric. But being part of the Hasbro family is also what allowed the D&D brand to weather the storm from 4e to 5e. Diversity is strength.

 

[mamba]

It's always easy for the division that's doing well to spout that rhetoric. But being part of the Hasbro family is also what allowed the D&D brand to weather the storm from 4e to 5e. Diversity is strength.

D&D could weather that storm with MtG alone, i.e. WotC didn’t need Hasbro for that. Diversity may be a strength, but if literally everything but MtG and D&D is shrinking, then maybe it is not diverse enough for that.

Eventually WotC’s growth will slow, it might even reverse, whether Hasbro is of any use then remains to be seen.