Hasbro is mainly owned by several large investment firms.
Their board wants money now and Hasbro as a whole is incapable of long term thinking. Wizards of the Coast is struggling to make decisions that a long term money maker.
Hasbro would burn Magic and DnD down today for $1 billion rather than make $10 billion over the next decade.
It’s why they can never make the virtual tabletop work.. they just.. can’t think that long term.
I don't think long-term thinking digs them out of the hole they're in with D&D. It's a huge well-recognized brand, but pen and paper RPGs are a teeny tiny niche. A wildly successful iteration of D&D would still pull in "I forgot how to count that low" money at a Hasbro board meeting. They're stuck between "do as little as possible without killing the brand so we can license movies" and "try to find a new way to squeeze money out of our customers."
I honestly flit back and forth on this take as DnD does have something important that Hasbro kinda doesn't have and that's more adult consumers (with money) that also love buying merch as long as the IP itself is successful and with DnD being handed a boon via stranger things and web streaming of DnD playgroups there's been a revival of tabletop RPGs within the last decade. Overall annual earnings for Habsro last year were around 4.6 billion with WoTc making roughly a billion (split between MtG and DnD), toy sales are anticipated to continue being stagnant or overall declining with the recession (around an estimated 10-12% percent this year compared to last year), you have an IP that can generate a wild amount of profit if handled well. Sadly I don't think it'll be handled well and DnD will likely decline back to the post 2010 profits.
Hasbro is mainly owned by several large investment firms.
Their board wants money now and Hasbro as a whole is incapable of long term thinking. Wizards of the Coast is struggling to make decisions that a long term money maker.
Hasbro would burn Magic and DnD down today for $1 billion rather than make $10 billion over the next decade.
It’s why they can never make the virtual tabletop work.. they just.. can’t think that long term.
I don't think long-term thinking digs them out of the hole they're in with D&D. It's a huge well-recognized brand, but pen and paper RPGs are a teeny tiny niche. A wildly successful iteration of D&D would still pull in "I forgot how to count that low" money at a Hasbro board meeting. They're stuck between "do as little as possible without killing the brand so we can license movies" and "try to find a new way to squeeze money out of our customers."
I honestly flit back and forth on this take as DnD does have something important that Hasbro kinda doesn't have and that's more adult consumers (with money) that also love buying merch as long as the IP itself is successful and with DnD being handed a boon via stranger things and web streaming of DnD playgroups there's been a revival of tabletop RPGs within the last decade. Overall annual earnings for Habsro last year were around 4.6 billion with WoTc making roughly a billion (split between MtG and DnD), toy sales are anticipated to continue being stagnant or overall declining with the recession (around an estimated 10-12% percent this year compared to last year), you have an IP that can generate a wild amount of profit if handled well. Sadly I don't think it'll be handled well and DnD will likely decline back to the post 2010 profits.