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Hasbro Downgraded to Sell (Extended) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-18 23:00:59
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Bank of American downgraded Hasbro from Buy to Sell. Hasbro is trying to dump it's movie studio BEFORE the D&D movie is released. PDM covers his dumpster fire--which he correctly predicted.

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Files

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WOTC Downgraded.mp4

Comments

Bagel-Man

Excited to watch Professor, keep up the great work!

MrGunn
>>95905699

From hell's heart I grouse at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last sesame seed at thee. Ye damned Bagel! :D Well played sir...

MrGunn

Great news and analysis as usual. Not strategically planning Magic card release is just bad portfolio management and greed. The USD 999.99 booster pack is dumb and reprints cards they claimed they would NEVER reprint, regardless if they are marked as good for play or not. Selling their studio is no surprise, Hasbro already indicated they wanted out of the movie business. In my opinion any D&D movie is going to be bad, why, because every D&D movie to date has been bad. I cannot think of one memorable D&D movie that was good. Stranger Things is about the only thing people like and it is not about D&D, but SciFi horror which involves kids. Hasbro promised a 50% increase in profits over three years. Hasbro is being hampered in several areas. Economic conditions have created strong headwinds and reduced available disposable income. They are in the middle of their digital pivot strategy which has yet to yield dividends. They have also failed to deliver products customers are looking for, recent products have been objectively bad and have performed poorly. Further, the 1D&D announcement has also impacted sales of existing books, this was inevitable and always happens with new versions. Regarding The Reviled Society, the internet is fickle, some toss away you spent five minutes on receives millions of views and plaudits, conversely, something you spent weeks on and is arguably a master piece is met with a shoulder shrug. And BTW we are watching at work, cuz, of course work. The silver lining out of all of this, is from now on we will have three Kultural Kommissars per book to ensure that the Newspeak in any new products is as bland and uninteresting as possible. Expect the next module to be a combat free quest by the PCs to get environmentally conscious, cruelty free, non-dairy lattes from their socially conscious local FeyBucks. There will be long queues and the PCs will have to engage in meandering social interactions with fellow queue members and speculate as to why there is no Hazelnut Syrup. Long live Hasbroceana!

Randy Pytel

Free League has made millions acquiring established IPs. Maybe they They can get D&D on the cheap when it crashes and burns. (This is mostly posted tongue in cheeck)

stormwulf47

I believe the DnD movie does take place in the forgotten realms. If I'm not mistaken, Chris Pines' character is a member of the Harpers, and the city shown in the trailer is Waterdeep.

Brent Tomlonovic

As someone who runs a FLGS I have noticed things have changed quite a bit in the last 6 months. Magic has flooded the market with not only tons of cards but also many different versions of the same card. This has caused lots of chaos in the singles market. Also the constant streams of new sets are breaking people's wallets and causing fatigue. As for D&D things have been up and down the last year or so. The core books sell very well, along with things like Xanathar's and Tasha's. Witchlight did very well for us but Strixhaven did not. Spelljammer was a good seller at my store but since the One D&D announcement sales of all books, including core books, have fallen off a cliff. Preorders for Dragonlance are still about where preorder numbers are for other books but I am concerned that it will suffer from the new edition announcement slump. Again, I am just one store so I cannot speak for larger industry trends but that is what I have seen.

Joel A.

Solid. BTW, pretty much everything you requested on episode 2. Drives are great for that 😁

Donald Morton

"They're obviously watching at work." Uh oh, I've been called out! Don't tell my boss!

Tyler

Great analysis. It’s a bummer to hear reviled society isn’t doing as well. Not only is there a plethora of useful information but it’s also fantastically entertaining content. The sort of stuff that drew me to the channel. Keep it up Professor!

Adrian Webster

There also seems to be a bit of short term panic here. Markets fluctuate and profits do not inevitably increase every single quarter. The downgrading creating a self fulfilling prophecy with stock prices doesnt help, but it still feels like Wizards long term planning needs more work and allow for periods of market correction and pullback.

Richie Walker

Great stuff. Enjoyed the bonus content especially.

DJ Wilson
>>95906679

Yes, I am very despondent with all of the SJW seeping into the game as well. Thankfully, DMs have the option of cutting all of that out of their games. My worry is that all of us 'virtual' campaigners will be 'content-policed' if we use the D&D Beyond digital tools. In essence: "run the content we approve (and our Kultural Kommissars) or be deplatformed."

baldrage

When you post this on YT, the title should be "The Last Laugh Belongs to THACO The Clown."

Flash Gorgon

I could be totally wrong, but another difference between TSR and Hasbro is that I always had the impression that TSR was making products for their audience while Hasbro just wants to broaden their consumer base as much as possible. Let's face it, TSR marketed D&D to nerds, period. But now that geek culture is ubiquitous, Hasbro is trying to latch onto the current spirit of the age as much as possible. TSR had a base and remained mostly true to that base, while Hasbro could care less about its base because it wants more, more, more...

Flash Gorgon

Also, I completely disagree that the company (any company) is safe because they have a bunch of business majors! LOL, that's giving our current education system WAY too much credit! No offence, but these days I'd rather hire someone with a lot of common sense over someone with a college degree.

robert fransgaard

I get what you are saying about you prefer to do more like Reviled Society (which is cool btw), but I think you should take credit for the fact that your analysis and thinking regarding the state of D&D and Hasbro is unique and seriously thought through so that's why these do well. Q: have you seen any drop in sharing due to the situation at Twitter? I used to share your videos on Twitter but have paused all Twitter activity, frankly because we don't know if Twitter is even going to survive .

Leland Wilson
>>95913939

I get what you mean. College education is worthless. I'd much rather have my 80 year old next door neighbor remove my appendix rather than a trained surgeon. She's been alive longer so she obviously has more credentials.

Jim Van Cura

Hey PDM, as a fellow educator and school psychologist, I get the YouTube reach may be low, but you got your message to over 8k viewers that reached 8k game tables and all the folks who play at those tables. You never know who you impact with your message. Don’t lose hope and know you are making a difference both in the classroom and online. I just wanted to give you a pat on the back and encourage you to keep on keeping on. As always, thanks for the great content.

MrGunn
>>95913939

Uhhh Leland false dichotomy much.... or are salty b/c you are still paying off student debt. While a bit hyperbolic, Flash's point was good one: credentials and training don't always translate into skill.

MrGunn
>>95906679

It is not an accusation! You are a traitor! You are a collaborator and you are a counter revolutionary! 981... :D

Brent Tomlonovic
>>95913705

Actually, having read Slaying the Dragon, TSR in the had little idea what their customer base wanted. They did no market research. TSR made a ton of products that did not make money and very few people bought. The suits at TSR did not share sales info with designers so the designers often had no idea how popular a given product was. TSR tried several times to widen the appeal of the game but to limited success and in the process angered their hardcore fans. The removal of Assassins, Demons and Devils was a move in that direction as illustrated in the infamous "soccer mom" article in Dragon Magazine.

Flash Gorgon
>>95913705

Thank you for that information. However, I grew up with the game and from my perspective it seemed to me that TSR was making games for gamers and not just gamers, but a specific kind of gamer. The company was not aiming at a wider audience until ironically, it started to make money. After having attained success, it diversified. I had heard about games they produced such as the Buck Rogers fiasco but from my point of view back then, the core game was still marketed at gamer nerds. My opinion is that Hasbro markets the game at anyone they can rope in. Was TSR like that at some point? Sure, but by then it was hardly the same company it was when it was at its peak. (in my opinion, that peak was somewhere around 1982 or so.) I also played the game through the so-called removal of the demons and devils (they were there but the names changed) but that didn't bother me one bit. Everyone knew that there were still demons and devils in the game and we often played epic campaigns with the specific purpose of sending them back to Hell. Frankly, I didn't know a single person who was upset at the name change. We went right along business as usual, killing bad guys and taking their stuff. In any case, I guess the point is that a certain level of success in any company could divert it away from its original intended goal if the principal players let it.

W Nash

Good analysis. I too thought the Pandemic had a lot to do with the recent growth in popularity of D&D. Now that people are able to be 'out and about' some will leave it behind, just as we did when we left college for so-called 'adult life'. Some will return; some won't. Some will never leave. It's just happening on a larger scale. The economy isn't helping; many people can't afford the basics now, let alone uncertain luxury purchases like Spelljammer. There is also the fact that the customer base, those of us who have bought all of the editions and continued playing for years, bringing new people into the hobby are dissatisfied with the base product and looking for simplification, buying OSE and Knave. Or, buying the base books and cobbling our own rules without buying other products. Every single edition I've seen, most serious players say, "I'm not upgrading." (Except 4th edition.) Guess what! Every single one of them upgraded at the first opportunity. As an aside, I'm probably a small minority, but I don't usually watch your videos when they first come out. I wait until I have time to sit back, relax, and enjoy them. I waited for all of Reviled Society to come to my mailbox before watching. I haven't started The Blood Countess yet. (I'm actually re-watching The Veiled Society stream because I enjoyed Reviled Society so much.) I still think the holidays are heavily affecting viewership. Most people have been "sheltering in place" for two years and a chance to get out, see people and family, and "do stuff" means they just aren't in front of a screen as much.

Daniel Defazio
>>95930997

Hi. Thanks for the thoughtful response. Thanks for re-watching The Reviled Society. I get that people will eventually watch Reviled Society 2 and these videos will have replay value that the news videos won't have. But that algorithm is a constant struggle. If people DON'T click on a video in the first couple days, the algorithm buries it deep--even for subscribers. YouTube has changed and what worked 6 years ago no longer does. That said, I'm still doubling down on the miniature/storytelling content once I get to 100k. May all your rolls be 20s!

Daniel Defazio
>>95912657

Thanks. Lol. When people say that, I have to go back and rewatch the bonus content. I can never remember what I said!

Daniel Defazio
>>95914828

Not really. We'll see on Tuesday when this video drops. My perception is that the OSR crowd is not on Twitter. They're on FB. True, there ARE OSR creators on Twitter, but I don't think they have a wide reach. Twitter--to me--is overvalued as an advertising platform. I'm not sure the Twitter crowd buys anything. But I am confident Twitter wil survive and grow.

shawn rader

Hey Professor, great observation on what's going on. To be honist, I don't care if Wizards takes a nose dive. The reason I say this is because of people like your self that have a true love of the game. Your sharing how you run games as well giving your audience a cool visual cinematic interpretation using miniatures. So now we see how to use our miniatures for something other than just game play. Keep up the great work Professor.

Jay
>>95906679

MrGunn, needed a laugh after this week and that last paragraph was hilarious! Well done!

Damien Cullen

The reviled society remake is great and you may snag some new views and the diehards of your channel like myself but unfortunately a lot of the people who watched it the first time may not watch it again. I think that is what has happened, so don’t be so hard on yourself.

jnlsn family

Been saying it, get woke...go Hasbroke. Good riddance.

Brent Tomlonovic
>>95913705

The article in question is part of The Game Wizards column in Dragon 154 entitltled "Angry Mothers From Heck (and what we do about them) by James Ward.

Brent Tomlonovic
>>95913705

I too grew up playing D&D in "ye olde days" and what I remember and what I understood to be true is not often what was true. That is why I find books like The Game Wizards and Slaying the Dragon so interesting. Lots of the things that went on behind the scenes were never known to the general public. My perception of what went on is limited by the knowledge that was available to me. Even early TSR did not understand their demographic. Each designer made things that they thought were cool or that someone above them thought was cool. That often overlapped with the core of their audience but it was not a deliberate attempt to cater to that audience. Early TSR often had little understanding of who exactly was buying their products. As for dropping Demons and Devils, I thought it was kind of stupid and I kept using the terms Demons and Devils but I was aware that it happened and as an avid reader of Dragon magazine I followed the forum arguments about the change.

W Nash
>>95930997

I will make sure to watch the You Tube versions earlier. As an aside, my grandson told me a story in which his mother (not the brightest crayon in the box) was talking about the "You Tube Algorithm" and called it the "You Tube Aneurism". (He's was 11 at the time, but knew what both words meant.) Now I see the parallel.

Flash Gorgon
>>95913705

Whether TSR did the marketing or not, their games were for nerds. Whether they made a conscious effort or not to cater to their base, they did anyway! LOL, I don't think there was ever a doubt that it was nerds who were buying their products! My point is that by contrast Hasbro is consciously changing the game to suite the zeitgeist instead of the base players. But that may not be true very much longer since the base seems to be moving off to OSR land while the remainder stick with the Hasbro version. Therefore, the base for current day D&D is or will be, the zeitgeist. As is often the case, someone better summed up my thought: "I miss the days when fantasy was for losers and nerds and no one bothered us, but now it's Astroturfed and corporate and often cringe. I blame the theater kids." Yeah, sure this sentiment may be somewhat looking through rose colored glasses here but there is an element of truth to it. When TSR was in business, fantasy was certainly NOT mainstream, but it is now. That's a pretty big difference in my opinion. The other obvious difference is that TSR created the hobby from scratch from gamers for gamers. Hasbro is a multinational conglomerate who bought D&D with the intention of making a profit. That's their first priority. TSR did that too, but in the beginning it was different. Their big mistake, in my opinion, was when they decided to diversify instead of concentrating on their core game and base. But that's what most companies do. They loose sight of what really matters and go off chasing the almighty dollar.

samurguybri
>>95906679

Love your analysis, dislike your last paragraph. I’m pretty much a 50 year old SJW. I work in education and am glad people are pushing to change the language and inform me about things I’ve never dealt with as a straight white old dude. I’m glad DnD is getting more inclusive, and some old racist stuff is being looked at. On the other hand, I went through the 80’s and really respect the hard fight people did for anti-censorship and freedom in artistic expression during that time. I’m also not so tribal and ossified in my view that I would throw the baby out with the bath water! I love seeing your comments a would love to hang out and game sometime, regardless of our views on this stuff. We probably have so much in common. I think the failure of the products with no combat counter you last statement. Soy-boys and girls want to kill some monsters! I’m not into 5e, really at all, but I’m so glad gazillions of people are into it, nowadays. I wore a DnD trucker hat to work and found out there are at least 2-3 more people at my small elementary school who want to play. and a little 1st grader told me his dad used to play and that he loves to draw outdoor and dungeon maps! There’s hope and cool nerds all around!

samurguybri
>>95913939

I think a combo of those kind of folks is the most powerful. Education provides some in depth knowledge that simply cannot be gained otherwise, but you can get an echo chamber feet if it’s just the same perspective pinging of each other. A good mix with some good critical thinking is needed. I’m surrounded by college educated folks at my job and most are humble and want to learn more. I have some college, but no degree and way too much life experience in some crummy areas and misery. We all work great together and are more effective: breadth and depth.

samurguybri
>>95916070

Bless you Jim. My poor school psychologist would love to work with kids.She only gets to assess them and go to IEP meetings.

samurguybri
>>95950400

The woke stuff is not why they’re losing money. Poor business decisions are.

Flash Gorgon
>>95913939

Let me clarify. I think colleges do a fine job when it comes to teaching technical skills such as computing, engineering, doctoring and nursing, math, the hard sciences and the like. But when it comes to the humanities I think you're better off going to the library LOL!

samurguybri
>>95913939

I dunno Flash, I took Magic and Folk Religion, History of Modern China, Northwest Coast Native Art and culture class and they all blew my mind and sent me on some cool paths. College is really good for deepening and breading your knowledge space. I think people who just want to get the material in their degree are really missing out. The western idea of a general education, I really think helps increase critical thinking, curiosity and creativity.

Flash Gorgon
>>95913939

Those things are good to learn about, however the problem is the way they are taught in colleges today. I've been studying history my entire life and I was disgusted to see that colleges are teaching garbage from the likes of Howard Zinn, a radical and a communist. Philosophy classes are no better. Colleges seem to teach that any old philosophy is OK and each are just as valid as any other, when this is completely false! Courses on religion are often extremely biased and full of inconsistencies. My point is that it's best to study what made Christendom (Western Civ) so awesome and then go from there. You don't need a college for that. In fact, I'd argue that college these days, unless they are presenting a classical based education, are going to fill your head with a lot of nonsense. Mark Twain (or Grant Allen) said it best: Never let your schooling interfere with your education.

Jim Van Cura
>>95916070

Hi Brian. Yes, that is the issue. Our district had four psychologists for 10,000 students when I started. We now have 12, which has allowed us to actually do what we love to do… work with kids. I still do a lot of assessments and IEP’s, but my favorite is working with our ED program. I work at a high school, which is far different from what my elementary or middle school colleagues do. Like any job, it has its good days and bad. DnD provides a fun escape.

MrGunn
>>95913939

Interesting view points Flash, I don't view Christendom as 'Western Civilization'. I view western civilization as stemming from Classical Greece & Rome, the development of the scientific method, and later articulation of natural rights. A working knowledge Christianity is essential to understanding European history, but it is only an aspect of Western Civ. As to Howard Zinn, he was not a Stalinist (I am assuming that is what you meant by communist) and was certainly opposed to Stalinsim and the excesses of the Soviet & Chinese systems. He was also opposed to fascism, going so far as to join the Army Air Corps. He was a bombardier in WW2 and flew missions over Europe, a very dangerous job; much respect. Zinn was a historian and social critic who wrote historical perspectives of the working class and other marginalized people. His observations and criticisms are valid and should be taken seriously; even when you don't agree. I will certainly agree that many academics take things at face value and live in an echo chamber, and that the media and populace at large often have a limited understanding of academic ideas and take them out of context. I will also agree many academics don't want to do the hard work of defending their ideas or accepting that other view points can be valid. For example, the Art History professor who did not like when I pointed out that Lewis Carroll's photos of Alice Lidell were inappropriate and he was probably a pedo, same with Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, but I digress. Many academics want to take the easy deconstructionist approach and criticize everything while offering no or poor alternatives. Unlike Jacques Derrida, I don't believe everything is simply a construct, some things are simply true, only my understanding of them may be imprecise, e.g. God and Physics. I like to hear multiple view points and when I disagree I will speak up. If an argument is strong enough I may change my mind, however there are limits, some truths are immutable and self-evident.

Flash Gorgon
>>95913939

Christendom is what Europe became, probably after Constantine, but more likely Charlemagne up to the Protestant Rebellion. Sure, you can call it Western Civ if you like. Christianity built Western Civ, that much is without question. Well I completely disagree with you about Zinn. He was absolutely a liar and I and others have proved his bad history over and over again so there's not much else to discuss there. I also disagree with you regarding Carroll and probably a ton of other things so I guess we'll have to simply agree to disagree and leave it at that. This isn't the place for this sort of discussion anyway.

Maatlock
>>95950400

Woke isn't hurting them. It's pushing out products that suck while also trying to squeeze discretionary income that just isn't there.

Flowers

As a fellow GenXer, I think this is the kind of thing you can offer that the younger folks on YT can't. We've been around the block enough to read between the lines on these obfuscated corporate announcements. I love your analysis, even if they're not big traffic on YT :/ Hasbro has clearly drunk the Koolaid. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they tired to pull in Kathleen Kennedy to right the ship....

Ajax

Rings of Power certifies that the woke joke doesn't work.

Ajax

The Best actual D&D movie was the second one, "Wrath of the Dragon God", low budget, no big stars, great story, great actual D&D connection...

Craig Sutherland

Hey PDM - I don’t know if you realized it or not, but the D&D movie does in fact take place in the Forgotten Realms - you can see Neverwinter in the trailer as well as the a red wizard of Thay.