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

[darjr]

“Complete collapse of WotC” lol. Are these folks self aware at all? yea never clicking that video.

 

[Art Waring]

“Complete collapse of WotC” lol. Are these folks self aware at all? yea never clicking that video.

Its a comedy skit for two minutes, not at all serious its just making fun

 

[darjr]

Its a comedy skit for two minutes, not at all serious its just making fun

Oh. Ok then. I guess they probably are then.

Thanks!

 

[Art Waring]

Oh. Ok then. I guess they probably are then.

Thanks!

Anytime! I kind of thought of it as a kind of Wierd Al for MtG songs and skits, funny at times while also being aware of the material they are covering.

 

[Art Waring]

Back to the subject, apparently it seems like Alpha Investors has been talking about this for weeks. I guess several sources have been worried about it, the video below is from almost two weeks ago, and the time stamp in the video is where he is reporting on the stock dropping weeks back before the BofA announcement, so this was already going to happen one way or another.

I sold my cards years ago so I have no personal investment, but the recent news has kind of brought the financial side of MtG to the forefront lately I guess. Anyway, mtg probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but a lot of collectors are liquidating their collections (if you look at current buy lists from the top stores, prices for revised duals are down more than 50% from last year alone). This in direct response to the 30th anniversary boosters affecting the vintage second hand market (the $999 product mentioned in all the articles covering the BofA announcement), according to the sources.

Another video from yesterday says they are not going to distribute anymore new MtG products until the market becomes more stable, and a lot of FLGS' are also dropping new mtg products because of overproduction issues. This is a problem that has affected everything from small game shops to large distributors and retail stores like target.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I thought they changed the word recession, so were weren't in one.

No. That's a bad faith argument from cable news folks.

Recessions require two quarters of declining GDP, which hasn't happened yet.

I mean I still see my gas and groceries prices growing faster then my paycheck. Not to mention oil to heat my house, but I'm told to pay no attention to that and spend like it is 2019.

That's inflation, which is happening.

Pandemic supply issues + energy crunch (war in Ukraine + OPEC turning down the faucet) = rising prices for everyone

Of course spending money on games is going down. They need to make a damn good book for me to drop my remaining cash on something.

For sure. I'm sitting on my hands on a lot of stuff I really want, myself.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This in direct response to the 30th anniversary boosters affecting the vintage second hand market (the $999 product mentioned in all the articles covering the BofA announcement), according to the sources.

Eh, you can't disentangle the fact that there's global economic uncertainty and decades-high inflation occurring at the same time. If everyone wasn't suddenly facing a cash crunch, higher costs of borrowing and rising expenses, I suspect at least some of these people wouldn't be selling.

 

[MGibster]

Another video from yesterday says they are not going to distribute anymore new MtG products until the market becomes more stable, and a lot of FLGS' are also dropping new mtg products because of overproduction issues. This is a problem that has affected everything from small game shops to large distributors and retail stores like target.

I haven't played Magic since 1995, so I don't know a lot about what's going on with the game. But a lot of game stores rely heavily on Magic for sales, and I wonder how this will affect them. Should I expect to see some stores closing soon?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't played Magic since 1995, so I don't know a lot about what's going on with the game. But a lot of game stores rely heavily on Magic for sales, and I wonder how this will affect them. Should I expect to see some stores closing soon?

Well, Hasbro is hoping to sell more cards with this overproduction. Even if people are turned off by this, stores would have to sell less than they recently did to be badly hurt, although if they buy a lot of cards they can't sell, that's certainly an impact. I don't know if that's going to be a widespread catastrophe like when the comics market collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s.

I suspect a few stores that went all-in on all these extra releases will be hurt. But given the narrow margins so many of these stores operate under, I don't know how many stores had the extra funds to purchase all these extra packs.

I know we have comic shop owners who post here. Anyone with real expertise want to weigh in?

 

[Scribe]

Back to the subject, apparently it seems like Alpha Investors has been talking about this for weeks.

Its been stuff discussed for a long time, Covid provided a bubble that masked it but the mistakes have been over years, in my view it goes all the way back to 2016 with the most flawed printings in a long time (Eldrazi), and the naked lie that was the banning of Splinter Twin in Modern.

They left the Eldrazi in the format for no reason other than to shake it up, and sell packs.

Note: I get it, Wizards is a business, needs to make money, blah blah capitalism go brrr...

Fast forward several years, as their best competitive format wallowed, and you get F.I.R.E. This design philosophy pushed the power level to the point where Standard sets were now pushing multiple cards down into the eternal formats on raw power alone. There were clear design/power level mistakes, and some of these are shockingly (to me) still kicking around for god knows why.

One final nod to the death of the games balance: Companion

On top of that, we got 'direct to x' sets, that skip standard, further decreasing its role in the magic ecosystem.

On top of THAT, we get Digital, MTG Arena.

Now, they are printing their own proxy power 9?! For $1000??

Add that all up with a dramatic over printing for EDH/Commander, and no wonder Standard has imploded, collections are devalued, and (seriously wizards) they have enabled proxy play.

Why even buy the cards now?