Wizards of the Coast Says That China Tariffs Will Have Minimal Impact on D&D

Official Dungeons & Dragons products should largely be unaffected by the ongoing US/China trade war. During today's Hasbro earnings call, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said that the only Wizards of the Coast products manufactured and shipped from China are the D&D boxed sets. While this means that the upcoming Heroes of the Borderland Starter Set could have a higher price than usual (Wizards has made no price announcement as of yet), it does confirm that Dungeons & Dragons will largely be unimpacted by the ongoing trade war between the US and China.

Due to the large print runs, Wizards usually taps domestic or continental printers for its various D&D products. English language D&D books (at least the ones on my shelf) all have "Printed in the USA" in the credits page.

The wider board game publishing industry has been hit hard by the ongoing US/China tariff war, with products manufactured in China receiving a 145% tariff upon entry into the United States. Several publishers with RPG products, including CMON, have announced layoffs and changes to manufacturing plans as a result of the tariffs.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No. Megacorp is a wildly different scale. Mega corps own companies like Hasbro. I used to work with one at a (huge) company I worked at... We had multiple data centers on multiple continents and significant amounts of Internet backbone stuff. Some of our OEM customers were literally every US telecom reselling our services to their customers... You knew that our parent company was a Megacorp because there was actual debate and an act of Congress required for them to buy the company I worked for...

Edit: since single points are being questioned for meeting the bar in isolation with a totally different industry... My point is the fact that Megacorp is a construction of fiction and gaming and the bar is checking enough boxes rather than any single box. Hasbro might have a box or two checked, but it's far from being a Megacorp.

Fair enough, but it doesn't change my general point that Hasbro's lack of concern about the tariff situation when it's a potentially serious issue for virtually everyone else in the industry doesn't really seem great from my perspective.

 

[bedir than]

Fair enough, but it doesn't change my general point that Hasbro's lack of concern about the tariff situation when it's a potentially serious issue for virtually everyone else in the industry doesn't really seem great from my perspective.

I think you're ignoring their statements about the overall tariff situation

Looking ahead, while we remain hopeful for a more predictable and favorable U.S. trade policy environment, we must acknowledge the costs imposed by current tariffs. Even with Hasbro’s relative strength and flexibility, logistics are becoming more complex and changes in receivables and shipping dynamics present a challenge. Ultimately, tariffs translate into higher consumer prices, potential job losses as we adjust to absorb increased costs, and reduced profits for our shareholders.

later

Hasbro produces a substantial amount of product in the U.S. and around the world, has served as an engine of local jobs, creativity and innovation for over a hundred years, and licenses to hundreds of American companies employing tens of thousands of American workers across toys, games, entertainment, experiences and more. As such we fully endorse the Toy Association’s advocacy for zero tariffs on toys and games globally, either on U.S. exports or on imports. Other toy associations around the world are quickly joining the advocacy efforts.
We believe there should be free and fair trade for toys - an industry critical not only to hundreds of thousands of American jobs but also to the joy and developmental wellbeing of millions of children, families, and fans across the U.S. and worldwide.

Hasbro ABSOLUTELY used their own quarterly financial call to highlight the damage that tariffs are doing to every game and toy company. Cocks had two pages of prepared remarks and roughly a third of that had nothing to do with his company, but the general situation.

 

[occam]

Not relevant to the discussion at hand. As far as the hobby, the community, and the industry are concerned, Hasbro is the megacorp.

I think it is relevant. By using the word "megacorp", you imply that Hasbro is essentially untouchable, immune to any meaningful challenge by governmental action or economic whirlwinds, a titanic force straddling the globe. There are corporations like that, but Hasbro is definitely not one of them.

I know it might seem like it is, if all you're looking at is D&D. And it's arguably true that Hasbro is, at this time, "too big to fail" when it comes to TTRPGs. But that is a teeny tiny market in the scheme of things, laughably so from the perspective of actual megacorps. (This was brought home to me when I realized several years ago that a company I worked for, a mid-sized private (at the time) corporation that struggled to survive making casual video games and which almost nobody had ever heard of, made several times the revenue of all of D&D; more than WotC, in fact, even including MtG.)

So you want to feel bad that Hasbro has relatively limited exposure to tariff effects, when it's because they positioned themselves to continue supporting the American economy by retaining domestic manufacturing capabilities to supply their US customers instead of offshoring all of it, while also sourcing from local manufacturing in Europe and APAC (and in Tokyo instead of China) for their customers abroad, all of which is very un-megacorp-like behavior? You do you. But some of us, at least, have other things to PO'd about.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think it is relevant. By using the word "megacorp", you imply that Hasbro is essentially untouchable, immune to any meaningful challenge by governmental action or economic whirlwinds, a titanic force straddling the globe. There are corporations like that, but Hasbro is definitely not one of them.

I know it might seem like it is, if all you're looking at is D&D. And it's arguably true that Hasbro is, at this time, "too big to fail" when it comes to TTRPGs. But that is a teeny tiny market in the scheme of things, laughably so from the perspective of actual megacorps. (This was brought home to me when I realized several years ago that a company I worked for, a mid-sized private (at the time) corporation that struggled to survive making casual video games and which almost nobody had ever heard of, made several times the revenue of all of D&D; more than WotC, in fact, even including MtG.)

So you want to feel bad that Hasbro has relatively limited exposure to tariff effects, when it's because they positioned themselves to continue supporting the American economy by retaining domestic manufacturing capabilities to supply their US customers instead of offshoring all of it, while also sourcing from local manufacturing in Europe and APAC (and in Tokyo instead of China) for their customers abroad, all of which is very un-megacorp-like behavior? You do you. But some of us, at least, have other things to PO'd about.

You are also welcome to do you. But none of what you're saying disputes the point you are technically responding to, which is that the accuracy of my calling Hasbro a megacorp (which I will admit is incorrect) is not relevant to the topic at hand, which is about the industry (the TTRPG industry et al) and Hasbro's place in it.

 

[occam]

You are also welcome to do you. But none of what you're saying disputes the point you are technically responding to, which is that the accuracy of my calling Hasbro a megacorp (which I will admit is incorrect) is not relevant to the topic at hand, which is about the industry (the TTRPG industry et al) and Hasbro's place in it.

Then I'll ask, what was your thinking behind your initial comment?

Yeah. It doesn't do much for me to know that the megacorp is going to be ok.

Because it sounds (to me) as if you'd prefer Hasbro to suffer even more than it will in the current circumstances, at least in part due to its status as a "megacorp". Is that true? And how do you think that would be helpful?

 

[Mistwell]

There are a lot of people making dumb statements. They don't factor in the indirect costs, for example. Last I checked, they print books. Even if printed in the USA, the lumber comes largely from across national borders in order to make those books.

Also, they sell to stores that sell games - and we're seeing those retail avenues disappearing - and that is accelerating. Small shops are closing, big retailers like Bordlandia are closing.

Executives say what they can to keep the bonuses coming as long as possible. They tell investors what they need to keep the stock price up as high as possible. When someone has every incentive to lie ...

People need to look at this world and see the changes as they occur. They need to stop listening to predictions from biased speakers. We threw integrity out the window in the 80s (or earlier).

You might also be a biased speaker on this topic. I am too. I think calling people dumb for their bias disagreeing with our bias is probably at best unproductive.

 

[GreyLord]

So, though Hasbro is not a megacorp, I'd say Blackrock comes pretty close, and they have hands in Hasbro. Maybe not enough to control, but a sizeable amount.

Would one consider Black Rock a Megacorp?

 

[Queer Venger]

Two of my most recent crowdfundings (DCC & Shadowdark) informed us the tariff costs will not be passed on to us, they accounted for this in the campaign.

The Spice must flow...

 

[Morrus]

Two of my most recent crowdfundings (DCC & Shadowdark) informed us the tariff costs will not be passed on to us, they accounted for this in the crowdfunding.

While this has been posted a bunch of times in various threads, I think some context is important. What the Arcane Library said was "People have asked a few times, so I want to reassure everyone: the current tariffs are not going to affect our pricing and fulfillment. We are able to safely absorb these costs thanks to backers’ strong support!" 21 days ago, on April 4th, when the tariffs were set at 54%. The tariffs were raised to 145% on April 9th.

To my knowledge, they haven't commented since. But given some of the fairly toxic "Why didn't you account for the tariffs? We all knew it was coming!" dialogue being spread round by certain elements, I think it's important to clarify that at no point did Shadowdark claim to have accounted for 145% tariffs, and it harms other publishers to spread that sort of disinformation. Nobody predicted this, or could have.

Fortunately, Shadowdark is in book format (not a boxed set) so seems likely to be exempt from the tariff, at least as things currently stand. I'm super hopeful that they will sail through this unscathed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Then I'll ask, what was your thinking behind your initial comment?


Because it sounds (to me) as if you'd prefer Hasbro to suffer even more than it will in the current circumstances, at least in part due to its status as a "megacorp". Is that true? And how do you think that would be helpful?

I don't think one huge company should be a thing in the games industry, and hearing their press release that they'll manage through this crisis when I expect many smaller companies who in my opinion do as good or better work might not does not make me happy.