Hasbro CEO: "D&D is Really on a Tear"

Sorry, that laugh was a result of clumsy fingers on my phone.

 

[darjr]

Those sly PR folks! We should a known!

 

[neobolts]

I always wonder--how well does 5e have to do before all of the people who said it would go down because of this, that or the other reason come forward and go:

"I'm sorry, internet, I was talking out of my ass. I can't be trusted, ignore me from now on."

?

I am thrilled that 5e is doing well and it has become my preferred edition. There's this rational fear that the stewards of D&D have a tendancy to screw up a good thing. So as outside observers, we end up on the internet speculating on the trajectory of D&D. As of right now, IMO they seem to be on a positive track but do wish they were more open about what's in the pipeline.

I suspect that this might be the case. Having extremely low sales in Q1 and Q2 (mostly novels and such), and then suddenly the Starter Set, the PHB, MM, and HotDQ in Q3, and RoT and DMG in Q4 (and the MM was released at the end of Q3, so a fair percentage of its sales might have been in Q4). It would definitely look on the surface like D&D was on a tear.

I would imagine that the CEO is aware of the cyclical nature of the core book products, and that it's that this cycle exceeded projections. I think that he's also looking beyond that and going off the fact that the mobile games and the MMO seem to be exceeding expectations, and that they've secured a number of promising licenses.

Ah, yes. The old "get an investment firm representative to ask the CEO of the parent company to ask specifically about non-Magic games' performance during an investors meeting conference call, so that the CEO of the parent company can, while mentioning a bunch of other games and describing the flattish grown in the Games division, can make a throwaway comment about how D&D is doing good, knowing that people will crawl through five pages of transcript, find the comment and report on it on a pro-am newsblog site."

It truly is a classic.

You are my new hero.

 

[KarinsDad]

I would imagine that the CEO is aware of the cyclical nature of the core book products, and that it's that this cycle exceeded projections. I think that he's also looking beyond that and going off the fact that the mobile games and the MMO seem to be exceeding expectations, and that they've secured a number of promising licenses.

I don't know how information flows upwards at your company, but every place I've worked, information is collated by worker bees below who put the best possible face on it and send it up. Where manager worker bees reorganize it and put the best possible face on it and send it up. Where VP worker bees, etc. By the time information gets to the CEO, it's no longer the original data. It's been massaged and sanitized by at least one layer of other people.

I'm not sure your assumption here is necessarily accurate. It might be, but it might not. Obviously, the CEO knows some information about a minor product line in his company, but for us, D&D is a big dot deal. For Hasbro (revenue $4 billion), it's a tiny line item (maybe revenue in the ballpark of 1% or 2%, maybe someone here knows).

I do know that most companies try to have product go out to the marketplace constantly. There might be some heavier sales times (like Christmas for a gaming company) and there are obvious surges like when new product is released, but even if you look at WotC, they released product basically every single month of last year. It just wasn't all D&D and even D&D wasn't just 5E (novels, miniatures, boardgames, etc.).

 

[neobolts]

I don't know how information flows upwards at your company, but every place I've worked, information is collated by worker bees below who put the best possible face on it and send it up. Where manager worker bees reorganize it and put the best possible face on it and send it up. Where VP worker bees, etc. By the time information gets to the CEO, it's no longer the original data. It's been massaged and sanitized by at least one layer of other people.

I'm not sure your assumption here is necessarily accurate. It might be, but it might not. Obviously, the CEO knows some information about a minor product line in his company, but for us, D&D is a big dot deal. For Hasbro (revenue $4 billion), it's a tiny line item (maybe revenue in the ballpark of 1% or 2%, maybe someone here knows).

I do know that most companies try to have product go out to the marketplace constantly. There might be some heavier sales times (like Christmas for a gaming company) and there are obvious surges like when new product is released, but even if you look at WotC, they released product basically every single month of last year. It just wasn't all D&D and even D&D wasn't just 5E (novels, miniatures, boardgames, etc.).

Absolutely. I have no illusions that the CEO would know the detailed ins-and-outs of the D&D product line, but "core sales are cyclical and currently at the top of a cycle, also licensing is up" seemed plausible. More plausible IMO than that the CEO is ignorant of the basics regarding why D&D is up. Could be wrong...I'll admit I've also had bosses that knew nothing about broad operational trends.

 

[Agamon]

Yeah, because turning D&D into a BILLION dollar movie franchise would just suck so hard. :/

Only if it was directed by Michael Bay....

 

[Agamon]

Everyone seems to try to do fantasy in the big epic, and dead serious, style of "Lord of the Rings", and almost nobody manages to make it work - why not go for unapologetically entertaining?

Sure. Just not Michael Bay. Giant explosions with American flags waving in the background doesn't scream fantasy to me.

 

[delericho]

Sure. Just not Michael Bay. Giant explosions with American flags waving in the background doesn't scream fantasy to me.

I'm pretty sure that, plus giant transforming robots, plus Megan Fox, is someone's idea of fantasy...

 

[Mistwell]

For it to gain mention, it must be a materially notable portion of income for Hasbro in general. So any time it gets mention, it cannot purely be relative to an earlier internal number. To be mentioned, it must be relative to Hasbro in general. Otherwise they could be accused of misrepresenting the financial picture of Hasbro to investors.

 

[TwoSix]

Sure. Just not Michael Bay. Giant explosions with American flags waving in the background doesn't scream fantasy to me.

Just replace them with Forgotten Realms specific flags.

"WATERDEEP! F*** YEAH!"

 

[Agamon]

I'm pretty sure that, plus giant transforming robots, plus Megan Fox, is someone's idea of fantasy...

Transformers would be a lot better turned into a 2-3 minute montage, true.