WotC Hasbro Earnings Call: WotC/BG3 carrying Hasbro

[Sulicius]

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.

And they have not been paying attention in the last 5 years? What if you are wrong and the whole reason they have been doing well is because of corporate decisions? It’s not like they are known to sabotage themselves.

At some point we should be able to admit that if things keep growing, something’s being done right.

 

[humble minion]

Anyone know what Hasbro's commercial arrangement is re the Transformers movies? Because Rise of the Beasts should be contributing to the bottom line there somewhere, unless at some stage Hasbro sold off they Transformers film rights for a lump sum and doesn't get a cut any more.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Anyone know what Hasbro's commercial arrangement is re the Transformers movies? Because Rise of the Beasts should be contributing to the bottom line there somewhere, unless at some stage Hasbro sold off they Transformers film rights for a lump sum and doesn't get a cut any more.

Did Rise of the Beasts actually make much profit, or was it just a very expensive toy commercial?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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…

Toys are luxury goods, in times of high inflation they are the first thing to get cut. There isn't a huge amount the manufacturers can do apart from keep on carrying on and try to weather the economic storms. Children are extremely fickle in their tastes, trying to predict them is like playing a lottery.

 

[Staffan]

So you’re saying faster releases turn you off?

Heh.

My understanding is that it's not just a matter of faster "main" releases, but also a wealth of supplementary releases like Modern Masters, Remastered, Secret Lairs, and perhaps especially Universes Beyond. While Magic has always been a rather broad property, some might find it annoying if the Song of Eärendil puts a flying counter on an Osgood, Operation Double who is a copy of Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph.

 

[R_J_K75]

So no surprise Marvel is going to its own full release set next year like Middle Earth got, along with the other releases for next year.

I don't follow nor have I've ever played MtG aside from a round or two in the late 90s. Wasn't for me. So, Marvel is releasing or licensing their IP to WotC for a MtG set, or are they releasing their own card game?

that Post Malone eventually snagged

My first reaction when I read this was he's probably just a rich person buying it for the sake of owning it because he can. After doing a google search apparently, he is a genuine fan and player of the game, but damn $2 million is a lot of cabbage for a card; good for him.

 

[Staffan]

I don't follow nor have I've ever played MtG aside from a round or two in the late 90s. Wasn't for me. So, Marvel is releasing or licensing their IP to WotC for a MtG set, or are they releasing their own card game?

The former. Magic has relatively recently started incorporating other IP under the Universes Beyond banner, in various forms – sometimes just a couple of cards as a Secret Lair booster (which often gets reprinted with regular Magic branding instead), but in the bigger cases either a whole actual set or a bunch of Commander precon decks.

 

[R_J_K75]

The former. Magic has relatively recently started incorporating other IP under the Universes Beyond banner

I'm surprised as seeing that Marvel just published the own RPG this year. But I suppose it's probably easier and more profitable to license their IP to WotC/MtG instead of trying to create a new card game they will probably never be competitive with those already out there.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm surprised as seeing that Marvel just published the own RPG this year. But I suppose it's probably easier and more profitable to license their IP to WotC/MtG instead of trying to create a new card game they will probably never be competitive with those already out there.

Disney and Hasbro are also big time business partners, let us recall. May have been a package deal wirh some toy negotiations.

 

[mamba]

Toys are luxury goods, in times of high inflation they are the first thing to get cut. There isn't a huge amount the manufacturers can do apart from keep on carrying on and try to weather the economic storms. Children are extremely fickle in their tastes, trying to predict them is like playing a lottery.

WotC is also making toys / games, yet they are growing, not sure the explanation is this simple

When WotC is growing, posters frequently say they must be doing something right (in this thread too), yet if Hasbro is shrinking there is nothing they can do? That is not really adding up