Hasbro was hit hard in Q4 and even WotC seems to be in trouble now. On slide 18 of their Powerpoint presentation for the Earnings Conference Call, Hasbro states, "Growth in MAGIC: THE GATHERING tabletop revenues offset by declines in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ahead of 5 th edition release." I guess they either mean "ahead of 6th edition release" or "ahead of 5th edition re-release", although I wouldn't be surprised if the people at Hasbro's Finance department don't know that 5e was released ten years ago. A sale of D&D to Tencent doesn't sound so far-fetched to me anymore after all. Further job cuts are also a possibility.
A fuller article on this topic can be found here: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/hasbro-has-earnings-q4-2023.html
The Powerpoint can be found here: https://investor.hasbro.com/static-files/f5f1a394-b6ab-48a7-becc-8c9dd4a730d9

All I have to say is this:



I love to see them having problems.  They aren't getting another dime from me and when I sell off my 5e books I know that I am getting the money and WOTC isn't.

Quote from: GhostNinja on February 13, 2024, 09:22:38 AM
All I have to say is this:



I love to see them having problems.  They aren't getting another dime from me and when I sell off my 5e books I know that I am getting the money and WOTC isn't.

My sentiments exactly.

Fuck 'em in the eye!

Agreed. Fuck em!

They strangled the golden goose and wonder why no more eggs.

The miasma of ill will has permeated so deep that even the casuals in my circles are moving on to other games.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on February 13, 2024, 09:54:19 AM
My sentiments exactly.

Fuck 'em in the eye!

There is a ton of good OSR material out there and people have enough to play a good game of D&D.

I have trimmed my 5e books down to only what I use to run my current game.  And I am working to find a system that I can convince them to switch over so I can dump 5e totally and get it out of my collection for good.

Quote from: rytrasmi on February 13, 2024, 10:42:34 AM
Agreed. Fuck em!

They strangled the golden goose and wonder why no more eggs.

The miasma of ill will has permeated so deep that even the casuals in my circles are moving on to other games.

Do you think the corpos at Hasbro will punish the idiots they hired at Wizards for this downfall?  Probably not.  Probably lay off more low level people as blame them.   That's the way with idiot companies.

The get woke, go broke maxim holds true for yet another company. Producing quality content for your loyal fanbase doesn't seem to be a difficult concept yet so many companies are pissing all over their fanbase for the sake of DEI virtue signaling. All lemmings want to go over the same cliff.

See what you do is make a beer commercial with a tranny in it, even though 99% of your customer base is a bunch of rednecks and Catholics, then wonder why your company tanks. This just reminds me of the JRRT "superfans" who made videos on Youtube to push the Amazon Rings of Power and it was obvious they had no clue wtf they were even talking about. The only requirement for being a "superfan" was apparently having blue hair and writing a blog post about how LotR is misogynistic because you discovered it has like two female characters after you hatewatched half of the Peter Jackson movies.

What's really odd to me is how WotC has pandered to people who don't actually buy anything. The customer base for D&D has and always will be nerds, and now a lot of those nerds who grew up playing D&D have a lot of disposable income to spend on gaming. Keyboard warriors sitting in their mom's basement extolling the virtues of diversity in RPG art don't BUY those books, so why the fuck would you ever listen to them? When your real customer base is basically begging you to maintain the status quo and publish books about killing vampires instead of having heartfelt talks with them about bigotry, but you tell them to fuck off, how can you possibly be surprised you're gonna make no money?

Quote from: Brad on February 13, 2024, 12:07:20 PM
See what you do is make a beer commercial with a tranny in it, even though 99% of your customer base is a bunch of rednecks and Catholics, then wonder why your company tanks. This just reminds me of the JRRT "superfans" who made videos on Youtube to push the Amazon Rings of Power and it was obvious they had no clue wtf they were even talking about. The only requirement for being a "superfan" was apparently having blue hair and writing a blog post about how LotR is misogynistic because you discovered it has like two female characters after you hatewatched half of the Peter Jackson movies.

What's really odd to me is how WotC has pandered to people who don't actually buy anything. The customer base for D&D has and always will be nerds, and now a lot of those nerds who grew up playing D&D have a lot of disposable income to spend on gaming. Keyboard warriors sitting in their mom's basement extolling the virtues of diversity in RPG art don't BUY those books, so why the fuck would you ever listen to them? When your real customer base is basically begging you to maintain the status quo and publish books about killing vampires instead of having heartfelt talks with them about bigotry, but you tell them to fuck off, how can you possibly be surprised you're gonna make no money?

The executives live in a DEI bubble. They go to DEI conferences to learn how their peers are enbiggening DEI culture at other companies, showcasing carefully curated case studies. The only winners are the companies who host the DEI conferences and unqualified people who get DEI jobs. It will come crashing down at which point the DEI people will blame "the bigots" while continuing to bleat about how they are on the "right side of history."

Quote from: Brad on February 13, 2024, 12:07:20 PM


What's really odd to me is how WotC has pandered to people who don't actually buy anything. The customer base for D&D has and always will be nerds, and now a lot of those nerds who grew up playing D&D have a lot of disposable income to spend on gaming. Keyboard warriors sitting in their mom's basement extolling the virtues of diversity in RPG art don't BUY those books, so why the fuck would you ever listen to them? When your real customer base is basically begging you to maintain the status quo and publish books about killing vampires instead of having heartfelt talks with them about bigotry, but you tell them to fuck off, how can you possibly be surprised you're gonna make no money?

Most of these companies have Vanguard and Blackrock as very large shareholders. Shareholders who don't care about the stock price as long as their agenda gets pushed. Lower stock prices and other shareholders selling just means that they can buy up more at lower prices. They don't care about the companies or the customers, they only care about implementing communism. This is why only private companies can really give their customers what they want because any publicly traded company will have these Sith shareholders buy up the stock and dictate what they have to do.

Quote from: Brad on February 13, 2024, 12:07:20 PM
See what you do is make a beer commercial with a tranny in it, even though 99% of your customer base is a bunch of rednecks and Catholics, then wonder why your company tanks. This just reminds me of the JRRT "superfans" who made videos on Youtube to push the Amazon Rings of Power and it was obvious they had no clue wtf they were even talking about. The only requirement for being a "superfan" was apparently having blue hair and writing a blog post about how LotR is misogynistic because you discovered it has like two female characters after you hatewatched half of the Peter Jackson movies.

What's really odd to me is how WotC has pandered to people who don't actually buy anything. The customer base for D&D has and always will be nerds, and now a lot of those nerds who grew up playing D&D have a lot of disposable income to spend on gaming. Keyboard warriors sitting in their mom's basement extolling the virtues of diversity in RPG art don't BUY those books, so why the fuck would you ever listen to them? When your real customer base is basically begging you to maintain the status quo and publish books about killing vampires instead of having heartfelt talks with them about bigotry, but you tell them to fuck off, how can you possibly be surprised you're gonna make no money?

Because the people at WOTC and Hasbro, who have made these changes; are true believers in their cause.  These Changes, were more important to them, than financial success.

Quote from: Rhymer88 on February 13, 2024, 09:04:40 AM
Hasbro was hit hard in Q4 and even WotC seems to be in trouble now. On slide 18 of their Powerpoint presentation for the Earnings Conference Call, Hasbro states, "Growth in MAGIC: THE GATHERING tabletop revenues offset by declines in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ahead of 5 th edition release." I guess they either mean "ahead of 6th edition release" or "ahead of 5th edition re-release", although I wouldn't be surprised if the people at Hasbro's Finance department don't know that 5e was released ten years ago. A sale of D&D to Tencent doesn't sound so far-fetched to me anymore after all. Further job cuts are also a possibility.
A fuller article on this topic can be found here: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/hasbro-has-earnings-q4-2023.html
The Powerpoint can be found here: https://investor.hasbro.com/static-files/f5f1a394-b6ab-48a7-becc-8c9dd4a730d9

Before you all think this means gloom and doom for D&D, check this out from page 12 of the Powerpoint:

"Fourth quarter and full year growth in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (+54% and +76%, respectively)."

Yes that growth was offset by declines in other brands, but companies don't sell brands with growth like that.


Lou Prosperi

I'm pretty sure that is BG3 You are seeing right there.

I don't think they will ever sale. Not unless their company is about to go under or something.

I think they will mothball it for a decade or so first.

Quote from: LouProsperi on February 13, 2024, 03:28:18 PM

Before you all think this means gloom and doom for D&D, check this out from page 12 of the Powerpoint:

"Fourth quarter and full year growth in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (+54% and +76%, respectively)."

Yes that growth was offset by declines in other brands, but companies don't sell brands with growth like that.
...

Lou gets it.

Wotc with D&D, and especially MTG, is the golden goose keeping the entire Hasbro ship afloat.

Wotc IP will be the last thing Hasbro will unload, even if they do go into full blown bankruptcy.

Anyone else getting their hands on the D&D IP in this lifetime is a pipe dream.

...and now they are blaming Disney.  I couldn't make this shit up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMLP2MHdzJk