General CBS
- Thread starter James Stevenson
- Start date
You have reached the stage of enlightenment known as Nuclear Gandhi.
A few news from Wizards of the Coast yesterday:
- Hasbro has announced that Wizards of the Coast must increase their profit (revenue - costs = profit) by 50 % over the next 3 years as of yesterday.
- Paper Magic is back to having their prereleases before Magic Arena. Also prereleases aren't prereleases anymore. Now they're releases because consumers are now allowed to buy all products from the day of the prerelease. Cards are still only legal to play for sanctioned tournaments from the day of release.
- Secret Lair: Post Malone has been announced
- Hasbro has announced that Wizards of the Coast must increase their profit (revenue - costs = profit) by 50 % over the next 3 years as of yesterday.
- Paper Magic is back to having their prereleases before Magic Arena. Also prereleases aren't prereleases anymore. Now they're releases because consumers are now allowed to buy all products from the day of the prerelease. Cards are still only legal to play for sanctioned tournaments from the day of release.
- Secret Lair: Post Malone has been announced
That is dire news. 50% profit increase is much, much different than 50% revenue increase. Their last goal was a revenue increase. That just means getting more money in the door. Could be at 0% margin, just more money in the door. This means getting 50% extra money in the door above the profit they are making. That means either 50% extra revenue (at exactly the same margin as their current), or increased revenue beyond that if margins are down, or it means simply find ways to squeeze more out of what they are putting out.
That could mean increased pricing. That could mean decreased quality to shave overhead. That could mean an even higher pace of product release. That almost assuredly means more investor-targeted products that are more cryptocurrency than actual game pieces.
Ugh.
That could mean increased pricing. That could mean decreased quality to shave overhead. That could mean an even higher pace of product release. That almost assuredly means more investor-targeted products that are more cryptocurrency than actual game pieces.
Ugh.
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Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Wait. I thought Velrun was joking. These all sounded like joke items. What is happening?!
I also assumed Velrun’s news items were satirical. Though this is partly because the national news here in Britain is increasingly absurd.
No joke.
Only thing is I am not 100 % sure they said profit. Maybe they said revenue but I believe I heard profit.
Prereleases are being prioritized on paper over Arena again. They are also no longer actually PRE releases. Money has to go up and to the right and up up up. And the Post Malone thing is also not joke. But it kind of is? But it isn't.
What the fuck, 50% more profit? That's just insane. I also thought Velrun was joking at first. And no, other people are also talking about how Hasbro is asking for 50% more revenue.
The only way to get those numbers is to release a massive amount of cards. They are going to release branded cards for everything under the sun and perhaps try to reprint the entire Magic pool in special sets. I don't know how it's possible to get those numbers otherwise.
The only way to get those numbers is to release a massive amount of cards. They are going to release branded cards for everything under the sun and perhaps try to reprint the entire Magic pool in special sets. I don't know how it's possible to get those numbers otherwise.
It's definitely profit they are talking about: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hasbro-announces-plan-grow-profit-160000980.html
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
So, it's probably a 50% compound increase over 3 years, so that figure sounds higher than it actually is, but we're still talking around 15% annual increase, which seems ridiculous. Since MtG is already Hasbro's biggest earner, I wonder how much of that profit increase will actually fall on Magic's shoulders. Obviously $1K product is a good way to meet your targets, if those do indeed sell...
A lot. MTG is Hasbro's crown jewel
Am I the only one who got the image of the bad firelord from avatar the last airbender cartoon flashback from this quote?
Not much. They use the Extort mechnic for extra lifegain, approximately every time a new product hits the shelves.
No surprise to me. Chris Cocks was promoted to CEO of Hasbro not even a year back, we'll be seeing these new moves and implementations a couple of years out. Get ready for product dilution out the ass with even more SL collabs and Universes Beyond. I had a feeling things were going to go south that one pre-SL stream they had with that jackass sneakerhead exec. Just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe we'll have a Play-Doh themed prerelease in a year or two (you just play with the play-doh and get a promo card), a Power Rangers direct to Legacy set (Zords have always been Tron!), and a Peppa Pig themed FNM format for the forseeable future (Magic: the Gathering now recommended for ages
I've already decided for that if I see a Ragavan like format staple in the upcoming LoTR set that will be direct to modern, that that would be my signal to sell out of any Modern stuff I have lying around and fully transition to EDH and Cube (I'm already like 85% there). I was really into building up a collection for Modern a few years back near the end of college when I felt the format had stability and was worth following, but Horizons rotation and insane power creep soured me on the format as a whole.
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I'm just happy I got out of all constructed formats with SL:TWD, and now only acquire cards from other people and the two FLGS I like.
We had the worst Standard since like, Urza's block, with nothing but "No this is fine its how we do things now" philosophy of fire nonsense (I wish they'd don't the Urza's thing and just called everyone in design and development up and yelled at them), worsening support for the LGS's, Judges, and communities that make the game profitable (You know, like the subtitle on the back of every single card?), and then the most tone deaf, dumbest response to what amounted to an addition to the Reserve List - which is hated by everyone except the finance-obsessed speculators that inhibit the game from actually being played (I'm still annoyed over the uproar from the Phyrexian Negator reprint).
It's been awful announcement after awful announcement ever since, and I'm genuinely annoyed with myself over getting suckered in by the nostalgia bait that makes me want to come back to retail limited.
I remember when having a standard ban list was such an anomaly it was news for weeks. I want to go back.
I don't think Magic will die. It's been too big to too many people, and the existence of formats like Old School and Australian/Canadian Highlander and Pauper and all that show that there would be a grassroots community doing whatever they want to do with their wizard squares no matter how much Hasbro and Wizards fuck up from here on out.
We had the worst Standard since like, Urza's block, with nothing but "No this is fine its how we do things now" philosophy of fire nonsense (I wish they'd don't the Urza's thing and just called everyone in design and development up and yelled at them), worsening support for the LGS's, Judges, and communities that make the game profitable (You know, like the subtitle on the back of every single card?), and then the most tone deaf, dumbest response to what amounted to an addition to the Reserve List - which is hated by everyone except the finance-obsessed speculators that inhibit the game from actually being played (I'm still annoyed over the uproar from the Phyrexian Negator reprint).
It's been awful announcement after awful announcement ever since, and I'm genuinely annoyed with myself over getting suckered in by the nostalgia bait that makes me want to come back to retail limited.
I remember when having a standard ban list was such an anomaly it was news for weeks. I want to go back.
I don't think Magic will die. It's been too big to too many people, and the existence of formats like Old School and Australian/Canadian Highlander and Pauper and all that show that there would be a grassroots community doing whatever they want to do with their wizard squares no matter how much Hasbro and Wizards fuck up from here on out.
As a counterpoint, Pioneer and Modern are both interesting and healthy. Pioneer's getting plenty of play around me (though I am moving in 3 days, so who knows what being halfway around the world will do to my POV there) and is the best it's ever been. Modern is annoyingly the MH2 Block format, but all the same is not so far off from the best it's ever been to play, with diverse decks that do interesting things and lots of disruption and back-and-forth.
AND YET, I am truly offended by this 30th Anniversary expansion, and I'm the target audience in so many ways (other than making 12/15 cards in the new border???? who wants that from this kind of product??????). I think it, much more than the Fortnite-ification of Magic or the sloppy Digital-first design process or the black hole of a EDH-centric R&D, represents a trajectory for the game I am actually worried about, after finding most of the complaints of the last 10 years overblown.
Like those other issues, I'm confident Magic will overcome this.
But unlike something like Universes Beyond, which has fantastic and obvious value regardless of its risks and challenges, I see these 30th Anniversary boosters as a thesis statement. It declares that WotC is merely beginning their exploitation-driven product mentality I had previously believed was at its logical extreme with Collector's Boosters and Secret Lair -- initiatives that I can support, even with their warts.
So even though I'm still confident in the overall health of the game, and my ability to get a playgroup to draft with me when my Cube is drinking age (halfway there babyyyy), I can't imagine we're on a path where the unadulterated growth of Magic continues at this rate without diluting what makes the game so special. It's weird to think, even though the game's got decades of steam left, this may be the peak of the game.
AND YET, I am truly offended by this 30th Anniversary expansion, and I'm the target audience in so many ways (other than making 12/15 cards in the new border???? who wants that from this kind of product??????). I think it, much more than the Fortnite-ification of Magic or the sloppy Digital-first design process or the black hole of a EDH-centric R&D, represents a trajectory for the game I am actually worried about, after finding most of the complaints of the last 10 years overblown.
Like those other issues, I'm confident Magic will overcome this.
But unlike something like Universes Beyond, which has fantastic and obvious value regardless of its risks and challenges, I see these 30th Anniversary boosters as a thesis statement. It declares that WotC is merely beginning their exploitation-driven product mentality I had previously believed was at its logical extreme with Collector's Boosters and Secret Lair -- initiatives that I can support, even with their warts.
So even though I'm still confident in the overall health of the game, and my ability to get a playgroup to draft with me when my Cube is drinking age (halfway there babyyyy), I can't imagine we're on a path where the unadulterated growth of Magic continues at this rate without diluting what makes the game so special. It's weird to think, even though the game's got decades of steam left, this may be the peak of the game.
the peak of the game was (insert the block i started playing in) and Magic’s been downhill ever since!
