Hasbro 2Q results

[Umbran]

But also note, they aren't stupid.

If that section is profitable now, and they haven't put that much into it. They most likely will leave it alone, unless there is an obivious method of deriving more profit from shaking it up.

Yes, but what defines "stupid" may not be what it seems.

It can be economically reasonable to cut a section that is profitable, but not profitable enough. If WotC, or D&D specifically, does not make much profit relative to the amount of money it costs to keep it alive, it may be reasonable to cut it, and put the investment into a section that makes more money relative to expenditure.

To put it another way: imagine you have two sections in your company - one makes $2 for every dollar you spend to run it, the other makes only $1.50 for every buck you spend. Unless there are other long-term concerns, you will do better if you get rid fo the second section, and spend all your money in the first.

 

[Pramas]

Except that Hasbro doesn't have video game (or movie) rights to D&D. Atari has the video game rights for another 10 years or so, and Joel Silver (or someone associated with him) has the movie rights.

Actually, Hasbro bought the rights back from Atari just last month for $65 million.

http://www.hasbro.com/media/pl/page.release/dn/default.cfm?release=372

 

[paulsometimes]

I see this as a sign that we all need to run out and buy a WotC produced RPG book. Have them all you say? Or maybe there's no others that you wants? No worries. Just post a message saying so and I'll let you know which book you can buy me

 

[TerraDave]

Thanks Mr. Pramas, but from what I read, Infogram/Atari got 10 years of rights for D&D out of the deal...what Hasbro seems to have paid $65 million for is:

TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, TONKA, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, CONNECT FOUR, CANDYLAND and PLAYSKOOL

 

[Staffan]

Actually, Hasbro bought the rights back from Atari just last month for $65 million.

http://www.hasbro.com/media/pl/page.release/dn/default.cfm?release=372

Sort of, but not really. As I understand it, Hasbro bought the rights to everything back, but in addition to paying $65M, they also paid with a ten-year exclusive license on D&D and a 7-year exclusive license to a handful of other games. Which is what I meant by "Atari has the video game rights for another 10 years or so".

 

[ThirdWizard]

The WotC sales differences were most likely due to Mirrodin (old set) doing much better than Kamigawa (new set) and the newer Kamigawa stuff not being that desirable. Also, the first Kamigawa release (the big set) will do much better than the two smaller ones because it is much larger. It wouldn't have much to do with D&D. Mirrodin was a very powerful set, and while Kamigawa wasn't exactly a bad set, there wasn't much reason to buy boxes of the set. With the release of 9th edition Magic coming out soon, we'll see a resurgance in WotC profits by a very large margin, with some very nice cards coming out in that set. For once in a long time the core set is going to be a box buyer.

 

[Christian]

Thanks Mr. Pramas, but from what I read, Infogram/Atari got 10 years of rights for D&D out of the deal...what Hasbro seems to have paid $65 million for is:

TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, TONKA, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, CONNECT FOUR, CANDYLAND and PLAYSKOOL

No, I think you missed a qualifier. Infogrames still gets the rights to interactive formats for D&D for ten years (as well as for Monopoly, Scrabble, and a few other games, but only for seven years). So something like D&D Online or multiplayer networked games would still be published by Infogrames; but Hasbro now has the right to publish single player adventure computer games under the D&D brand.

OK, I don't know why they'd want to. But they can.

 

[RyanD]

Hasbro now has the right to publish single player adventure computer games under the D&D brand.

No, I don't think that's right. "Interactive games" is the term used to distinquish between "games" and "utilities" (like ETools).