WotC Hasbro Gaming Down 17% But D&D Remains 'Bright Spot'

ICv2 reports on Hasbro's latest quarterly report, noting that "Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons were two bright spots in Hasbro’s Q3, an otherwise tough quarter with sales and earnings both hit by actual and threatened tariffs on goods from China".

Other notes from ICv2:

• Hasbro Gaming, which does not include franchise brands Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering, was down 17%
• Total gaming sales, including Magic and Monopoly, were roughly flat, a big change from the 26% growth in Q2
• WotC has close to a dozen [digital] games in development for delivery over the next five to six years
• Hasbro believes that WotC sales can be doubled over the next five years, “…as we’ve accomplished over the past five years.”

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Starfinder launched in 2017.

Starfinder has a fairly significant flaw - it is too complex to be accessible to non-hardcore gamers.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't trust sales rankings for Paizo products on Amazon because if you buy the book directly from Paizo, then you can the pdf of the book for free. And I am sure Paizo has a ton of sales of just the pdfs of their books, so who knows what their actual sales numbers are.

Well, every RPG product selling on Amazon has other income streams: Barnes & Noble, the FLGS, etc. Similarly, Princes of the Apocalypse is still selling in local stores after four years on the market.

 

[Morrus]

Starfinder has a fairly significant flaw - it is too complex to be accessible to non-hardcore gamers.

Not every product has to positioned as entry-level.

 

[gyor]

Yep

The downside of 5E being so big is less diversity.

You're not going to have 5E d20 Star Wars, modern, future etc.

And it's going to be harder for other systems to get players as well.

Maybe not Star Wars, but we are getting Stargate 5e, a setting far better then Star Wars.

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe not Star Wars, but we are getting Stargate 5e, a setting far better then Star Wars.

I like Star Gate but it doesn't have the exposure.

It's also probably has a narrower focus than Star Wars in terms of games you can play.

 

[Morrus]

Erm. There is a Star Wars RPG. It’s very successful.

 

[darjr]

Hugely successful.
also a very different game from 5e or d20. And it was a pre 5e game.

I do worry about a monoculture but I think things are OK now.

 

[Zardnaar]

Erm. There is a Star Wars RPG. It’s very successful.

I know there's been SW RPGs back to 87.

They're usually in 2nd or 3rd place though.

It's probably the only non D&D RPG that will be reasonably popular year in year out.

More people are familiar with Star Wars than gate.

Stargate the trope is going through the Stargate.

There's probably more stories you can tell in Star Wars though. Empire/rebels, underworld, pilot, gun slingers, explorers Jedi.

Anyone can grab a spaceship.

Access to a gate is rare same as a starship in Stargate. It's harder to freelance I suppose. You're limited to going through the gates and if you have a starship it negates the point of the gates to some extent (it's quicker I suppose).

Stargate could be fun though so gonna keep an eye on it. Slightly different genre if I had to run it through the gate you go.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Pathfinder didn't start being a big fish. And if the SRD is used for a sleeping-hit videogame it can become a famous franchise. Starfinder could be the most sold sci-fi RPG franchise whose origin isn't movie, teleserie, wargame or videogame.

I am afraid you don't understand me really. I don't talk about to change D&D but to publish a second line where some changes would be allowed. The first and main line wouldn't be altered. This would be for adaptations of no-sword&sorcery franchises from movies, novels, comics or videogames. What if WotC gets the rights to publish a new Marvel Superheroes but d20 system isn't ready yet?

Also I suggest to create a open licence world like Teath in 7th Sea. This fantasy-reality-counterpart could be used, and altered, by 3rd Party publishers, and time-travelers could allow future retcons if these are necessary.

 

[Hussar]

But, again, @LuisCarlos17f, what's the upside for WotC to bank on any of that? Why would you spend all the resources creating a separate line, complete with rules set and possibly video game development, when your main line is already, by all intents and measures, doing fantastically well?

How much better do you imagine it could be doing? When they're predicting doubling their sales in 5 years, after already doubling or possibly tripling their sales over the past 5 years?

Remember, sustainability is the watchword here. They aren't apparently interested in sucking in all the money RIGHT NOW. They would rather have a lot of money coming in for the foreseeable future. Job security and all that.

I remember when this time of years was the beginning of the knife sharpening as WotC would start axing staff yearly at Christmastime. They haven't layed off workers for years AFAIK. That's a good, good thing.

Making a decent profit for a long time is better than making all the profit now.