WotC WotC Generates 75% Of Hasbro's Profit

ICv2 is reporting that WotC generated $110M of Hasbro's $147.3M operating profits in the first quarter of this year, with an increase of 15% on last year.

Of overall sales, WotC generated (only!) 22% of Hasbro's $1.1B.

The growth is attributed to Magic: the Gathering and D&D. Recently, Hasbro restructured with 'WotC and Digital Gaming' getting it own division.

WotC - D&D Gets A New Division At Hasbro

Hasbro is reorganizing and giving tabletop gaming -- Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: the Gathering -- a higher priority. According to the Wall Street Journal, WotC's revenue last year was $816 million (a 24% increase on 2019). Brian Goldner, Hasbro's Chief Executive, says WotC is predicted to...

www.enworld.org

 

[Dioltach]

Almost 50% profitability, that's quite impressive!

 

[Ulfgeir]

That is an insane amount of money.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Then WotC is now Hasbro "golden girl" or blue-eyed boy, the favorite or darling. I am really surprised. WotC is not only a "cash-cow" but now practically the main income source. More money than with transformers or my little pony toys? But theses are super-famous IPs, even with movies in the big screen.

You know I love speculation about merger and acquisitions. Do you think Hasbro will buy more companies?

This could change all market strategy about the possible future franchises.

 

[Marc_C]

WoTC will buy Hasbro very soon!

 

[humble minion]

They don't give a breakdown between D&D and Magic revenues, so it's hard to tell exactly where the growth is coming from. It's really striking that WotC is 75% of the profits but only 22% of the sales though - D&D/Magic must be seriously high-margin products to get that sort of ratio. Vindication for people who rant about how money-grubbing and overpriced they are?

What this does mean though, is that WotC is now a Big Deal in the context of Hasbro's financial viability. It's probably a more prestigious role for a manager etc seeking advancement in the company, and it's probably going to get watched more closely because it's so critical now. When Hasbro initially bought WotC we all comforted ourselves that D&D was too small a part of a huge company to get interfered with by higher management, and panicked that D&D was so insignificant to the huge company that it might just get absentmindedly wound up in some larger corporate restructure and D&D would never be heard of again. Neither of those two possibilities is true any more. D&D is here to stay, but Hasbro is reliant on WotC now, so will be watching like a hawk.

 

[Professor Murder]

The year in question is 2020. All bets are off.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess Hasbro's plans for WotC is the management of the no-for-children brands/IPs/franchises, and the digital market, where the money is moving. Hasbro wants to be the next Disney and they can if they play well their cards, at least in the section of TTRPGs. I wouldn't be very surprised if Hasbro buys RPG publishers, even little companies, only for an IP with a potential value as multimedia franchise.

There were rumors about Disney would want to buy Hasbro, but this would rather to be independient. My intuition tells me Disney in January 2022 will be different from the December 2020. A lot of things are going to happen.

I have told Hasbro would like a new-brand no-D&D RPG, better based in some famous franchise as Star Wars (now this is being published by Asmodee/Fantasy Flight Games/Edgeent). After this the next option would be Star Trek (now being published by Mophidius) or some famous videogame (Starcraft, Overwatch, Fortnite: Save the World). But a sci-fi d20 game needs a lot of previous testing, and here the experience will arrived with the future project of the videogame studio "Archetype Entertaiment". The next step would be a videogame based in Gamma World, something like Borderlands.

 

[imagineGod]

With so much revenue, will Wizards of the Coast ever be able to purchase freedom from the Hasbro corporate enslavement? Like is there an escape clause in the contract that sold WoTC to Hasbro?

 

[Cossaw]

Regarding other brands, toys especially, it seems the higher price of oil impacts the margins of Hasbro's line like My Little Poney or Transformers. This is the reason why Hasbro published their plan to increase prices, and thus margins on toy lines.