Toy giant Hasbro Inc., known for its Transformers and G.I. Joe lines is increasing its focus on tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and trading card games (TCGs) like Magic: The Gathering. Hasbro purchased Wizards of the Coast, the company behind both D&D and Magic: The Gathering back in 1999 for around $325 million. Up until the past few years, these games were played mostly by a hardcore niche base, but recent shows such as Stranger Things and Critical Role have boosted the popularity of tabletop RPGs (especially D&D) into more mainstream audiences.
Tabletop games and TCGs have seen a resurgence over the past year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Even though games like D&D are traditionally played in person, players have been transitioning their parties into the digital landscape, meeting up over Zoom calls or on Discord servers. Hasbro was successful in ventures to shake things up in Magic by releasing cross-promotion cards based on other brands like AMC’s The Walking Dead, Godzilla and his kaiju buddies, and even a set featuring Bob Ross paintings.
Hasbro’s increased focus on its Wizard of the Coast properties is a part of a larger effort to restructure the toymaking company according to The Wall Street Journal. Hasbro will be split up into three divisions. A consumer products division will encompass its toy lines and more traditional board games like Clue, Risk, and Monopoly. Hasbro’s television and movie ventures, such as the long-running Transformers franchise, will be a part of the entertainment branch. Finally, Wizards & Digital will focus on all of the brands from Wizards of the Coast including expansions to existing games, producing new games, and managing the digital licenses of the entire company.
The toymaker’s net revenue shrunk by eight percent in 2020 to $5.47 billion, which the company attributes to the closure of brick-and-mortar retail stores during the pandemic. Hasbro hopes that Wizards & Digital will be able to reinvigorate its other popular brands after successful ventures into licensing and video games. Brian Goldner, a Chief Executive over at Hasbro, says that Wizards & Digital will double its revenue between 2018 and 2023.
Wizard of the Coast’s revenue in 2020 went up by 24% to $816 million compared to its 2019 reports. Hasbro’s decision to dedicate a whole division of the company to the Wizards shows reliant the toymaker is on games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons to the point a cross-over between the two is planned. The success and popularity of these games may have gone up during the pandemic, but mom-and-pop board game stores saw an exponential increase in demand between 2015 and 2016 when Stranger Things and Critical Role started. After the pandemic is over and the world adjusts to a new normal, retail locations will probably attract these new players. Before COVID, stores like this often hosted nights dedicated for fans to come in and play together which, in turn, builds up a community around the hours spent in tabletop RPG campaigns. Therefore, once it’s safe for these meetups to take place again, there will probably be another resurgence in revenue around tabletop and trading card games.
Source: The Wall Street Journal