I know the Hasbro Layoffs affect a lot more IPs than just DND / WOTC, but the timing of the layoff news and the announcement about the OGL today only being hours apart is interesting...
Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue...
I see this as Hasbro / WoTC giving the players 5e and maybe starting fresh moving forward with a 6e that may not be as 5e friendly as 1DnD was originally stated it would be.
As I understand it, the Hasbro Layoffs have little to do with WotC. That's the part of the company still making money.
Seattle Times had a story about it yesterday, (Hasbro, owner of Wizards of the Coast, to lay off 15% of workforce | The Seattle Times) where Hasbro declined to comment on whether or not any of the layoffs would be at Wizards. But if they do let go a significant number of people in the state, it will become public record. I don't know the exact level that trips the filing, but at some point companies need to file with the state.
I know the Hasbro Layoffs affect a lot more IPs than just DND / WOTC, but the timing of the layoff news and the announcement about the OGL today only being hours apart is interesting...
Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue...
I see this as Hasbro / WoTC giving the players 5e and maybe starting fresh moving forward with a 6e that may not be as 5e friendly as 1DnD was originally stated it would be.
I am sure there are many throughlines in the two issues. The truth is, we will never know exactly how much of a financial impact what is going on now had. We know 15,000 people responded to the survey. While that is clearly not a majority of the playerbase, and probably not 10% of it, it is a significant sample size. The numbers were terrible.
Hasbro needs to bank on WOTC developing the future of the company. New toys are not going to be relevant much longer. Collector items and nostalgia pieces for people older than 30, sure. The Digital realm is the future, not just of DnD, but of, childhood leisure time.If Hasbro is to survive, they will have to adapt to the new environment. The only public thing they have on thqat front is Sand Castle.
They do have a boatload of IP. Keep in mind, The difference between a My Little Pony, Optimus Prime and Bruenor is cosmetic. What a world of possibilities one may find when Sand Castle can be reskinned to meet the needs of their other IP.
I also agree with your thinking that there is the possibility of a new game license with OneDnD. On the other hand, what if they pivoted instead to providing digital playgrounds for imaginative play, not just for their IP, but also for anyone's that wants to pay the Hasbro price? Hasbro has made toys for people for a long time, maybe they just need to reimagine the space in which toys are played. If kids no longer play with these things in realspace, then go to cyberspace and provide the toys and the toybox and the sandbox/playpen/toymat.
I'm fairly certain that moves like this take more than 20 minutes planning. An employee who is generating revenue isn't likely to be let go, so you need a firm understanding about where money can be obtained from consumers (which product lines, and how many customers). All of that takes time and thought5. If they planned to stick it out and ignore the community, they might have needed layoffs because that would hurt long term revenue a lot. But they will bounce back fast now that they backtracked. So layoffs in the part of the company that's about to see solid sales seem like a mistake.
The only thing this changed was their ability to try to act like a monopoly. They can still produce the same VTT/Video game they planned on. Nothing about this changed. But they can't drive their competition out of business. So they will need to use their deep pockets to make a product that their consumers want. That was always a good way to make profits. If they can't do that, they will need to lay off a LOT more.
"Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue... "
D&D is only a tiny part of Hasbro and a small part of WotC earnings. The Death of 1.2 also means that is unlikely to change.
Actually; apparently, part of the reason that we suddenly got a bunch of avaricious executives moving into WOTC to "improve monetization" all of a sudden in the past couple years... is because an investor audit/report found that WOTC was an incredibly profitable part of Hasbro's portfolio... like: a quarter of their revenue or something ridiculous like that. (Thanks Cardboard crack aka MTG). And suddenly; the subsidiary company that had been steadily chugging away unnoticed... was noticed, the gaze of the eye of Sauron was attracted and upper Hasbro management went "hey: we might be able to squeeze MORE money out of this!"
"Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue... "
D&D is only a tiny part of Hasbro and a small part of WotC earnings. The Death of 1.2 also means that is unlikely to change.
Actually; apparently, part of the reason that we suddenly got a bunch of avaricious executives moving into WOTC to "improve monetization" all of a sudden in the past couple years... is because an investor audit/report found that WOTC was an incredibly profitable part of Hasbro's portfolio... like: a quarter of their revenue or something ridiculous like that. (Thanks Cardboard crack aka MTG). And suddenly; the subsidiary company that had been steadily chugging away unnoticed... was noticed, the gaze of the eye of Sauron was attracted and upper Hasbro management went "hey: we might be able to squeeze MORE money out of this!"
Well: hope they're happy with the results.
D&d is only 20%or so of WotC revenue most if not all is Magic. So if any thing the losing 1.2 protections just makes the D&D's TTRPG side weaker and give reason to focus on their D&D IPs that are not harmed by 1.0a. As that is where the only real growth in the D&D company can come from now. Think books, movies, video games and so on, and less Modules and Rules work as that is now no longer a strong viable income and will soon be smothered by the 3rd parties,
"Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue... "
D&D is only a tiny part of Hasbro and a small part of WotC earnings. The Death of 1.2 also means that is unlikely to change.
Actually; apparently, part of the reason that we suddenly got a bunch of avaricious executives moving into WOTC to "improve monetization" all of a sudden in the past couple years... is because an investor audit/report found that WOTC was an incredibly profitable part of Hasbro's portfolio... like: a quarter of their revenue or something ridiculous like that. (Thanks Cardboard crack aka MTG). And suddenly; the subsidiary company that had been steadily chugging away unnoticed... was noticed, the gaze of the eye of Sauron was attracted and upper Hasbro management went "hey: we might be able to squeeze MORE money out of this!"
Well: hope they're happy with the results.
D&d is only 20%or so of WotC revenue most if not all is Magic. So if any thing the losing 1.2 protections just makes the D&D's TTRPG side weaker and give reason to focus on their D&D IPs that are not harmed by 1.0a. As that is where the only real growth in the D&D company can come from now. Think books, movies, video games and so on, and less Modules and Rules work as that is now no longer a strong viable income and will soon be smothered by the 3rd parties,
D&D is closer to 10% overall Hasbro-revenue. The main reason for the layoffs is the 20% overall dip in comparison to 2020 and the even worse result in 2021.
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I know the Hasbro Layoffs affect a lot more IPs than just DND / WOTC, but the timing of the layoff news and the announcement about the OGL today only being hours apart is interesting...
Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue...
I see this as Hasbro / WoTC giving the players 5e and maybe starting fresh moving forward with a 6e that may not be as 5e friendly as 1DnD was originally stated it would be.
As I understand it, the Hasbro Layoffs have little to do with WotC. That's the part of the company still making money.
Seattle Times had a story about it yesterday, (Hasbro, owner of Wizards of the Coast, to lay off 15% of workforce | The Seattle Times) where Hasbro declined to comment on whether or not any of the layoffs would be at Wizards. But if they do let go a significant number of people in the state, it will become public record. I don't know the exact level that trips the filing, but at some point companies need to file with the state.
I am sure there are many throughlines in the two issues. The truth is, we will never know exactly how much of a financial impact what is going on now had. We know 15,000 people responded to the survey. While that is clearly not a majority of the playerbase, and probably not 10% of it, it is a significant sample size. The numbers were terrible.
Hasbro needs to bank on WOTC developing the future of the company. New toys are not going to be relevant much longer. Collector items and nostalgia pieces for people older than 30, sure. The Digital realm is the future, not just of DnD, but of, childhood leisure time.If Hasbro is to survive, they will have to adapt to the new environment. The only public thing they have on thqat front is Sand Castle.
They do have a boatload of IP. Keep in mind, The difference between a My Little Pony, Optimus Prime and Bruenor is cosmetic. What a world of possibilities one may find when Sand Castle can be reskinned to meet the needs of their other IP.
I also agree with your thinking that there is the possibility of a new game license with OneDnD. On the other hand, what if they pivoted instead to providing digital playgrounds for imaginative play, not just for their IP, but also for anyone's that wants to pay the Hasbro price? Hasbro has made toys for people for a long time, maybe they just need to reimagine the space in which toys are played. If kids no longer play with these things in realspace, then go to cyberspace and provide the toys and the toybox and the sandbox/playpen/toymat.
Sorry for the tangent.
As ever: money flows uphill, blame flows down.
I'm fairly certain that moves like this take more than 20 minutes planning. An employee who is generating revenue isn't likely to be let go, so you need a firm understanding about where money can be obtained from consumers (which product lines, and how many customers). All of that takes time and thought5. If they planned to stick it out and ignore the community, they might have needed layoffs because that would hurt long term revenue a lot. But they will bounce back fast now that they backtracked. So layoffs in the part of the company that's about to see solid sales seem like a mistake.
The only thing this changed was their ability to try to act like a monopoly. They can still produce the same VTT/Video game they planned on. Nothing about this changed. But they can't drive their competition out of business. So they will need to use their deep pockets to make a product that their consumers want. That was always a good way to make profits. If they can't do that, they will need to lay off a LOT more.
"Harbro is banking on DnD as a primary source of revenue... "
D&D is only a tiny part of Hasbro and a small part of WotC earnings. The Death of 1.2 also means that is unlikely to change.
Actually; apparently, part of the reason that we suddenly got a bunch of avaricious executives moving into WOTC to "improve monetization" all of a sudden in the past couple years... is because an investor audit/report found that WOTC was an incredibly profitable part of Hasbro's portfolio... like: a quarter of their revenue or something ridiculous like that. (Thanks Cardboard crack aka MTG). And suddenly; the subsidiary company that had been steadily chugging away unnoticed... was noticed, the gaze of the eye of Sauron was attracted and upper Hasbro management went "hey: we might be able to squeeze MORE money out of this!"
Well: hope they're happy with the results.
D&d is only 20%or so of WotC revenue most if not all is Magic. So if any thing the losing 1.2 protections just makes the D&D's TTRPG side weaker and give reason to focus on their D&D IPs that are not harmed by 1.0a. As that is where the only real growth in the D&D company can come from now. Think books, movies, video games and so on, and less Modules and Rules work as that is now no longer a strong viable income and will soon be smothered by the 3rd parties,
D&D is closer to 10% overall Hasbro-revenue. The main reason for the layoffs is the 20% overall dip in comparison to 2020 and the even worse result in 2021.