No, if you are going to resort to insults, it is time you humor me.
- So Chris Cocks took the reigns of Hasbro in February of 2022.
- Hasbro has a Fiscal start/end of January to December (this is actually not common - companies often have years that end in March or October)
- So Chris has only been in the CEO slot for about 1.5 years. He came from the WOTC digital division and his overall plan is to move Hasbro properties into the digital age.
- He has made some good and bad decisions:
- Bad -The OGL decision was not a good one and I think he realized that. Going after your own free marketing for a few dollars here or there isn't a sound strategy. Enforcement would be a nightmare and it would cause a lot of bad blood. They ended up walking it back - or spinning it into something else. whatever.
- Good - In August 2023 they announced the sale of the Media divisions of D&D, film and TV for 500 Million to Lionsgate. They bought it for 4 Billion. This was a very good decision as they had never made any money here and the whole industry is going through rapid changes, not making money, streaming drama and it's a really risky property to hold onto. Despite being a good decision it was still a 3.5 billion dollar write-off of the value of those divisions. It puts a lot of pressure on Chris to prove his strategy will work.
- Keep in mind, even though they announced it this August, it had been planned and announced by Chris internally for a long time.
- Also Bg3 was released in August 2023 - to rave reviews and to date has made between 500-700 Million in total sales.
- Bg3 holds a license with WOTC/Hasbro for use of the D&D IP limited to Bg3. I do NOT have the details of this license or the amounts that Hasbro is slated to pocket from the sale of the game. I WISH I could get a look at it but it's not public information.
- Chris Cocks stated in August (end of) that Bg3 had made more money FOR HASBRO than its entire movie and tv division had in the last TEN YEARS!! I tried to get a numerical breakdown of what the profit loss for the TV/Movie div did in the last 10 years but I only have guesswork and fragments. They never release what the marketing costs are and that stymies my efforts.
- However, we *think* Honor Among Thieves cost about 300 million with marketing and it made 208 Million at the Box Office. it was pretty quickly sold to all the streaming services - which is what we call a Fire sale - probably because they knew they were selling the division anyway.
- Meanwhile, BG3 had a $100 Million budget, and maybe another $30-50 M for marketing (at MOST) - and is clocking in at 500-700 million SO FAR. It's expected to hit the 1 Billion mark after the Xbox release and within the next year.
OK, and here is the REALLY important part.- Swen Vinke in one of his last interviews indicated that they w
ere looking at DOS3 for the next game and not to continue the Bg3 story or return to the forgotten realms but it would depend. - This was a huge bomb going off - for the CEO of Larian to make a statement like this meant they were not happy with aspects of the relationship with Hasbro or the Licensing agreement - or both. And hey, maybe creatively they just *wanted* to return to Rivellon - but this didn't really make a lot of sense to me.
- I think Hasbro may have had time stipulations/penalties in the agreement they had with Larian. Same thing Bethesda did to Obsidian Entertainment over Fallout NV. Obsidian lost a ton of money on a technicality despite making a wildly successful RPG and probably the best Fallout post Black Isle to this day.
- I can't PROVE this 100% - but it's telling that the release was just in time for Q4/End of year sales numbers when Hasbro is down 37% revenue. Chris needed to show - and he has - that his pivot of the company is paying dividends despite the short term loss - but I bet you that release date was REALLY important to Chris and Hasbro.
- But it WASN'T important to Larian. They had wethered a global pandemic that slowed down production massively, so they were WAY off schedule just like everyone else and I can't find a FISCAL reason for LARIAN, in priori, to have made a decision to release the game early.
Anyway. That's all I was trying to say. Now I need a nap.
