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]

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

Okay but how do you know there hasn’t been thought to the future? How do you know that WotC haven’t reached this decision based on measurable results and cost effectiveness?

The reality is you assume it bad intent because it’s cool on the boards to dis corporations.

Sure Payroll is the easiest to cut, but the reason for that is why it can also be one of the easiest to increase with Pay reviews and new hires. Payroll naturally waxes and wanes depending on growth.

 

[Hussar]

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

Actually, it's more along the lines of a strident branch of the fandom constantly spreading .... alternative facts about WotC because, well, corporations are always evil. Everything gets blown up, then repeated ad nauseum until it becomes "facts". The whole "yearly layoffs" thing hasn't been true in over ten years. It was in the heyday of 3e that we saw that. I'm not even sure if we didn't see yearly layoffs from before WotC was bought by Hasbro.

But in the last ten years? It's been a pretty solid job. Yup, big layoffs last year after Hasbro cut a ton of jobs. This year? Four people? That's not really all that unusual.

 

[Retros_x]

The shareholders for Hasbro tend more towards pension funds and other conservative investors.

So you agree with me that private investors are not in shareholder meetings and deciding over the fate of Hasbro. Because that is what I was saying.

The reality is you assume it bad intent because it’s cool on the boards to dis corporations.

You make it sound like people have no reason to dis corporations besides being cool. I would argue that every big corporation has always bad intent because they create surplus value by labor exploitation and they deserve every dis and much more - but its getting political and that is not cool on the boards as I learned so I will just say that whatever the reasons are - there is always a risk of the product getting worse because of good people getting axed. Yes it might be only jobs that were not directly contributing to the product but we don't know that as far as I am understanding. And in general it makes me sad to see workers getting fired that had passion for a product that brought me years of joy.

 

[Parmandur]

So you agree with me that private investors are not in shareholder meetings and deciding over the fate of Hasbro. Because that is what I was saying.

I wasn't responding to that point,.ore the narrow question of who is actually being catered to by the Hasbro C-suite.

 

[TiQuinn]

Actually, it's more along the lines of a strident branch of the fandom constantly spreading .... alternative facts about WotC because, well, corporations are always evil. Everything gets blown up, then repeated ad nauseum until it becomes "facts". The whole "yearly layoffs" thing hasn't been true in over ten years. It was in the heyday of 3e that we saw that. I'm not even sure if we didn't see yearly layoffs from before WotC was bought by Hasbro.

But in the last ten years? It's been a pretty solid job. Yup, big layoffs last year after Hasbro cut a ton of jobs. This year? Four people? That's not really all that unusual.

People think of two years of layoffs because in 2023 there were two rounds of layoffs - one in January, and then another in December, so you can slice that anyway you want. Only one year of layoffs? Two layoffs nearly a year apart feels like two years of layoffs?

 

[Hussar]

People think of two years of layoffs because in 2023 there were two rounds of layoffs - one in January, and then another in December, so you can slice that anyway you want. Only one year of layoffs? Two layoffs nearly a year apart feels like two years of layoffs?

I have no issue with saying two years of layoffs. That's fine. Maybe a little imprecise, but, who cares?

It's the strident, "WotC lays people off every year!?!?!?! They hate game designers!?!??!!!" level of strident that I take issue with. I mean, again, good grief, laying off four people? This is news? I'm not meaning to be a dick here, but, ummm, four layoffs is hardly a major shakeup. The first round when Hasbro axed like 20% of their workforce? Ok, that's fair game. But, again, it's explained by the fact that all the toy companies are downsizing after the pandemic boom.

But, I'm sure we're going to be hearing on and on and on about how WotC is the worst company ever because they lay off workers.

 

[TiQuinn]

I have no issue with saying two years of layoffs. That's fine. Maybe a little imprecise, but, who cares?

It's the strident, "WotC lays people off every year!?!?!?! They hate game designers!?!??!!!" level of strident that I take issue with. I mean, again, good grief, laying off four people? This is news? I'm not meaning to be a dick here, but, ummm, four layoffs is hardly a major shakeup. The first round when Hasbro axed like 20% of their workforce? Ok, that's fair game. But, again, it's explained by the fact that all the toy companies are downsizing after the pandemic boom.

But, I'm sure we're going to be hearing on and on and on about how WotC is the worst company ever because they lay off workers.

I’d just go back to asking about WotC or Hasbro. When Hasbro does poorly, it gets conflated with WotC doing poorly. When WotC does have a bad year, it reinforces that association. Let’s put it this way, it certainly doesn’t help perceptions that WotC is owned by Hasbro.

 

[TheSword]

I’d just go back to asking about WotC or Hasbro. When Hasbro does poorly, it gets conflated with WotC doing poorly. When WotC does have a bad year, it reinforces that association. Let’s put it this way, it certainly doesn’t help perceptions that WotC is owned by Hasbro.

You’re assuming that small numbers of redundancies are an automatically a sign that a company is doing badly or failing. Rather than them simply being a correction to the business structure.

 

[TiQuinn]

You’re assuming that small numbers of redundancies are an automatically a sign that a company is doing badly or failing. Rather than them simply being a correction to the business structure.

I consider laying off 2000 employees from a head count of about 7500 in the space of a year a sign the company is doing badly, yes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Actually, it's more along the lines of a strident branch of the fandom constantly spreading .... alternative facts about WotC because, well, corporations are always evil.

I think that idea gets a bit overblown. You're absolutely right that there are a few over-the-top WotC haters here, but much of the discussion that looks that way does so for two reasons: 1) We talk about WotC here because this is 90% a D&D Forum. 2) People are legit concerned about how much Hasbro will negatively effect WotC in its quest for its own next profit.

And, while IDK about "evil", Hasbro's corporate acts can be dubious. Not really, truly bad by corporate standards, but corporate standards can get pretty darn bad in our modern world. They may not be the worst, but they are worse than they oughta be.

Everything gets blown up, then repeated ad nauseum until it becomes "facts".

Yeah, it gets blown up, but also - people tend to take an "I don't like this" opinion post and blow it up in their own heads. It's part of how the internet works, and why it feels as negative as it does, compared to F2F conversations, where there's much more nuance.

The whole "yearly layoffs" thing hasn't been true in over ten years. It was in the heyday of 3e that we saw that. I'm not even sure if we didn't see yearly layoffs from before WotC was bought by Hasbro.

I think when people are talking about "yearly layoffs" they're referring to THIS year and LAST. Maybe it hasn't been every year for 10 years (that's probably exaggerating what anyone is complaining about) but we've heard about it now two years in a row, and it's legitimate to worry that it will become a trend. Also - I'm still pretty sure that there's been more times in the last 10 years that we've heard about people being let go than just the twice. I could be wrong, and I absolutely accept that it hasn't been "yearly" - but that's not entirely the point, either. It's been "regular" and more regular than I would like. And for worse reasons.

But in the last ten years? It's been a pretty solid job. Yup, big layoffs last year after Hasbro cut a ton of jobs. This year? Four people? That's not really all that unusual.

Not great for those four people, though is it? What do you recommend? Should everyone just shrug and wave? Are we not supposed to empathise with anyone? Are we not supposed to be concerned? Now, I don't think that you're suggesting any of that.