Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) exceeded all expectations, including those of Wall Street, increasing its quarterly revenue despite heavy criticism and backlash by both content creators and casual fans. Hasbro continues to show strong growth in its digital gaming segment, despite a downturn in toy demand. As of the writing of this article, the company’s shares show a growth of about 14.63%, sitting comfortably at $58.93, but showing potential for further growth.
The news for the company’s revenue growth is rather surprising, considering a slowdown in demand for toys across the United States. Retailers are also showing concern under the weight of global inflation and fear of recession, cutting down toy orders to potentially avoid overspending. That didn’t stop Magic: The Gathering from increasing its revenue by 16%.
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity
To everyone’s surprise, this comes at a time when Hasbro’s daughter company Wizards of the Coast is under constant barrage from all sides, being accused of employing predatory tactics such as mass expansion releases and overpricing, but it goes beyond that. Recently, Wizards of the Coast made news again by employing Pinkerton agents to raid the home of a content creator for accidentally leaking a future Magic The Gathering product due to poor distribution on behalf of the company.
This should have further destroyed customer goodwill, but that didn’t seem to derail the hype behind Phyrexia: All Will Be One. P.T. Barnum’s famous phrase “There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right.” once again rings true. To their credit, Hasbro apparently made some necessary moves to answer the ever-increasing wave of fan displeasure, such as spreading out Magic the Gathering expansion releases more evenly – welcome news for players.
Toys, Board Games, Movies – Hasbro Does It All
Hasbro is also relying on the success of a series of blockbuster movie releases on popular franchises. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves became an overnight success, receiving positive reviews from critics and grossing over $179 million worldwide. Hasbro took advantage of the success, releasing various promotional toys and merchandise based on the film, such as Monopoly, Dicelings, and Golden Archive action figures. There are a lot more movies based on Hasbro franchises on their way, including Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, G.I. Joe spin-offs, Power Rangers, and even a Monopoly movie.
A stark contrast to Hasbro’s growth, rival toy company Mattel experienced a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss mostly due to the low demand for their physical Barbie and Hot Wheels toys by retailers. It would seem that the future and gaming is, digital.