Hasbro Hit With Layoffs, Wizards of the Coast Impacted

Hasbro has announced they had laid off "less than 100" employees, with Wizards of the Coast and the Dungeons & Dragons team impacted as a result. Hasbro announced the "operational streamlining" of their team ahead of their third quarter earnings report, along with several organizational changes impacting oversight of different business lines. as part of these business realignments, Chief Marketing Officer Jason Bunge will now oversee Wizards of the Coast and digital marketing moving forward.

EN World has learned that at least four people at Wizards of the Coast were laid off as part of these changes. One of the four is Dixon Dubow, who publicly announced that he was laid off on Twitter yesterday. Dubow was the creator relations manager for Dungeons & Dragons and was a critical part of helping to repair D&D's image after the 2023 OGL scandal. Dubow was a primary point of contact for content creators who worked with the D&D brand.

Hasbro previously laid off a number of Wizards of the Coast employees as part of a wider employee reduction line last year. Numerous employees from various Wizards teams were either laid off or retired as part of a 20% reduction in the overall Hasbro workforce.

Hasbro also announced year to date operating profits of $630 million during their quarterly earnings report, with a $98 million dividend payout to shareholders.

 

[TheSword]

There is a reason why it [was] illegal to bribe people.

'You took my money, now do as I say' is not an admirable position. It's a loan shark of mafioso's position.

That's not what fiduciary responsibility was meant to be, it's what it was corrupted and mutilated into.

What evidence do you have that shareholders have instructed Hasbro to lay folks off? Rather than the normal and obvious alternative that the SLT have looked at productivity and decided those roles are neither necessary or cost effective? SLT have a fiduciary responsibility to run the company efficiently.

 

[Vaalingrade]

What evidence do you have that shareholders have instructed Hasbro to lay folks off?

They don't have to instruct them. They just hem and haw about whatever BS numbers until those numbers go up. and how do you make the numbers go up real fast without any thought to the future and absolutely zero understanding or thought toward efficiency? Yearly layoffs

 

[Hussar]

They don't have to instruct them. They just hem and haw about whatever BS numbers until those numbers go up. and how do you make the numbers go up real fast without any thought to the future and absolutely zero understanding or thought toward efficiency? Yearly layoffs

Yet funnily enough “yearly layoffs “ hasn’t been a thing since the 3e days. Two years of layoffs out of ten years is actually a pretty decent track record.

 

[Maxperson]

They don't have to instruct them. They just hem and haw about whatever BS numbers until those numbers go up. and how do you make the numbers go up real fast without any thought to the future and absolutely zero understanding or thought toward efficiency? Yearly layoffs

They don't need to hem and haw at all. Padding numbers at the end of the year via layoffs is a time honored corporate tradition. Corporations will be corporate.

 

[TiQuinn]

Are you disputing the concept of fiduciary responsibility to shareholders… and the obvious (when you think about it) reason this is the case. It’s not a shield, it’s not an excuse. No one is saying the shareholders are all grannies. I’m saying Hasbro have taken other peoples money and they have to take that seriously.

I’m disputing the concept that it is the stock price drives the company’s coffers after the offering and whether it should dictate the direction of the company’s decisions.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yet funnily enough “yearly layoffs “ hasn’t been a thing since the 3e days. Two years of layoffs out of ten years is actually a pretty decent track record.

Is that really true? I could have sworn that there's been WAY more than that.

 

[Parmandur]

Is that really true? I could have sworn that there's been WAY more than that.

There have been individuals leaving or being fired, but last years layoffs were the first WotC had done in a decade.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There have been individuals leaving or being fired, but last years layoffs were the first WotC had done in a decade.

Huh. I mean, I believe you, but I swear we hear about layoffs at WotC ALL THE TIME. Feels like it, at least.

 

[Parmandur]

Huh. I mean, I believe you, but I swear we hear about layoffs at WotC ALL THE TIME. Feels like it, at least.

In the Aughts, it was pretty constant. After 5E launched...nope. And last years layoffs were about an across the board shakeup and mandatez not even D&D or Magic issues. This latest batch is way more targeted at Marketing, it seems Hasbro is changing how they do that across the board.

 

[TiQuinn]

Huh. I mean, I believe you, but I swear we hear about layoffs at WotC ALL THE TIME. Feels like it, at least.

Not WotC specifically, but Hasbro has definitely had more layoffs than just the last two years. How many of those have trickled down to WotC in previous years isn’t as well known, but it was higher the last few years. eOne had layoffs in 2021. Hasbro laid off 10% of its workforce in 2018 but again not sure how many of that impacted WotC.

But the point is WotC may not want to lay people off but they take direction from the mothership, and if the mothership says cuts across the board no matter what, then cuts will happen.