Hasbro Game Sales Drop Nearly A Quarter (due to MtG and Digital Games)

[Morrus]

This quarter (Q3, 2022) Hasbro's gaming sales were 23% lower than the same quarter last year.

Game sales include both tabletop and digital games. The company's Q3 release and conference call revealed that the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming division dropped 16%, and tabletop revenues specifically dropped 9%, mainly due to Magic the Gathering release schedule alterations.

The big drop was digital games -- Dark Alliance and Magic: The Gathering Arena Mobile both falling.

There was no particular mention of Dungeons & Dragons.

Despite a weak quarter, the year's sales are still up 5% over the year so far.

Profits were down 36%m which is due not only to the sales drop but also rising industry-wide costs such as paper and shipping.

Hasbro Game Sales Down 23% in Q3

According to Quarterly Report

icv2.com

 

[Lanefan]

I can easily see D&D sales taking a dip for the next 18 months or so with that dip just having started, as there's an announced new edition on the horizon which tends to kill off sales of the previous one.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Ick. Even if D&D has nothing to do with it, I can see a hit like that causing company-wide shakeups.

That said, they had to be prepared for everyone who spent 2.5 years dropping their petty cash into digital cardboard game pieces would start spending them on, well, everything else they'd been neglecting since Covid started. Right?... right?

 

[CleverNickName]

I can easily see D&D sales taking a dip for the next 18 months or so with that dip just having started, as there's an announced new edition on the horizon which tends to kill off sales of the previous one.

They have been very careful to avoid calling it a "new edition."

 

[Lanefan]

View attachment 265270
They have been very careful to avoid calling it a "new edition."

Of course they have.

Doesn't change anything - it's still a new edition.

 

[CleverNickName]

Of course they have.

Doesn't change anything - it's still a new edition.

 

[Lanefan]

View attachment 265289

New edition. New edition. New edition!!!

 

[SakanaSensei]

New edition. New edition. New edition!!!

Careful now, you'll get Michael Keaton with a big 6 stamped on his head to show up!

 

[GreyLord]

Careful now, you'll get Michael Keaton with a big 6 stamped on his head to show up!

But as it's new, he won't appear that way, but in a Bat costume with muscled abs. Also won't be quite as fun, a bit more serious and dark.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

New edition. New edition. New edition!!!

STOP. If you say that three times, Bobby Brown appears.

 

[aramis erak]

I can easily see D&D sales taking a dip for the next 18 months or so with that dip just having started, as there's an announced new edition on the horizon which tends to kill off sales of the previous one.

Plus the significant mechanical "mid edition course change" of Tashas essentially is already a stealth edition. Stealth editions tend to not attract more new-to-edition players (and corebook sales), and tend to drop off fans of the game before the shift. In the first case, because they get told the key is super important and should be considered core, upping the barrier; the latter due to any such element disappointing at least some fans

Tasha's is only the latest of many such stealth editions...
AD&D 1's Unearthed Arcana
AD&D 2's Player's Option C&T and S&P.
D&D 4E's 4E Essentials
Star Frontiers and Zebulon's Guide

And, non TSR/WotC...
MegaTraveller's Hard Times
Pendragon 3e's Knights Adventurous.
Pendragon 4e's Book of Knights &/or Saxons! -- changes to character gen.
The One RIng 1E & Rivendell (tho' to a lesser extent. Really altered the metacurrency economy)
Every WWG WoD line and their Player's Guide. (Effect minimized by being quick out the gate after the core) Same for Streetfighter RPG.
Justifiers and the Corporate Handbook... total change in game focus.
GW's Judge Dredd and Judge Dredd Companion... not that it was well supported with adventures (grrr)... most were in WD, and reprinted in the JDC... Totally ups the game to a new level. Especially adding Judge Exorcists....

 

[Emirikol]

So they're doing better than the market in general. What's the deal about everybody losing their minds?

GOOGLE: How much has the stock market dropped in 2022?

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has dropped nearly 33 percent so far in 2022, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 20 percent while the world's best-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, shed nearly 60 percent of its value.Sep 30, 2022

 

[Lanefan]

STOP. If you say that three times, Bobby Brown appears.

Who?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Who?

They say I'm crazy
I really don't care
That's my prerogative
They say I'm nasty
But I don't give a dang
Mocking bards is how I live
Some messy questions
Why am I such a heel?
But they don't understand me
I really don't know the deal about those elf lovers
Justifying that elvish blight
For far too long
Before I win this fight, sing

Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
But bards and elves I can't forgive
That's why I ain't got no contrition
Make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
It's my prerogative (it's my prerogative)

 

[Cadence]

See also WotC - WotC in a small decline as revenue drops by 16% as Hasbro shares hit a new 52-week low

 

[MGibster]

STOP. If you say that three times, Bobby Brown appears.

That's his preogative.

Edit: Dammit! You beat me to the joke.

 

[dragoner]

In some ways, this also feels linked to the NFT's scandal; I read today a tweet about "business thermocline" which while about twitter, can be relevant here.

 

[darjr]

In some ways, this also feels linked to the NFT's scandal; I read today a tweet about "business thermocline" which while about twitter, can be relevant here.

 

[dragoner]

That is the one, I feel NFT's really represent "a bridge too far" expecting customers to cross that. Though having lived in the bay area near silicon valley, and watched the dot com bubble burst, I'm not surprised to see tech people be out of touch either.

 

[darjr]

It’s a good thread, both of them. I hope execs at WotC read it.