WotC Some Takeaways From Hasbro's Latest Reports

Solid quarter for Hasbro, but D&D slightly down.

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Hasbro's latest quarterly conference call included a number of interesting details regarding Wizards of the Coast and Dungeon & Dragons.

CEO Chris Cocks reported a successful quarter, with the 2024 Player's Handbook selling 50% more copies than anticipated.

He also talked about D&D Beyond, the official D&D online platform. With 19 million registered users, he reported that a massive 60% of D&D's revenue was direct to consumer sales--as recently as 2022 when Hasbro purchased D&D Beyond from Fandom, that figure was 0%.

However, WotC's revenue was down 5% from the same period last year--and this despite Magic: the Gathering reporting a 3% increase. Tabletop sales overall were up 2%, but digital sales have dropped by a whopping 19%. Cocks attributed WotC's drop to the high peak caused by Baldur's Gate 3 last year.
  • WotC down 5%
  • Magic: the Gathering up 3%
  • Tabletop up 2%
  • Digital sales down 19%
  • Total Hasbro gaming down 6%
  • Toys down 10%
  • Entertainment down 17% (not counting the eOne sale)
Hasbro's profit for this quarter was $223.2 million; the same period last year saw a $171.1 million loss.
 

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Selas

Explorer
they are not hiding losses, they are combining different things together and report the aggregate accurately. All they do is spin the story the gray area of the aggregate lets them get away with when the individual pieces would not
Bro, you're reading too much into this. We know BG3 was a big driver in Q3 2023 for sales going up, and of course the absence of a product like BG3 in 2024 means a decrease is inevitable. However, you can't claim sales are down when the fact is that TTRPG sales are up 2% in Q3, per their own report; and what just came out in Q3 2024? The new PHB.

Edit: Their report also mentions the PHB sold 50% more than anticipated, so actual sales beat their estimates significantly.

Obviously MTG has grown more because of all the successful crossovers they've had in 2023 to now. Oh, did I mentioned the next MTG crossover is with Final Fantasy of all things? That's just gonna sell like hot cakes with butter
 
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TiQuinn

Registered User
I do not believe that Hasbro obfuscates the numbers as a service to investors, they do it so they have better control of the narrative
Sure, but investors also know what they are looking for and the company is federally required to supply that information. Everything else is narrative and not designed to answer questions for those specifically interested in D&D.
 

TiQuinn

Registered User
The other issue is what appears to be good results to the community may have no bearing on what the executives expect the performance to be. So at the end of the day, you can make up whatever narrative you want, positive, negative, or neutral.
 


mamba

Legend
Bro, you're reading too much into this. We know BG3 was a big driver in Q3 2023 for sales going up, and of course the absence of a product like BG3 in 2024 means a decrease is inevitable. However, you can't claim sales are down when the fact is that TTRPG sales are up 2% in Q3,
are they? Given that they lump stuff together, I am far from sure that they were for D&D, I believe that was MtG with D&D being slightly down for an overall slight bump

per their own report; and what just came out in Q3 2024? The new PHB.
I was talking about 2023
 

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️
When they reported things last year they were very clear about the positive impact of BG3. They aren't hiding anything.
Oh, I think they might be hiding something. By grouping BG in digital rather than licensing, they’re putting a high magnitude event in a palace where it can overshadow any other data like the performance of any other digital property like D&D Beyond and their monetization efforts there. And it can do so for 2 years - release year for the big bump and second year for the big decline. That gives them time to obscure other digital efforts during the edition transition.
 

mamba

Legend
Sure, but investors also know what they are looking for and the company is federally required to supply that information. Everything else is narrative and not designed to answer questions for those specifically interested in D&D.
They are required to provide accurate numbers, their categories are all theirs and far from very meaningful / useful for an actual analysis, imo quite intentionally so
 

mamba

Legend
putting a high magnitude event in a palace where it can overshadow any other data like the performance of any other digital property like D&D Beyond and their monetization efforts there. And it can do so for 2 years - release year for the big bump and second year for the big decline.
or gloss over things again thanks to the release of 2024 which was always certain to result in a record year for D&D.

I am not saying the sky is falling for D&D, but they definitely can and imo do use their reporting to gloss over relevant details they prefer to not show and paint a rosier picture than the cold hard numbers would show
 

TiQuinn

Registered User
They are required to provide accurate numbers, their categories are all theirs and far from very meaningful / useful for an actual analysis, imo quite intentionally so
For your analysis, yes.

For investors’ analysis, no.

They have to disclose their financials. They have to provide forward looking statements. If they don’t say certain things, they know investors will take that as a negative sign. There is little alignment between the messages they are sending out to the investment community and the D&D community.
 


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