WotC Hasbro Reports First Quarter Earnings

Deset Gled · Apr 30, 2020

darjr said:
How long ago was that?

Somewhere around 2016 or 2017. Definitely a couple years after the 5e release.

Urriak Uruk · Apr 30, 2020

Considering how only one new D&D book has been released in Q1, it's not that surprising it's only been mentioned once.

Magic have this surge of growth is interesting. Likely means more D&D/Magic crossovers in the future.

LuisCarlos17f · Apr 30, 2020

Hasbro knows D&D may be its cash-cow, but this needs time and a lot of work.

My suggestion is a dungeon-crawling boardgame with simple rules to be easily undestood for a new generation of preteen players, but with a right leveling up, without automatic milestones. And adding a free app to be the IA-DM for solo games, but without control of the characters stats, to allow total freedom for house rules.

Ruin Explorer · Apr 30, 2020

Deset Gled said:
Do you know anyone who is even passively "into" board gaming who never owned at least one of those?

I know a lot of people who are into boardgames who have never paid money for any of those - i.e. their parents may have owned them, but not them. They played them growing up or at other people's houses though. And you can bet they probably have paid for Scrabble at least once, which is Hasbro in the US/Canada (not elsewhere).

The themed Monopolies seem to sell primarily to three groups of people:

1) Obsessive collectors (who don't necessarily even like boardgames, but "must have" the Monopoly for their specific interest).

2) The much, much bigger market of "people who know you like thing X, and want to buy you a safe and memorable present". Anyone from grandparents to those acquaintance-y sort of friends certain people seem to have dozens of. This is how most of the "themed" Monopolies I'm aware of in the houses of friends got there.

3) "people who just wanted to buy Monopoly but all this stuff is around the same price and like like thing X so what the hell!".

One friend has like four different themed Monopolies he didn't buy any of, and I know all of them came from various acquaintance-y friends, who know he likes boardgames, and likes, say, Batman, so here's the perfect marriage of the two, right?

darjr · Apr 30, 2020

Most of the time I’ve played monopoly is with people who “don’t play those game”

I’d tell them monopoly is why.

it’s a favorite of Hollies but going forward I'll probably only ever play because she wants to

Umbran · Apr 30, 2020

Urriak Uruk said:
Considering how only one new D&D book has been released in Q1, it's not that surprising it's only been mentioned once.

The PHB was ranked #9 in books overall on Amazon yesterday. Not in gaming. Not in sci-fi. But in overall books. A product that can do that several years after its first release doesn't need new books to rate a mention.

Urriak Uruk · Apr 30, 2020

Umbran said:
The PHB was ranked #9 in books overall on Amazon yesterday. Not in gaming. Not in sci-fi. But in overall books. A product that can do that several years after its first release doesn't need new books to rate a mention.

I mean, fair. But in earnings companies typically like reporting on growth, new offerings that are successful, etc. Saying "Are first D&D big is still selling well!" is very good, but at the same time sends odd mixed-messages to the investors who are not as in-the-weeds as to D&D's production schedule. The might be confused as to why the first book made is selling so well and the last one not as well, for example.

I'm not really arguing with your point, just trying to provide some context as to why Hasbro chose not to mention D&D more than once.