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Wizards of the coast is bankrupt and finished after laying off 20 employees :chuditsover::marseyyugi: hacker news in shambles :marseycry:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38668906

Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering.

If I had to make a guess as to why, given the fact that the people they laid off were all senior leaders and the numbers are good, it would be preparing for a pump and dump.

if you want to be able to pump and dump a really strong brand then you need to be able to have leaders who don't mind burning the brands equity in order to make money. My guess is that specifically what intending to do here.

Change the leadership, make new “sticky” products, pump revenue numbers, then spin out a public offering of the magic brand that looks like a great new reboot and refresh.

However the brand is only there to smuggle in the subscription model around new products that have strong margin. Everyone* gets rich cause they slaughtered their fattest pig and yet another cultural staple is killed.

>However the brand is only there to smuggle in the subscription model around new products that have strong margin

you know like selling pieces of paper for over a $100 a box for the last few decades?

I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem.

The genius thing about Magic is that it doesn't place individual value on a card... Video games don't have such safeguards. It's all on the studios servers and they can adjust value on the fly... I feel that's an intrinsic difference that places a video game closer to a casino ("the house always wins") than a TCG (throw out what you think is worth and let the community sort it out).

>online loot boxes

:marseyrage:

>physical loot boxes

:marseyyes:

https://i.imgur.com/lTHBaOW.jpeg

:marseylaughpoundfist:

120
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ngl this is absolutely epic, I didn't know these strags were on the brink and how the heck do they only have a staff of 20? That's insane. lol get fricked nerds, welcome to the real world

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It's owned by Hasbro and is one of the company's most profitable areas. iirc they're trying to squeeze as much out of their paypiggies to make up for losses elsewhere but I'm just vaguely remembering some nyt article I read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/business/magic-the-gathering-hasbro.html

With consumers squeezed by inflation and economic growth slowing down, Hasbro's reliance on Magic for growth has taken on a new urgency. On Thursday, the toymaker reported a loss of nearly $130 million in the fourth quarter, versus a profit of more than $80 million in the same period a year before, as consumers spent less on toys during the crucial holiday shopping season. Last month, the company said it would lay off 15 percent of its workers as it sought to cut up to $300 million in costs.

Magic generated nearly $1.1 billion in revenue in 2022, up 7 percent from the year before. The game accounted for 18 percent of Hasbro's overall revenue last year, higher than its 16 percent share in 2021.


In November, a Bank of America report took Hasbro to task for what it saw as an overly busy release schedule, saying it lowered the value of Magic cards and weakened the franchise. Hasbro's shares fell 10 percent the day the report was released, underscoring how important the card game has become to the 100-year-old company.

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