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.”

 

[5atbu]

I wouldn't mind WOTC bringing back Star Frontiers. And Marvel Super Heroes. And Mutants and Masterminds. And Top Secret. And Indiana Jones. And Boot Hill.

Mutants and Masterminds is Green Ronin and very much in print!

 

[Parmandur]

Couldn't they just do a Sci Fi campaign setting for 5e with optional rules?

I wouldn't mind WOTC bringing back Star Frontiers. And Marvel Super Heroes. And Mutants and Masterminds. And Top Secret. And Indiana Jones. And Boot Hill.

I could definitely see WotC bringing back much of this for 5E, but as "D&D" supplements, not a "d20" revival. "Dungeons & Dragons: Star Frontiers" or "Dungeons & Dragons: Gamma World" or even "Dungeons & Dragons: Boot Hill" would be awesome. But WotC wouldn't neuter the D&D branding from an RPG using D&D rules.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Mutants and Masterminds is d20 but with a different system of levels. Have you tried to be an ordinary human as Green Arrow or Hawk Eye for an event like a skrull invasion? Now let's imagine a campaign where PCs are ordinary people who try to survive in a city where superheroes become crazy (like in the graphic novel "Leaving Megalopolis") because the DM is a sadist.

There were two editions of Star Wars d20 published by WotC itself, but this doesn't mean d20 to be ready to be for all genres yet. Let's imagine a campaign where the PCs live in a primitive sword & sorcery civilization, as Conan the Barbarian, and the antagonists are invaders from space, goblins with magic steampunk technology, as exo-suits or powered armors, or biopunk organic-machines like the ones by the Yuuzhan-Vong from Star Wars Legends . The balance of power would be totally broken.

And the controversy about realism vs gameplay (the fast healing in shooter videogames and like this).

Are you going to say to CD Projekt "The witcher saga works, you don't need to publish a Cyberpunk videogame"? Don't close doors to new projects, only ask a good work.

* Some videogame studios would rather their own version of d20, with some changes as for example adding Acuity as a new ability score to discover clues or noticing about details or to improvise a fast answer in some social interaction (for example inventing a lie to hide a secret), (divine) grace as spiritual resistance against some source of supernatural taint, or courage to face monsters and other causes of mental stress because its last title is an pulp adventure about hunting Lovecraftian cults.

And you can bet some Game Masters dare to create hybrids mixing d20 and other game systems.

 

[Morrus]

Some videogame studios would rather their own version of d20, with some changes as for example adding Acuity as a new ability score

Video game RPGs almost always use their own system. The d20 ruleset has no value to a video game developer (even tabletop game developers don’t use it much these days).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Videogames studios would rather to create their own IPs and systems, but you may notice the best option is something enough familiar to the player become accustomed sooner. A retroclone is easier than starting from zero and playtesting all for the balance of power.

And the WotC plans for d20 isn't only for "player vs environment" games but also for mass battles (like the real-time-strategy videogames) or skirmishes between warbands (f.e Necromunda, Mordheim or Kill Team by Games Workshop). We could see in a future a D&D videogame (for mobile?) with farm simulation (like Stardew Valley) or kingdom management (like Stronghold, published in 1993 by SSI), and even with monster training for battle arenas. If there are plans to publish a PvP game with the d20 system then this needs a lot of playtesting of balance of power or everybody will want to play with gnomes and steampunk mechas and nobody with the low-level-tech barbarian tribes.

 

[Morrus]

Videogames studios would rather to create their own IPs and systems, but you may notice the best option is something enough familiar to the player become accustomed sooner. A retroclone is easier than starting from zero and playtesting all for the balance of power.

And the WotC plans for d20 isn't only for "player vs environment" games but also for mass battles (like the real-time-strategy videogames) or skirmishes between warbands (f.e Necromunda, Mordheim or Kill Team by Games Workshop). We could see in a future a D&D videogame (for mobile?) with farm simulation (like Stardew Valley) or kingdom management (like Stronghold, published in 1993 by SSI), and even with monster training for battle arenas. If there are plans to publish a PvP game with the d20 system then this needs a lot of playtesting of balance of power or everybody will want to play with gnomes and steampunk mechas and nobody with the low-level-tech barbarian tribes.

There aren’t any WotC plans to resurrect the d20 system, no matter how many times you repeat it.They moved on from it for a reason. It’s not going to become true through repetition.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If d20 system becomes known then it can't be only for D&D, but it needs a lot of work by game designers. If the project of the Hasbroverse movies are successful then they should think about TTRPGs for the teenage section of the market. Hasbro not only has got projects linked with movies about their franchises, but also with videogames. Why not one about Gamma World? If the work is good it could be so famous like Fallout saga, Ark: Survival Envolved or Dead Rising.

You can't say "never" but maybe "not yet, we need more time to create a really satisfactory product".

 

[Morrus]

If d20 system becomes known then it can't be only for D&D, but it needs a lot of work by game designers. If the project of the Hasbroverse movies are successful then they should think about TTRPGs for the teenage section of the market. Hasbro not only has got projects linked with movies about their franchises, but also with videogames. Why not one about Gamma World? If the work is good it could be so famous like Fallout saga, Ark: Survival Envolved or Dead Rising.

You can't say "never" but maybe "not yet, we need more time to create a really satisfactory product".

I’m curious. What is this odd obsession with the d20 system about?

It’s not coming back. WotC has a new rule set now. It’s rather successful. You may have heard of it!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Because I feel very confortable with the d20 system, and I would like to can use adaptations of other TTRPGs, for example World of Darkness, Chulthutech or Eclipse Phase. I love to create mash-up mixing different IPs.

 

[darjr]

There was a world of darkness adaptation, of a sort.