WotC Some Takeaways From Hasbro's Latest Reports

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.

 

[mamba]

Talk where? Here? Or in a business publication?

both, pretty sure I saw it mentioned on this forum

 

[mamba]

Talk about obfuscation; you're mixing up numbers from two different quarters (2023Q4 and 2024Q1), thus confusing things.

I mentioned which number is from what quarter, should not be confusing

This article is referencing 2023Q4.

it is from Jan 2024, it is not about the 3q23 reporting exclusively, despite referring to it

In 2024Q1, revenues for Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming were up 7%. In fact, they happened to be up 7% YoY in both 2023Q4 and 2024Q1, thus making your reference to the 7% increase correct even though you mixed up the quarters

I mixed nothing up, I am aware that it is true for both (YoY)

And in this quarter, Hasbro explicitly calls out (on slide 18 of their 2023Q4 presentation) "declines in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ahead of 5th edition release". The magnitude is unknown

that is my point, they obfuscate the decline, I grant you that they mentioned the mathematically obvious, was just going over it for a minute or so for the reply and missed that. [EDIT: actually I used a the Q3 presentation, not Q4, and that does not mention a decline]

Thanks for that one, we now have a definite answer to @Oofta ‘s question at least

 

[TiQuinn]

both, pretty sure I saw it mentioned on this forum

Source? Article?

 

[bedir than]

So what are the D&D brand numbers then? They are not separating out D&D as a brand or a game…

They've split them out at other times, notable when its performance was quite good or quite poor, not middling.

All that was mentioned in this presentation is that the 2024 PHB is exceeding expectations and is already the best selling book of all time when compared to other releases' first year (and in Tasha's case first two years).

Seeing more or less than that isn't possible when viewing the slides or reading remarks. D&D wasn't brought up in the Q&A because Hoffer or Morrus would have included that.

 

[mamba]

Source? Article?

D&D 5E (2024) - RPG Evolution: The Fox in the Henhouse

Before WOTC began rolling out its monetization plans for D&D, Hasbro was under fire for not doing enough. Alta Fox Capital's blueprint has turned out to be prescient. Who's Alta Fox? Alta Fox Capital is an activist investor firm which owns 2.5% of Hasbro stock. Activist investors are typically...

www.enworld.org

 

[TiQuinn]

D&D 5E (2024) - RPG Evolution: The Fox in the Henhouse

Before WOTC began rolling out its monetization plans for D&D, Hasbro was under fire for not doing enough. Alta Fox Capital's blueprint has turned out to be prescient. Who's Alta Fox? Alta Fox Capital is an activist investor firm which owns 2.5% of Hasbro stock. Activist investors are typically...

www.enworld.org

Alta Fox doesn’t appear to be a significant holder of shares any longer.

https://investor.hasbro.com/stock-information/ownership-profile#:~:text=Top%20Holders&text=The%20Vanguard%20Group%2C%20Inc.&text=BlackRock%20Institutional%20Trust%20Company%2C%20N.A.&text=BlackRock%20Financial%20Management%2C%20Inc.&text=Geode%20Capital%20Management%2C%20L.L.C.

Probably because they lost their bid to get someone on the board to drive their plan.

 

[mamba]

They've split them out at other times, notable when its performance was quite good or quite poor, not middling.

I don’t think I ever saw actual numbers for D&D, only growth percentages. The $ numbers seem to be for vaguely defined categories (digital gaming, tabletop, …)

Maybe on a rare exception basis, like once or twice in 5 years they did, certainly not with any regularity

 

[mamba]

Alta Fox doesn’t appear to be a significant holder of shares any longer.

that wasn’t the point

Probably because they lost their bid to get someone on the board to drive their plan.

probably

 

[TiQuinn]

that wasn’t the point

Yeah, but if your point is that there’s a whole bunch of investors claiming that Hasbro is obfuscating their business or not happy with their returns, realize that companies like Alta Fox exist to find opportunities to break up and sell off portions of companies. They’re not indicative of a broader outcry.

Mind you, I think it would be wonderful if WotC was not longer owned by Hasbro. I wish this were the case, speaking as a fan of D&D.

 

[mamba]

Yeah, but if your point is that there’s a whole bunch of investors claiming that Hasbro is obfuscating their business or not happy with their returns, realize that companies like Alta Fox exist to find opportunities to break up and sell off portions of companies. They’re not indicative of a broader outcry.

I was not talking about obfuscation at all in that context but of wanting to spin off WotC

Mind you, I think it would be wonderful if WotC was not longer owned by Hasbro. I wish this were the case, speaking as a fan of D&D.

not sure that WotC on its own would have much more say, Mr Cox was in charge of WotC first and most of the bad decisions seem to have originated from him there