WotC Filing: Wizards of the Coast makes up roughly 70% of Hasbro's value

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
It's important to distinguish between popularity and profitability, too. D&D has always struggled with finding a sustainable business model; the game by its nature doesn't require a lot of ongoing investment by players. Meanwhile, Magic is brilliantly engineered to suck money out of wallets (he said, refreshing to see if there were any more New Capenna spoilers up). So at the same level of popularity, M:tG will be far more profitable.

By this point, I would not be at all surprised to learn that D&D had become significantly more popular than Magic, even though Magic likely continues to bring in more money. Hence all the spinoffs and licensing--Wizards is looking for ways to tap the power of that market.
D&D merch is, IME, much more ubiquitous, however.

But even ignoring that, D&D books have been selling much much more in 5e than ever before. It is very unlikely, IMO, that the ratio betweeen the two brands is the same as it ever was.
 

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UngainlyTitan

Legend
Supporter
The Kevin Smith version was good. It was just too adult for the kids, and too modern for the more conservative grognards. Which is why it would be a mistake for WotC to target an adult audience with it's D&D cartoon.
Agreed but I think it tried to cram too much into one season. It tried to cram in themes that She Ra developed over multiple seasons in to a single season.
 

The Kevin Smith version was about Teela, and He-Man was out for a too long time. It sounded too forced.

The She-ra show was really focused about to tell a good story, to keep the interest, and creating characters audence could identify. This time females weren't with the body proportion of Barbie. The show was inclusive but not too forced compared with the current standard.

Now maybe Hasbro should save money for some future opportunity for a possible new acquisition. I suspect 2022 will be a busy year in the entertaiment industry.

I wonder why Hasbro hasn't started to sell (cheap) collectable miniatures of D&D monsters, if Gormiti and Superthings worked.

There is a planned strategy. Ravenloft was published for the young adult market, and Witchlight like a first step for a family-friendly line.

Maybe G.I.Joe could appear in more videogames, not only Fortnite, Brawlhala or World of Tanks, for example Snake Eyes and Stormshadow in Injustice 3, Street Fighters 6 or the next Call of Duty.
 

Are you aware that corporations have a fiduciary duty to maximize the money the investors make? If they fail in that duty, they can be sued.
There is also a thing called a business judgment rule, which means that if investors take the board to court to say that instead of doing A, the board should be doing B, the court will throw up its hands and say “damned if I know” and punt the whole thing back to the board.
 




Parmandur

Book-Friend
D&D merch is, IME, much more ubiquitous, however.

But even ignoring that, D&D books have been selling much much more in 5e than ever before. It is very unlikely, IMO, that the ratio betweeen the two brands is the same as it ever was.
Magic Arena was put on phones, and WotC revenue doubled immediately. Now, "post hoc, ergo hoc" is a fallacy, correlation is not causation, etc... but WotC has credited Arena with the jump in revenue.

The impressive thing isn't that D&D has achieved parity, it's that such a cheap hobby is keeping up the ratio with the financial Juggernaut that is Magic. Which, yeah, is partly great cultural cache: Magic is all about the game narrowly understood, D&D is more expansive by it's nature.
 

The fun fact is if a game looks for older audence but it is not too violent or mature, the younger players will be interested because they like to do "things of older people". I remember a meme about Pokemon created for children but played by adults, and Call of Duty created for adults but played by children.

There are rumors about the return of the old Warhammer Fantasy, and I guess because thanks Warhammer: Total War videogame the franchises has recovered the potential value and interest. With the right team WotC could create a strategy videogame based in "Birthright" setting, and this is right for fantasy romance novels for teen girls who don't need to know the rest of the lore. Strixhaven also is perfect for a fantasy teen drama with maho-shojo/magical girls.

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But here the metaplot is a limit if the main characters can't alter the world. Then it is better to start from zero with a new setting, but here the flaw would be other characters from potential spin-off shouldn't alter the "sacred timeline" by the events with the original story.

* If a character from the Truespace (Crystal sphere with high-techn and advanced technology) or Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty goes to a standar middle age D&D world... would be it an "isekai"?

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Magic: the Gathering and Warhammer wargame have the adventages in the market the players would rather to play something by the majority because finding people to play with other titles is harder.

We should think about the money in the market of the d20 Sourcebook not only by WotC by 3PPs. If WotC publishes three or four titles in a year the 3PPs publish dozens or more hundred titles. These players may willing to buy D&D merchandising.

WotC wants to publish more videogames, but after the experience with Dark Aliance should rethink the strategy with online multiplayers.
 

Regarding investors and shareholders and the dividends paid to them, I've always viewed shareholders as the economic equivalent of the energy lost to heat and entropy in a mechanical system. Something that takes energy (or in this case, money) out of the system and makes it run less smoothky but which can;t be fully abrogated and must instead be minimized
 

MGibster

Legend
There is also a thing called a business judgment rule, which means that if investors take the board to court to say that instead of doing A, the board should be doing B, the court will throw up its hands and say “damned if I know” and punt the whole thing back to the board.
And for those that don't know, the business judgment rule is the principal that that default assumption is that management is acting in the interest of the corporation and its investors. It's to prevent frivolous lawsuits from investors based on corporate officers not making optimal decisions.

Regarding investors and shareholders and the dividends paid to them, I've always viewed shareholders as the economic equivalent of the energy lost to heat and entropy in a mechanical system. Something that takes energy (or in this case, money) out of the system and makes it run less smoothky but which can;t be fully abrogated and must instead be minimized

Investment is usually good for a company in that it provides them with capital and it benefits the investor not only because of dividends but also because it mitigates some of the risks associated with running a business . The problem isn't your typical investor, who is usually content to let their stock sit for long periods of time generating dividends, it's when you have groups dedicating to gaming the system encouraging short term gains at the expense of the long term health of the company.
 


Jer

Legend
Supporter
Regarding investors and shareholders and the dividends paid to them, I've always viewed shareholders as the economic equivalent of the energy lost to heat and entropy in a mechanical system. Something that takes energy (or in this case, money) out of the system and makes it run less smoothky but which can;t be fully abrogated and must instead be minimized
The share that investors take through dividends isn't usually the problem (occasionally dividends become an issue on corporate finances, but it's rare). Investors who would be happy to get a reasonable return on their investment over the long term via a dividend payout are the perfect investors - they front the money and get their money back with interest over the long term. They're also as rare as ... not unicorns but maybe a red wolf or a California condor - not extinct but endangered.

It's the investors who want a quick return on investment through the sale of stock that cause things to move less smoothly. Especially when they want the company to do things that are harmful to it in the long term so they can make a quick buck in the short term and they have enough power to force the company to do it.
 

Could we see a comic "G.I.Joe vs Terminator" or "G.I.Joe vs Aliens vs Predators"?

Other point is if a third party wanted the WotC's IPs but Hasbro doesn't accept a merger neither an acquisition then to try a spin-off would be a possible strategy.

* What about the videogame Dark Alliance, is it a hit or a bomb?

* Shouldn't hire WotC more people to publish more titles, or to work in any no-D&D TTRPG?
 

The share that investors take through dividends isn't usually the problem (occasionally dividends become an issue on corporate finances, but it's rare). Investors who would be happy to get a reasonable return on their investment over the long term via a dividend payout are the perfect investors - they front the money and get their money back with interest over the long term. They're also as rare as ... not unicorns but maybe a red wolf or a California condor - not extinct but endangered.

It's the investors who want a quick return on investment through the sale of stock that cause things to move less smoothly. Especially when they want the company to do things that are harmful to it in the long term so they can make a quick buck in the short term and they have enough power to force the company to do it.
Look at the P/E ratio of basically all stocks that are even close to investment grade today. They are all MANY MANY multiples of anything that would allow someone to come out ahead by buying equities for the dividends. There is literally not one single stock on the NASDAQ or NYSE that isn't toxic, or a penny stock, that will return you even 2% that way. Thus we must conclude ALL INVESTORS today are speculators. Many may be 'bad' speculators who are clueless and just hold things, what we call 'dumb money', but they're still speculating! If you want to earn dividends, you are 100x better off buying a Money Market fund, and 1000x better off investing in something like Munis, since they will return 3x more than ANY dividends, even of hugely successful companies.
 

UngainlyTitan

Legend
Supporter
Look at the P/E ratio of basically all stocks that are even close to investment grade today. They are all MANY MANY multiples of anything that would allow someone to come out ahead by buying equities for the dividends. There is literally not one single stock on the NASDAQ or NYSE that isn't toxic, or a penny stock, that will return you even 2% that way. Thus we must conclude ALL INVESTORS today are speculators. Many may be 'bad' speculators who are clueless and just hold things, what we call 'dumb money', but they're still speculating! If you want to earn dividends, you are 100x better off buying a Money Market fund, and 1000x better off investing in something like Munis, since they will return 3x more than ANY dividends, even of hugely successful companies.
Totally agree and I suspect that there is an element of the Stars Aligned about it. I think it is partly a product of deregulation and financial engineering. Partly globalisation with a considerable helping of being ignored by Central Banks because of a belief that asset price inflation is not a problem.

It is sustainable up until the point where it is not and then your guess is as good as mine. Between climate change, aging demographics and later crashing populations, I suspect the ride is going to get bumpy.
 

Totally agree and I suspect that there is an element of the Stars Aligned about it. I think it is partly a product of deregulation and financial engineering. Partly globalisation with a considerable helping of being ignored by Central Banks because of a belief that asset price inflation is not a problem.

It is sustainable up until the point where it is not and then your guess is as good as mine. Between climate change, aging demographics and later crashing populations, I suspect the ride is going to get bumpy.
Yup! The stock market is a gargantuan Ponzi, and at some point it will burst. The reason it hasn't so far is that the govt keeps printing more money, which then has to go SOMEWHERE, and it goes on and on. Notice that the actual good investments, those are either things like real estate, or else private equity (which normal people are simply not invited to participate in). The 'bursting of the bubble' may take some quite creative new form that partially obscures exactly what happened, but the upshot will be that all the so-called 'equity' that is really unrealized gains will become non-fungible. Heck, it may even still earn dividends, at the current 50:1 (if you are lucky) P/Es that's a joke of course. What you won't be able to do is access the principle, it won't really exist anymore.

Honestly, at this point, and I've been a very successful investor in a variety of instruments and whatnot in the past, 90% of my money is in equity in real estate at this point. It is a FANTASTIC time to be in debt too! :) And this may well be the understanding of anyone trying to raid a company like Hasbro. Load it up with debt, take the actual money off to someplace safe, and hope that super high inflation just lets them go along like that for a few years until you're well and truly far gone with the loot.
 




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