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]

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.

Okay. But this is about 4 layoffs? You’re still referring to 12 months ago?

What has the restructure in 2023 got to do with these specific choices?

The reality is you don’t know, but it’s convenient to combine the two to try and make what is a perfectly normal adjustment look like Rome is Burning.

 

[TwoSix]

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.

You can't really disentangle Hasbro and WotC at this point. WotC is the main profit center (not revenue generator, though), and the former head of WotC got promoted to CEO.

This isn't anything like an Activision-Blizzard situation, where the corporate shortsightedness of the former absolutely caused creative rot in the latter.

 

[TiQuinn]

Okay. But this is about 4 layoffs? You’re still referring to 12 months ago?

What has the restructure in 2023 got to do with these specific choices?

The reality is you don’t know, but it’s convenient to combine the two to try and make what is a perfectly normal adjustment look like Rome is Burning.

Who said this was just about the last few layoffs? Frankly, you inserted yourself into a side conversation that wasn’t about the recent layoffs, but about the perception that the layoffs are frequent.

Look, you don’t need me to justify your position and I’m not interested in a Wall Street Journal lecture.

 

[Hussar]

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.

Of course we should empathize with those people. Totally fair. But, let's be honest here, the last eight pages and 150 posts have not had much to do with empathy.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Of course we should empathize with those people. Totally fair. But, let's be honest here, the last eight pages and 150 posts have not had much to do with empathy.

I'm not entirely sure of that - I guess it depends on what you focus on. I agree with you that you could find (without much effort) enough posts that don't have anything to do with empathy to fit your point, but I wouldn't discount the fact that there are many posters who are concerned about the future of WotC (and the future of the world, frankly) because we're concerned about the real actual people involved, and the fallout that effects other real actual people. Things are likely to get a whole lot worse from here.

But I'm starting to step into areas that are probably better left unsaid. I'll grant you that there's a lot of WotC-related negativity on these boards, and that only - some - of it is justified.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

You can't really disentangle Hasbro and WotC at this point. WotC is the main profit center (not revenue generator, though), and the former head of WotC got promoted to CEO.

This isn't anything like an Activision-Blizzard situation, where the corporate shortsightedness of the former absolutely caused creative rot in the latter.

You might be right, but I still tend to see Hasbro as a giant bloated mutant stirge sucking on WotC's crazed owlbear. They're both dangerous monsters, but the Owlbear is at least a bit cute while the stirge is just repulsive and should be burned with fire!