Hasbro Sackings

[pagan8thParticipant 10863xp 0]

Just in time for xmas those lovely people at Hasbro have decided to make about a fifth of their staff unemployed… 1100 jobs… in addition to getting rid of 800 in January.

The only amusing thing is the name of Hasbro CEO… Chris Cocks… I hope his staff treat him with the respect that he deserves…

[tankkommanderParticipant 6421xp 0]

If D&D 6th ed falls flat they might be in real trouble.

No doubt they will throw cash all over the internet to get the shills to push it as the ‘best ever version of D&D’.

[pagan8thParticipant 10863xp 0]

I don’t think they should be allowed to call it the ‘world’s greatest roleplaying game’ as they do on the front cover of their books… selling a lot of copies doesn’t make it great.

If wotc hadn’t pissed off their fans with the OGL then people would not have boycotted the company and D&D movie which could have prevented the job losses…

However… the rich are greedy and they probably would have done the sackings anyway.

[osbad 4279xp 1]

Hasbro’s troubles go far beyond the D&D and MtG issues they faced this year.  Their tie-ins with the now toxic Disney, who have decimated the value of their massively expensive film-related merch deals, due to the appalling recent MCU and Star Wars films is a huge issue.  Also, the family board game market is past saturated (how many versions of Monopoly do we need?), and has been losing money for years.

Sad as it is, it was inevitable.

 

[frankeleeParticipant 1364xp 0]

We never really get to hear children’s perspective on these companies, but if they do as poor a job appealing to them as they do adult action figure collectors, roleplayers, and the competitive Magic scene, then it wouldn’t surprise me that they were headed out of business. They seem like they go out of their way to not have good ideas.

[sundancer 42973xp 1]

The bigger the company (or rather the more share holders need to be pleased) the ‘safer’ the bets are. Better to sell yet another reskin of risk, monopoly or any other classic. This way at least *some* profit is guaranteed.

Shareholders are the root of the problem. They are just in it for the money. They don’t care about the product or the customer. Every small company is run by people who are (at least partially) in it because they love their product.  And this can be seen best in our hobby. So many one man shows struggling to keep the lights on but they love their stuff.

And no, I don’t have an answer to this. Maybe put a lid on what size a company is allowed to grow to? Keep it reasonable sized?

[hobbyhubParticipant 4169xp 0]

@sundancer – A number of countries, I would guess most, do have regulatory agencies that are supposed to at least make sure there is competition in a market, so that the consumer has choice.

They are supposed to examine buyouts, takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, etc, and rule out any that will lead monopolies, duopolies, etc.

In New Zealand that agency is called the Commerce Commission, and it has failed in that task.  For example, we only have 2 big Aussie Corps that own the 4 supermarket chains here – 2 each – and they are, of course, making record profits each year.  Quelle surprise.

Not only does the NZ agency make the rulings, it also investigates the results afterwards, maybe decades later, of how the market is operating… Then they bring out the wet bus ticket and do sweet FA, because they are never really going to admit that they were wrong in the first place, even when the people that made the original decision are long gone.

Hasbro probably should never have been allowed to buy up the companies that originally produced DnD and MtG.  GlobalMegaCorps should never really exist.  They have too much power and influence over countries.

[sundancer 42973xp 0]

They shouldn’t yet they do. Because most regulatory agencies are national. So even if in country A a merger is not happening, you can’t stop them from doing so in any other country.

Money makes the world go round. *sigh*

[blinky465 17028xp 2]

For a moment there, I was hoping your autocorrect had swapped “love” for “money”.
But I fear you were right the first time. Sigh.
Sad old hippy, over and out 😉

[moonunitParticipant 4505xp 3]

As a multi national corporation, listed as a toy manufacturer, they probably aren’t even aware there are other RPGs out there that are far better than D&D. They bought an IP, and that’s what it is to them, much like the corporate owners and GW. They don’t care about or understand the product beyond it’s ability to extract money from consumer pockets.

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 2]

> Hasbro probably should never have been allowed to buy up the companies that originally produced DnD and MtG.

And Hasbro bought WotC for the Pokemon CCG, not even D&D or MtG.

The Hasbro purchase of WotC *did* allow many employee to leave the company for their own pursuits. And D&D, pre-WotC, was so mismanaged under TSR, that I think, between TSR and Hasbro, Hasbro is the much lesser evil. Hasbro also kept Heroscape around longer that another company would, and brought back HeroQuest. They tried a few hobby-level games with the Avalon Hill brand name, with House on Betrayal Hill (sp) doing quite well, and licensing Cosmic Encounter to FFG.

Still, with D&D 3.x written by freelancers, it became obvious then that D&D was in precarious circumstances. Personally, I think WotC / Hasbro has done a goodish thing by releasing its third boxed set, keeping the core books around $20 at Amazon, and releasing $20 campaign books.

[lee337 505xp 1]

What a terrible thing to do

[wolfie65Participant 1238xp 2]

Look into the history of Hasbro – or pretty much any other big company you choose – who their CEOs and shareholders are and you have your answer.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 2]

weirdly WotC is actually making substantial profits for them, a few of the redundancies come from within the WotC branch of the company, but I expect that is the exception as when the rest of the company is haemorrhaging cash you don’t want to put a tourniquet around the neck.

Even more shockingly was after the backlash last year, no one really boycotted D&D and they ended up posting massive first quarter figures followed shortly after by all the critics going back to playing and reviewing WotC stuff online again so it was a speedbump more than a road out in the end nothing really changes.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6421xp 0]

“followed shortly after by all the critics going back to playing and reviewing WotC stuff online again”

Yep, that about sums it up. The shills made a lot of noise to get views, and then skulked back to 5E as soon as possible.

Dungeon Dudes are a prime example as they just put their stuff on D&D Beyond.

Shills gonna shill.

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