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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sholari" data-source="post: 2761414" data-attributes="member: 6059">The sky may not be falling, but let's not be too complacent about things either.  From what information seems to be garnered here.  Sales of Magic or CCGs seem to have taken a tumble.  At a high level they realized that their fixed cost structure would eat into their margins as well, and made cuts to bring the cost structure in line with sales.  The interesting thing is where they made those cuts.1) Headcount is one of the more visible places they made the cuts.  Are they also making deeper cuts to marketing spend, R&D projects, etc.  What is the impact on D&D going forward.2) Even though Magic is the likely culprit, they do not appear to have made the cuts there.  Instead they made it to Hecatomb (which seems to have been a dud anyway), D&D, etc.  That may well indicate that D&D is considered expendable next to Magic, and if sales continue to fall they may continue to cut budget for the D&D brand.  At a certain point that is likely to haver a very material impact to the game you and I love.3) Any time they pull in a "new" brand manager there is no guarantee that they are going to pull in somebody that really understands the game.  D&D is not just like your average brand and can not be managed as such.  However, I have worked in places where they pull in a person that has a top-tier MBA and all the proper credentials for a brand manager, who does not understand the specifics of the market.  Often this person knows how to talk a good game to the top, while really screwing up what they are managing.4) D&D has been screwed up in the past by executives that don't understand the underpinnings of their business and there is nothing to say this could not happen again.  I'd argue it is more likely, because D&D isn't even their core business this time around and thus accountability is more dispersed.  We were all very lucky that Peter Adkinson turned D&D around the first time, otherwise who knows what could have happened.The sky may not be falling, but we shouldn't sit on our hands and pretend that this is a great thing either.  What happened today may be good for Hasbro, but it is not good for D&D nor for D&D fans.  I think that if enough D&D enthusiasts sent in some well-placed, polite letters stating their concerns for how Hasbro is managing D&D it would at least get people's attention and maybe make D&D not the easy place to cut in the future.</blockquote>

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