On April 24, Hasbro met with its investors to advise them on how the US-based company, which is the creator of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, is positioning itself in the first quarter of a year marked by “recovery efforts.”
Hasbro’s toy division trudged along for most of 2023, with MTG topping all financial charts thanks to the release of the Lord of the Rings-themed Tales of Middle-earth set and D&D scoring wins only thanks to the explosive popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3. Through all this, the company has since moved on from laying off 1,100 employees last December and entered a rebuilding period marked by cautious optimism.
Hasbro’s total revenue was down 24% in the first quarter thanks in large part to its divestiture of its eOne film studio. The Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment grew revenue by 7%, a win attributed to MTG (once again) and continued licensed digital game revenue stemming from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Monopoly GO! Hasbro managed to grow operating profit for its Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment by 60% and achieved an operating profit margin of 38.8% on the same strength.
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Revenue within the tabletop segment specifically rose 5%. Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks tipped his hat to the release timing of the latest MTG set, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and the “strong start” to sales of the recent Fallout Universes Beyond Commander preconstructed decks. Curiously, neither Murders at Karlov Manor nor Ravnica Remastered, the first two major releases of 2024, passed his lips.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Hasbro expects Wizards of the Coast’s revenue to be down 7-12% compared to 2023, which makes sense given the lack of a Tales of Middle-earth-level MTG release and the gradually tapering tail of Baldur’s Gate 3 revenue. Hasbro will be riding that wave to the bitter end, which won’t be long in coming, and so it’s already looking for a studio to try and bottle that lightning for a second time.
Neither the CEO nor investors asked how the release of the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 rulebooks, revamped for the tabletop role-playing game’s next decade of active development, might affect the company’s financial outlook. The three new books will mark a fundamental shift in how players approach the game, but they certainly seem like they will make little difference in terms of revenue and stock price.
Cocks didn’t mention any major changes or innovations for Hasbro’s more conventional line of board products, which includes Monopoly, Scrabble, and Cluedo, but that doesn’t mean the brands are standing still. Instead, they’ve been thrown headlong into the CEO’s broader digital strategy: Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment is actively working on a film adaptation of Monopoly to follow the success of Barbie, both Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble are set to be transformed into game shows, and Sony recently bought the TV and film rights to Cluedo (Clue in the U.S.), though there are no solid plans for how it might top the 1985 classic starring Tim Curry.