Interesting. I'm not much of a magic player but many people of the community on Twitter are not liking the collaboration of different worlds. It is good to see WotC getting ahead and growing. We will have to wait and see how they handle all of the new responsibilities of Hasbro as well as their current fan base.
Interesting. I'm not much of a magic player but many people of the community on Twitter are not liking the collaboration of different worlds. It is good to see WotC getting ahead and growing. We will have to wait and see how they handle all of the new responsibilities of Hasbro as well as their current fan base.
The people who dislike it (myself included) are frustrated because they’ve played Magic for a long time, and are invested in the game’s unique story and lore. They understandably don’t want to go against Frodo or Space Marines when they sit down to play Commander. But Adventures in Middle-Earth 5e already exists, and a second edition is in concept, so this isn’t going to add anything to D&D that isn’t already there. (And Lord of the Rings D&D could only be a good thing anyway.)
I have to say that I am not a fan of the cross overs. Magic is fun, I play the game, but I don't need it to cross over with D&D. I certainly don't need Warhammer 40k in my MtG games or D&D games.
I read that article too. While a lot of licensing is for MtG it seems that D&D is also seen as a integral part of this new structuring, which may finally wind down the rumor spun up by that speculative "analysis" that saw Hasbro selling off WotC or at least D&D to a smaller party.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
I read that article too. While a lot of licensing is for MtG it seems that D&D is also seen as a integral part of this new structuring, which may finally wind down the rumor spun up by that speculative "analysis" that saw Hasbro selling off WotC or at least D&D to a smaller party.
Hasbro doesn’t sell, they buy. Hasbro never sells IP. If D&D stopped being profitable they’d bury it before selling it just so they could drag it back out again 20 years later for the nostalgia.
Right, but on the other hand, they didn't buy Toho or AMC when they made Godzilla and Walking Dead licensed content. I don't see any sign that they're acquiring GW anymore than when they produced Risk 40K. I think there's some speculation from an industry analyst that GW has some supply issues with its plastics in pandemic world and haven't really got card games right, and thought that GW could learn a lot from a relationship with Hasbro. The actual Hasbro announcements that led to the article simply announced a restructuring or elevation of WotC within Hasbro and that agreements have been made to produce 40K and LotR MtG content.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
As someone that was once an avid player of Fantasy and have at times played AoS, I don't want that crap in D&D either lol.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
If the date on the page is to be believed, Hasbro got the controlling interest back in 2015 :-)
I think the more interesting callout was during a pandemic year, WoTC jumped up 24% year over year. That's HUGE from a business PoV.
It just goes to show that D&D ain't going away any time soon, and its a wonderful time to get into the game if you are a casual fan.
My local game store owner once told me that D&D is actually only a tiny portion of WotC’s revenue: most is MtG. Not to take away from what you said, but I think the boost is more due to them pushing Magic into a digital format (which is horrible for the game in the long run, but that’s another story) than D&D.
Dungeons & Dragons Gets a Bigger Role at Hasbro: Toy maker to create a separate operating division around the fantasy role-playing game and Magic: The Gathering, which have surged in popularity
Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game, and Magic, a collectible card game, have been bright spots for the maker of Monopoly and Transformers action figures. Their publisher, Wizards of the Coast LLC, posted revenue of $816 million last year, up 24% from 2019, fueled by what Hasbro says were record years for the two brands.
Overall, Hasbro’s net revenue fell 8% last year to $5.47 billion, due in part to retail shutdowns related to Covid-19.
Under the new structure, which the company plans to unveil at an investor event on Thursday, Hasbro will be divided into three units. Consumer products will encompass toys like Transformers action figures and classic board games like Monopoly. Entertainment will be dedicated to licensing, distribution and production of film and television content. Wizards & Digital will house the assets of Wizards of the Coast and focus on expanding the existing games, creating new ones and overseeing digital licensing for the entire business.
Hasbro hopes the reorganization will allow it to replicate Wizards of the Coast’s success in digital games and licensing in other parts of the company and boost other properties like G.I. Joe, Ouija and Transformers, according to a person familiar with the matter. According to Hasbro Chief Executive Brian Goldner, the Wizards unit is on track to double revenue from 2018 to 2023.
Hasbro acquired Renton, Wash.-based Wizards of the Coast in 1999, in an all-stock deal valued at about $325 million. Its flagship games were designed to be played around a table and tend to reward real-world social interaction. Last year, when coronavirus lockdowns made in-person game nights impossible, fans turned to digital solutions like Zoom teleconferences for virtual meetups.
“It’s the perfect time right now for role playing, people have more time on their hands, and if you want to relax and see your friends the best way is through virtual gaming,” said Satine Phoenix, a former community manager for Wizards of the Coast who now works as an author, D&D livestreamer and “dungeon master” coach.
Wizards of the Coast says it has attracted new players by joining with other fantasy and sci-fi franchises. In 2020, the company published new Magic cards that featured characters from the AMC television show “The Walking Dead” and giant monsters including Godzilla from Japanese film company Toho Co. Another limited card set featured paintings licensed from the estate of TV host Bob Ross.
Hasbro will announce new partnerships during its Thursday event, including a deal with U.K.-based Games Workshop Group to bring its war game “Warhammer 40,000” to Magic, and an agreement with Middle Earth Enterprises for a “The Lord of the Rings”-themed expansion. New videogame projects include games developed by Bellevue, Wash.-based Hidden Path Entertainment and Boston-based OtherSide Entertainment.
I think the more interesting callout was during a pandemic year, WoTC jumped up 24% year over year. That's HUGE from a business PoV.
It just goes to show that D&D ain't going away any time soon, and its a wonderful time to get into the game if you are a casual fan.
My local game store owner once told me that D&D is actually only a tiny portion of WotC’s revenue: most is MtG. Not to take away from what you said, but I think the boost is more due to them pushing Magic into a digital format (which is horrible for the game in the long run, but that’s another story) than D&D.
I am not able to find any solid numbers to say for certain that MTG is bigger than D&D, but based on Hasbro's annual reports, D&D was mentioned 11 times while MTG was mentioned 29 times. Both brands are mentioned to be doing very well. MTG is grouped under Franchise Brands, which are stated to be composed of the biggest IPs that Hasbro owns. Since D&D is not under Franchise Brands, I think it is reasonable to assume D&D is smaller than MTG and everything else in the Franchise Brand category. Other brands under Franchise Brands are: Nerf, Play-Doh, Monopoly, Transformers, Baby Alive, and My Little Pony.
I have no idea what Baby Alive is, but other than that, I can see all other brands being more massive than D&D. Nerf, Transformers, Monopoly, and MLP are in every big retail store. Nerf and Transformers alone can take up at least a quarter of their respective toy aisles, at least in the Walmarts and Targets in my area. There are also usually several Monopoly variants on sale. I do not pay too much attention to the girl's section of the toy aisles, so I cannot really say how much presence MLP has, but it is probably more than D&D. The only D&D products I recall seeing would be the Starter Kit box and Essentials Kit box, and stores do not always carry them either; when they do carry them, it is usually the Starter Kit by itself, with the Essentials Kit making the occasional appearance.
Hasbro had a hard time making up income since toys are us went out of business. They did try to revive the store, but the market is not what it was especially with COVID. . Wizard of the coast gives them a vehicle into the gaming stores, and other venue where they might not had a presence before. The licensing into magic the gathering is not a great idea. Hey it Hasbro. They never had that much imagination. They bought wizard of the coast to get their hands on Pokémon cards, but the company that own the licensing pulled them to make in-house.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
If the date on the page is to be believed, Hasbro got the controlling interest back in 2015 :-)
I can't read the link in the OP because it is behind a paywall.
Yeah, I had missed that bit of news. That explains why GW and WotC both started streamlining rule sets for their games at around the same times. But if the cross promotions between M:tG and D&D are protected to double revenue for WotC between 2018-23, and if Hasbro is going to start using the same cross promotion program to juice sales for GW products then its a safe bet that GW will start to see the same benefits.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
As someone that was once an avid player of Fantasy and have at times played AoS, I don't want that crap in D&D either lol.
I loved the lore of Fantasy, not the game. And I can’t stand AoS at all. (To be honest, I lost interest in 40k with 8th edition, it’s too streamlined for my tastes now. I liked that vehicles had different armor on F/S/R, and I liked templates, and I liked the Jet Pack was different than Jump was different than Flying. 😞 )
Warhammer is not hasbro, warhammer is it’s own company which has been flying if you look at its share value.
But this is not a surprise, the boardgame market generally has been growing with more and more people playing games like settlers of catan, ticket to ride etc. the table top roleplay game market is a natural expansion of that.
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Will be interesting to see how all of these fantasy worlds (Warhammer/Magic/LotR/WotC) end up interacting under Hasbro:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dungeons-dragons-gets-a-bigger-role-at-hasbro-11614254403
Interesting. I'm not much of a magic player but many people of the community on Twitter are not liking the collaboration of different worlds. It is good to see WotC getting ahead and growing. We will have to wait and see how they handle all of the new responsibilities of Hasbro as well as their current fan base.
The people who dislike it (myself included) are frustrated because they’ve played Magic for a long time, and are invested in the game’s unique story and lore. They understandably don’t want to go against Frodo or Space Marines when they sit down to play Commander. But Adventures in Middle-Earth 5e already exists, and a second edition is in concept, so this isn’t going to add anything to D&D that isn’t already there. (And Lord of the Rings D&D could only be a good thing anyway.)
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I have to say that I am not a fan of the cross overs. Magic is fun, I play the game, but I don't need it to cross over with D&D. I certainly don't need Warhammer 40k in my MtG games or D&D games.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I read that article too. While a lot of licensing is for MtG it seems that D&D is also seen as a integral part of this new structuring, which may finally wind down the rumor spun up by that speculative "analysis" that saw Hasbro selling off WotC or at least D&D to a smaller party.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Holy shit. This is the first I heard about Hasbro buying controlling interest in GW! It’s not 40k they’re gonna cross promote with D&D and M:tG, it’ll be AoS they cross promote first. I need to buy shares in GW now ASAP.
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Hasbro doesn’t sell, they buy. Hasbro never sells IP. If D&D stopped being profitable they’d bury it before selling it just so they could drag it back out again 20 years later for the nostalgia.
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Right, but on the other hand, they didn't buy Toho or AMC when they made Godzilla and Walking Dead licensed content. I don't see any sign that they're acquiring GW anymore than when they produced Risk 40K. I think there's some speculation from an industry analyst that GW has some supply issues with its plastics in pandemic world and haven't really got card games right, and thought that GW could learn a lot from a relationship with Hasbro. The actual Hasbro announcements that led to the article simply announced a restructuring or elevation of WotC within Hasbro and that agreements have been made to produce 40K and LotR MtG content.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think the more interesting callout was during a pandemic year, WoTC jumped up 24% year over year. That's HUGE from a business PoV.
It just goes to show that D&D ain't going away any time soon, and its a wonderful time to get into the game if you are a casual fan.
As someone that was once an avid player of Fantasy and have at times played AoS, I don't want that crap in D&D either lol.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
If the date on the page is to be believed, Hasbro got the controlling interest back in 2015 :-)
http://sableandspray.blogspot.com/2015/03/hasbro-wizards-of-coast-buys-games.html
I can't read the link in the OP because it is behind a paywall.
My local game store owner once told me that D&D is actually only a tiny portion of WotC’s revenue: most is MtG. Not to take away from what you said, but I think the boost is more due to them pushing Magic into a digital format (which is horrible for the game in the long run, but that’s another story) than D&D.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Here's the article in full from the WSJ:
Dungeons & Dragons Gets a Bigger Role at Hasbro: Toy maker to create a separate operating division around the fantasy role-playing game and Magic: The Gathering, which have surged in popularity
by David M. Ewalt
Toy maker Hasbro Inc. HAS 1.02% is reorganizing to capitalize on a pandemic-fueled boom in old-school tabletop games, creating a separate division around the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.
Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game, and Magic, a collectible card game, have been bright spots for the maker of Monopoly and Transformers action figures. Their publisher, Wizards of the Coast LLC, posted revenue of $816 million last year, up 24% from 2019, fueled by what Hasbro says were record years for the two brands.
Overall, Hasbro’s net revenue fell 8% last year to $5.47 billion, due in part to retail shutdowns related to Covid-19.
Under the new structure, which the company plans to unveil at an investor event on Thursday, Hasbro will be divided into three units. Consumer products will encompass toys like Transformers action figures and classic board games like Monopoly. Entertainment will be dedicated to licensing, distribution and production of film and television content. Wizards & Digital will house the assets of Wizards of the Coast and focus on expanding the existing games, creating new ones and overseeing digital licensing for the entire business.
Hasbro hopes the reorganization will allow it to replicate Wizards of the Coast’s success in digital games and licensing in other parts of the company and boost other properties like G.I. Joe, Ouija and Transformers, according to a person familiar with the matter. According to Hasbro Chief Executive Brian Goldner, the Wizards unit is on track to double revenue from 2018 to 2023.
Hasbro acquired Renton, Wash.-based Wizards of the Coast in 1999, in an all-stock deal valued at about $325 million. Its flagship games were designed to be played around a table and tend to reward real-world social interaction. Last year, when coronavirus lockdowns made in-person game nights impossible, fans turned to digital solutions like Zoom teleconferences for virtual meetups.
“It’s the perfect time right now for role playing, people have more time on their hands, and if you want to relax and see your friends the best way is through virtual gaming,” said Satine Phoenix, a former community manager for Wizards of the Coast who now works as an author, D&D livestreamer and “dungeon master” coach.
Wizards of the Coast says it has attracted new players by joining with other fantasy and sci-fi franchises. In 2020, the company published new Magic cards that featured characters from the AMC television show “The Walking Dead” and giant monsters including Godzilla from Japanese film company Toho Co. Another limited card set featured paintings licensed from the estate of TV host Bob Ross.
Hasbro will announce new partnerships during its Thursday event, including a deal with U.K.-based Games Workshop Group to bring its war game “Warhammer 40,000” to Magic, and an agreement with Middle Earth Enterprises for a “The Lord of the Rings”-themed expansion. New videogame projects include games developed by Bellevue, Wash.-based Hidden Path Entertainment and Boston-based OtherSide Entertainment.
I am not able to find any solid numbers to say for certain that MTG is bigger than D&D, but based on Hasbro's annual reports, D&D was mentioned 11 times while MTG was mentioned 29 times. Both brands are mentioned to be doing very well. MTG is grouped under Franchise Brands, which are stated to be composed of the biggest IPs that Hasbro owns. Since D&D is not under Franchise Brands, I think it is reasonable to assume D&D is smaller than MTG and everything else in the Franchise Brand category. Other brands under Franchise Brands are: Nerf, Play-Doh, Monopoly, Transformers, Baby Alive, and My Little Pony.
I have no idea what Baby Alive is, but other than that, I can see all other brands being more massive than D&D. Nerf, Transformers, Monopoly, and MLP are in every big retail store. Nerf and Transformers alone can take up at least a quarter of their respective toy aisles, at least in the Walmarts and Targets in my area. There are also usually several Monopoly variants on sale. I do not pay too much attention to the girl's section of the toy aisles, so I cannot really say how much presence MLP has, but it is probably more than D&D. The only D&D products I recall seeing would be the Starter Kit box and Essentials Kit box, and stores do not always carry them either; when they do carry them, it is usually the Starter Kit by itself, with the Essentials Kit making the occasional appearance.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Hasbro had a hard time making up income since toys are us went out of business. They did try to revive the store, but the market is not what it was especially with COVID. . Wizard of the coast gives them a vehicle into the gaming stores, and other venue where they might not had a presence before. The licensing into magic the gathering is not a great idea. Hey it Hasbro. They never had that much imagination. They bought wizard of the coast to get their hands on Pokémon cards, but the company that own the licensing pulled them to make in-house.
Yeah, I had missed that bit of news. That explains why GW and WotC both started streamlining rule sets for their games at around the same times. But if the cross promotions between M:tG and D&D are protected to double revenue for WotC between 2018-23, and if Hasbro is going to start using the same cross promotion program to juice sales for GW products then its a safe bet that GW will start to see the same benefits.
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I loved the lore of Fantasy, not the game. And I can’t stand AoS at all. (To be honest, I lost interest in 40k with 8th edition, it’s too streamlined for my tastes now. I liked that vehicles had different armor on F/S/R, and I liked templates, and I liked the Jet Pack was different than Jump was different than Flying. 😞 )
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Wizards of the Coast Gets a Big Promotion at Hasbro
|| Sol Night-Arrow, Tabaxi Ranger ||
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Guides or Important Threads of Mine ----- || List of ALL Official Familiars || My Homebrew Monsters ||
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^^^Those are Links BTW^^^
If they do bring 40k to D&D, there is one setting book I would preorder as soon as I possibly could: Gorkamorka. ‘Nuff Said.
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Warhammer is not hasbro, warhammer is it’s own company which has been flying if you look at its share value.
But this is not a surprise, the boardgame market generally has been growing with more and more people playing games like settlers of catan, ticket to ride etc. the table top roleplay game market is a natural expansion of that.