Yet another reason corporations should NOT be considered people. Boycott Hasbro!

@liamcage7208

7 ай бұрын

So you don't think that another Boycott won't cost more people their jobs???? Huh?

@PathfinderPhD

7 ай бұрын

@liamcage7208 As I disagree with the behavior Hasbro and their executives, the only effect I can have is refusing to give Hasbro any of my money (as well as encouraging others to do the same). Are you aware of any other way to show disapproval? Money is the only thing that matters to corporations. I gave them my money in the past and look where we are now. Thankfully, I don't need to give them more money to be able to play the game, though I find I am more interested in tying out other ttRPG systems.

@kilbert666

7 ай бұрын

@@liamcage7208 okay, and? I guess we'll just lt them hold people hostage then, fuck it. Lets go buy slaves so the innocent people workkng for the slavers don't lose their jobs, when does the line get drawn, dipshit?

@natanoj16

7 ай бұрын

how much I want to support the developers, the only way to stop this behavior from the companies is to hurt their bottom-line. The only way to protect workers and devs in the future is boycotts. @@liamcage7208

@dwainedwards615

7 ай бұрын

@@liamcage7208 sad to say but at this point, Hasbro is a sinking ship. Its best to let it sink and see where D&D and other IPs you love wind up, this year they have fired like 25-30% of their workforce. These people regardless of if we boycott or not, are likely going to lose their jobs because most of Hasbro just isn't profitable. I dont think we need to boycott, but rather vote with our wallets. Don't like what Hasbro and subsequently WOTC is making? then stop buying it. No point buying things you dont like for a company you dont want to support. Its probably better for these people to break off before Hasbro really sinks.

12:35 - if you think 9 years is bad, wait til you hear: they fired Liz Schuh, who had been at WotC for 28 years. I was 10 years old and wouldn't even play D&D for another couple years when she started there. Hasbro is soulless.

@Mark73

7 ай бұрын

Most corporations are soulless. Definitely all publicly traded companies.

@AndrewJHayford

7 ай бұрын

@@Mark73 Public corporations need to go away.

@shaunhall6834

7 ай бұрын

So sad!

These are the casualties from when Hasbro declared war on the D&D community. It's rarely the generals who pay the price in battle - it's the troops in the trenches.

The vibe I'm getting from this is that Hasbro hates that their most profitable brands are D&D and MTG and is just trying to squeeze money from them without a care for their long-term continued success

@GuyverFan

7 ай бұрын

Same. I've thought that for awhile.

@theawkwardpotato1973

7 ай бұрын

I kinda get that vibe, too. I think Hasbro is just being a bad company making bad decisions when it really should be the designers on the ground floor making the decisions for their respective IPs. Not the higher-ups who are just focused on the money with as little effort as possible, as quickly as possible, and nothing else. I never liked speedrunning in video games, but at least speedrunners put care and practice into what they're doing. This is trying to make money while being AS LAZY AS POSSIBLE. I think it's the higher-ups at Hasbro, and not really WotC themselves.

@PatRiot-le7rd

7 ай бұрын

Right. How dare anything make more than traditional board games like Monopoly or dolls like GI Joe!

@cohlroxkim4819

7 ай бұрын

This is exactly what those MBA douches at corps are required and expected to do. Squeeze maximum profits from company assets as fast and cheaply as possible. The only thing that matters is their next quarterly earnings call. By next year the decision makers will have moved on to a different corp/department/branch where they will be touting their incredible numbers at their previous position. Welcome to capitalism working as intended.

@AndrewJHayford

7 ай бұрын

Corporations don't hate, its more of a detached indifference and lack of love. Its not that they hate these brands, they just don't care. They see it as any other product that makes them money, like butter or used cars.

My work was bought last October by another guy, he promptly laid off 40% of the staff, then over the next year had to hire 75% of them back because he realized they had no one to fill those roles, but on top of that 25% of those not laid off left in the following 3 months as they wanted no part of the sinking ship.

These layoffs have nothing to do with reason, they're an excuse to get rid of people for profitability or just positions they don't care about (like community managers) in the name of "company health."

@Parker8752

7 ай бұрын

I mean, Company Health is and has always been basically another way of saying "the shareholders are worried we might not make enough more profit than last year"

@zenvariety9383

7 ай бұрын

Or they plan on selling WOTC.

@chadwickerman

7 ай бұрын

Perhaps another group can buy DnD from Hasbro's coming fire sale that actually cares about the hobby instead of seeing it as a cash cow.

Hitting even the divisions that are making the real money is called the "Executive Salary Protection Plan". The executives can now plan for taking their golden parachutes and spend all their time finding that next gig through their contacts on the Boards of Directors they sit on currently. It's a tale that has happened in corporations since time immemorial. My hope is Paizo scoops up some of the incredibly talented people to help them move forward with ORC based products. Also, watch for new names at WotC by March 24 as they will hire cheap people to replace some of those they cut.

The news this morning mentioned Hasbro firing people and it just came out as "poor Hasbro, so sad for them losing money". Pissed me off something fierce.

Hmm this is sad. I'm actually a manager in a company. Not a small business, I work for a Newspaper, so some money behind it you know. The only time I've had to let someone go without warning was when a contractor refused to deliver a paper we put in a contract to deliver in our area already. He absolutely refused to deliver it even though he was being paid for the new customer and they were already in his area. So I told him that if he wouldn't I would find someone who would... I let him do the work until then and the moment I found someone I stopped his contract. I didn't feel good about it, but he didn't leave me a choice. That being said by what I know, it sounds like the order is more like you have to cut X amount of employees or X salary from your department. So that might be why it feels random, which is a terrible way to do it.

Can’t believe my first reaction was “not the magic staffs!” Then realized this is not about magic items and the 5e rework…

@Rhinemann

7 ай бұрын

I would rather they mess up the staves in the next edition, because Pathfinder exists and it's good. But that's just unethical and IRL BBEG-ing.

The sheer fact that some people in these comments are even saying "It's just business" ... that's even worse than if it was personal. "You were fired due to a mathematical reason. Leave immediately. You will not be missed." Never again WOTC. Also that sudden wardrobe change at 9:03 startled me XD.

@trappleton

7 ай бұрын

In You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan is put out of business by Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks loves the Godfather and says, "it's not personal, it's business." Setting aside that he's quoting a literal mobster, Ryan finally responds, "it wasn't personal FOR YOU." I always thought that should be more widely remembered.

Chris Cox and Cynthia Williams have to go. I believe there will be an even bigger backlash from this than there was from the OGL debacle.

@gm9460

7 ай бұрын

Isn’t this a video about being against people losing their jobs?

@paulunderhill550

7 ай бұрын

@@gm9460 have you been hiding under a rock. These 2 need to go. Period.

So I remember back during the OGL scandal that many people said nothing was going to change. I really wish I had screenshotted the conversations because man so I feeel 2 things. 1: I feel good that I was proven correct and that the OGL scandal did effect the company. 2: I am so sorry for all the workers losing their jobs.

@XanderHarris1023

7 ай бұрын

D&D and MTG are still making bank compared to rest of the company. The OGL didn't effect their Monopoly sales. Hasbro is bleeding cash but that isn't because of WOTC by a wide margin.

@Giozize

7 ай бұрын

But…nothing did change. Sure, they are bleeding a bit and lost employees, but their content is still bad, they are still at the top, with people still holding 5e as the most popular system (and bringing new people to it as the “most newbie friendly” system (which isn’t the case) not to mention people from BG3 It did hurt them, but I don’t think it’s been enough to actually enact change. Things continue as planned, with a digital-first subscription-based “new” “system” coming next year with their 5e-2

@lystic9392

7 ай бұрын

​@@GiozizeYeah it takes a lot for the MtG community to take a stand.

There's only one answer to give Hasblow for this, and it should be obvious: *QUIT BUYING WotC PRODUCTS!* Seriously: there are far too many *GOOD* games available for us as a community to continue supporting a company like this. Yes, it's not the designers' fault and WotC isn't responsible for Hasblow's missteps (except for management; we need to remember that it was *WotC MANAGEMENT* that sent armed Pinkerton thugs to the home of a MtG collector and KZreadr), but we cannot allow this corporation to continue to MISmanage the game that started our entire hobby. Apparently Hasblow failed to get the message after the other "PR gaffes" (read: utter mismanagement of our hobby) earlier this year, and require another lesson in what happens when you disrespect your target audience. *Boycott ALL Hasbro products!*

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the people that were laid off were people who were not 100% on board with Hasbro/WotC new monitize "everything including" via gatekeeping approach.

Wild to me that the worker's rights are so lacking that they are free to do as they like. Very unfortunate development.

@rootyful

7 ай бұрын

WotC employees desperately need to unionize

@marcogenovesi8570

7 ай бұрын

@@rootyful unions can't keep people employed against the employer's will. The only thing they can advocate is do a more "humane" firing with months of warning and maybe more severance, but that's it

@Fionor01

7 ай бұрын

@@marcogenovesi8570 Which si the least that company could do. It's worth having an union just for this reason only.

@marcogenovesi8570

7 ай бұрын

@@Fionor01 meh it depends from how much the union fee is and how good the union leaders are. In many cases it's cheaper and simpler to just quit at the first sign of trouble and go working somewhere else.

@TheStarStreak

7 ай бұрын

@@marcogenovesi8570 With enough unions to demand a change they can keep people employed. That's been the case here in Sweden since 1938 when the Saltsjöbaden Agreement was signed. This is further expanded upon with collective agreements. This doesn't mean that people can't lose their jobs here, they can and do. But it does mean that employers must have an objective and justified cause with much better worker protection. To summarize a complicated topic it results in fewer layoffs and effectively the unions keeping people employed.

I totally agree that this is a sign of things to come - WotC making money not by releasing D&D content, but by subscriptions fees and microtransaction in their One VTT. They need tech guys, not artists. But there’s something else here - Hasbro could have waited for after Christmas with this. Could have paid all those affected one extra month of wages. Could have given them a good times notice to soften the blow and find new employment. If they didn’t do that, it’s only for one reason and one reason only: they chose not to. My guess is this only partially about swapping skill sets. I think 80% of the motive was to send a message to WotC. Start making money. You’re all replaceable. No profits, no jobs. The clock is ticking. Make us money, now. I think WotC will be going down now, fast. Focusing on aggressive monetisation, trying to sell “pretty explosions” instead of actual D&D content and being totally out of touch as to what DM’s and players actually want, we might be witnessing the last days of D&D.

You could say I am (in)directly responsible for the layoffs at Hasbro. I stopped purchasing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING from Hasbro and more specifically WotC last January. These layoffs are a direct result of this purchasing decision. I understood the risk and consequences of my actions and still choose to take them as I do not believe WotC should get my money.

@nessesaryschoolthing

7 ай бұрын

Better to put your money toward supporting whatever these creatives do next. They can't be beholden to Hasbro for a paycheck if Hasbro can't afford to give them a paycheck.

Hasbro "why are our sales dropping further" this sucks for all those people i honesty hope hasbro fails and has to sell WOTC to a company that actually cares (hard to find but still)

@zenvariety9383

7 ай бұрын

Also Hasbro: We need to make everything even more queer. Sales drop even more as the public gets tired of poorly made virtue signalling products.

Hasbro is repeating the actions of tsr in order. Cant wait for Hasbro to sell of wotc or dnd!

@nessesaryschoolthing

7 ай бұрын

I wonder who would buy it. ... Oh, God, it's going to be Disney isn't it?

@llamatronian101

7 ай бұрын

​@@nessesaryschoolthingMattel maybe, as Hasbro's direct competition. Amazon if you're looking for an option worse than Disney. Tencent as an outside pick. But what do I know?

@nessesaryschoolthing

7 ай бұрын

@@llamatronian101 Amazon seems like a strong possibility, you're right.

Please. Stop supporting Hasbro. Please. Can you stop supporting a bad, greedy, incompetent and awful company? Can you stop supporting one of the worst entertainment companies ever? Can you?

@MichaelG485

7 ай бұрын

That's why they are doing so poorly and needed to lay off all these people. Their revenue and profits have been hit hard this year because not as many people are buying stuff.

Good on you for staying on top of this and giving it the attention it deserves.

@187nags

7 ай бұрын

sad but its apart of business, I survived two downsizes at a previous employer.

@CommissarMitch

7 ай бұрын

​@187nags Naw screw that. The CeO could easily have cut their wage to keep more people afloat. I believe it is always the top that should take the fall first, because they are always the ones to brag about the rise first.

@187nags

7 ай бұрын

@CommissarMitch I am not disagreeing with you. They absolutely could cut their bonuses with that being said. How many people in power have the integrity to cut their own wages instead of somebody else's. You typically become a ceo by being a greedy bastard.

Farmers insurance did the same thing back in October. My wife was affected. She had been with the company for over 28 years. Was a claims director...and they did it through email.

AI truly has begun to turn from Artificial Intelligence to Abominable Intelligence. 40K was right all along.

I wonder with MCDM and Critical Role making their own games, and Paizo seeming to pick up even more steam, how many will be going to direct and new competitors

I think that there were enough laid off that Hasbro would have either had to give them notice, or give them a severance package. If they didn't, then Hasbro is opening themselves up for a lawsuit. This would be a federal law, and some states are stricter.

ight before the holiday what a joy of a company. We as community need to give them even more backlash then they have gotten recently.

Fun fact: when you get laid off like this, standard practice is to have security escort you out so you feel like a g. d. criminal.

@donalddouds6033

7 ай бұрын

I walked out like a WWE wrestler’s intro when I got walked out years ago at VZW as customer service call center employee. Even told the customer on the line that o had to put him on hold because I was getting fired LMAO.

@spooderous

7 ай бұрын

Funt fact: that's not the reason

Im worried in regards to the artwork theyre going to do like they did a few years ago where they have "fans" submit artwork and grand prize winner gets like whatever new product they are about to release, but in return, Hasbro gets the rights to the artwork to use whenever and however they want without compensation to the artist (beyond the inital book prize)

@marcogenovesi8570

7 ай бұрын

all art competitions have the same right transfer clauses. It's the only way to let the organizer even show the images on his website without risking a lawsuit. Copyright law is not flexible

As Matt Colville said: "Hasbro cares about the [D&D] BRAND, not the GAME." This just feels like a confirmation of that belief. And I honestly wish I could support these people financially. But I want them to know, I'm hoping they get support they desperately need.

Good lord the situation of Work in usa is really wild if something like this ever happened in europe, hasbro would had been eaten alive

I think why a lot of artists are being laid off, is that the next book for oneDnD that is expected to come out in march, has for the most part already had it's print run. Meaning, all the art assets are already done, so they don't need the artists anymore.

@tnttiger3079

7 ай бұрын

These are broadly not artists but art directors and managers... People they need for when the NEXT book comes out.

Remember when Iwata cut his salary in half and other senior execs at Nintendo followed with their own pay cuts, rather than affect the workers because the Wii U flopped? Hasbro, why... Close yourselves, move your leadership to WotC instead if you really want to keep going at this struggle. Just another example of business majors running companies into the ground for a quick buck.

Its sad to see people loose their job in this capitalist dystopia. However, having boycotting them for so long... this is kinda what we wanted. We wanted them to do better or not succeed. And they are chosing not to do better. I support indie devs and i refuse to support AAA games. So ill be excited if these people can get a new indie project off the ground.

Most of these positions are in fields AI companies are saying their products can take over. Art, social media, analytics, management.

Just needed to say that this was a great video. Highlighting the comments of those affected and letting all focus be on that. Very well done.

To explain what happened more succintly, they will not be replacing Amy Dallen, in fact they can't hire anyone for her position except Dallen. In the USA, the difference between a termination and a layoff, is that to be laid-off means that your position in the company will no longer exist but if they do need your position again they are legally obligated to contact you first before hiring anyone else. The reason for the difference is it lets struggling companies be able to let go of staff and rehire quickly when they are able, but most companies just do permanent layoffs and take the tax benefits in order to ease the burden of the unemployment insurance they would have to pay. This diffenece could imply that Hasbro will now be using AI to write their news blurbs. To be fair, I haven't read any of the articles about the incident, so idk if Nonat1s is misquoting the layoff term or has never been laid off in previous jobs.

I've been watching Amy Dallen as an RPG player since Geek & Sundry's heyday, and as a host for Alpha's Wednesday Club.

Just a quick note here on AI Art. The updated WOTC Artist Guidelines say that “We are revising our process and updating our artist guidelines to make clear that artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their art creation process for developing D&D art,". This is a direct quote. So while Wotc may not be able to keep people that the parent company lets go, hopefully by their own admission they will not go to AI generated art.

@trappleton

7 ай бұрын

Their word isn't worth very much right now.

@Ispy10101

7 ай бұрын

@@trappleton Remember, its WotC Artist guidelines, and Hasbro doing the firing. Hopefully that's enough difference to count.

Hasbro suffered a significant drop in the value of their stock this year for obvious reasons (Magic 30 and the OGL debacle being prime examples). Now, to try and artificially inflate their profit margins, they're gutting their staff and have already said they will make more cuts. Meanwhile, the CEO of Hasbro is getting an absurd bonus for doing... nothing? The choices that have damaged Hasbro's perceived value were choices made by Hasbro higher-ups, but they aren't the ones getting fired. They get to make horrendous mistakes and their employees are the ones who pay for it. WotC needs to unionize.

I imagine WotC got told by Hasbro that they need to cut this many positions and reduce expenses by that much, and the heads of WotC had to find a few people among the stuff they can do without most easily. I do hope it's not that they will just privot more to AI as you think, but I can imagine that some of these art director responsibilities will be piled onto the remaining art directors. Surely, if you're capable of managing the art for the card designs, you can take care of the product design too!! Easy peasy! It's awful, and really ridiculous. As you explained - sure, Hasbro struggles, but to gut their most profitable department?? Because someone in Hasbro did their math wrong about how many toys they can sell over the year??

@l33tninja1

7 ай бұрын

Don't forget their promise to massively increase their profits years ago. Dropping a bunch of workers right before Christmas let them gain more money to prop up the appearance of being more profitable when they aren't. Video game studios and many others are known for doing such things.

14:45 - I uttered out loud, seconds before you said that, "Please prove him wrong!" Hahaha. I don't have much faith in Hasbro, but WotC has proven to be ones to at the very least hear and see the community's interest and ideas before with their Unearthed Arcana articles, which is an unimaginably admirable quality in a company... so I'm willing to give them benefit of the doubt. Hasbro doesn't have that for me.

@MisterZimbabwe

7 ай бұрын

I don't follow, unearthed arcana has consistently been middling at best. They tried to make Rangers good THREE TIMES and gave up instead of just applying the tweaks GMs and players already had been telling them to use for YEARS. The Mystic class was straight up banned from play across the board, it was such a mess of overpowered options. They straight up stopped publishing unearthed arcana for an entire year right after promising a specific release schedule. WotC has been bleeding talent left right center for years, and it shows.

The universes beyond director is especially shocking, that entire run of products has been a pure money machine

YOU HAVE ALL MY RESPECTS FOR DOING THIS VIDEO PUSHING THE REAL TALENT OF A COMPANY ... ITS PEOPLE, GOD BLESS YOU.

I’ve got a gut feeling that a massive lawsuit is going to be dropped into Hasbro’s lap whether they like it or not. This is definitely going to cause some serious backlash

@quillogist2875

7 ай бұрын

There is likely no basis for a lawsuits as long as they comply with the WARN statures. Layoffs are an unfortunate part of business. They suck, but they are not illegal.

@CyberScorpio94

7 ай бұрын

@@quillogist2875 fair point but if you remember the OGL fiasco that happened earlier this year the sheer amount of backlash that Hasbro received from the community alone was not pretty.

@TheChillee

7 ай бұрын

I’m sure the terminations were vetted by Hasbro compliance and HR. A suit is a loser, court may not even entertain it.

@TheChillee

7 ай бұрын

Job security? Where do you think you live…. Japan? The community can get upset, but Hasbro doesn’t care. It saw that the fans felt so good after the OGL test, they would not press WoTC to the point of blood/kill. They are probably saying in the board room right now, “ Ignorant peasants.” Hasbro doesn’t care about you TT fans, it’s all about the Virtual TT coming up with the new rules. The boycott of your dollars won’t hurt Hasbro… sorry, it’s true.

@CyberScorpio94

7 ай бұрын

@@TheChillee let me put it in this perspective if a profitable company prides themselves on a “ Good Reputation” but word gets out too the public aka their customer base that the company is doing shady things and the employees are paying the price do honestly think they’ll stay a float for very long.

when i read the tittle i thought you were referring to the Pathfinder wizzard's staff nexus. lol i was heartbroken for about two moments. phew. that was a close one

Hasbro is failing so consistently that I have to wonder if they're tanking their company on purpose. Like, did Blackrock/Hasbro buy WotC, load up on levereaged shorts on Hasbro's stock, and tank their company on purpose?

@nessesaryschoolthing

7 ай бұрын

Sounds like insider trading to me.

There are things I don't like about my company and its leadership, but at least they did the bare minimum when they had massive layoffs and substantially cut C-Level salaries as well as nixed their bonuses.

Didn't they also drop Mike Mearls, AKA one of if not the driving voice behind early 5e design philosophy? Like, that guy was working for WotC during the 3.5e years. Dude's almost a staple of WotC's designers.

@oiman5733

7 ай бұрын

Mearls was "moved" to MtG after a controversy broke out during his time working on D&D. This controversy came up because he basically outed abuse victims to their abuser, who was a freelancer/consultant for WotC in 2014. IMO he should've been fired years ago.

@Franimus

7 ай бұрын

​@@oiman5733Thanks for the clarification. Often layoffs are used as a way to get rid of problematic or underperforming employees that aren't bad enough to be fired normally or without much difficulty. Sounds like they were looking to axe Mike already. Still doesn't excuse the overall situation of laying off 1000+ people with no impact to executive staffing or compensation.

@thabookwyrm

7 ай бұрын

Mostly he made garbage. I dunno about what he did in the 3.5 days but from what I understand, nearly everything he touched from 4e onwards was downright awful. Between that and the "outed abuse victims to their abuser" situation I don't feel too bad for Mike Mearls. Fuck WotC more though, he should have been fired for good reasons and not bullshit ones

@slapshungrybears

7 ай бұрын

@@oiman5733 oh... Well then. Nvm. I guess too little, too late then.

For perspective, I work for a giant soulless insurance company who is also doing budget cuts for 2024, and the first thing they did was offer for early retirement across the entire company for anyone who met the federal age requirement. They then started looking at contractors instead of full timers. Sure says something about Hasbro!

I recognize the name Tristan Falcone. They played Walnut Dawngrass on the ap show Acquisition Incorporated C Team, and I think may have been on the live shows at PAX. Has some voiced lines in the Neverwinter MMO as an active NPC and quest giver.

Clarification for those responding that posit that workers are likely getting severance pay. I don’t know specifics of individuals, but in Rhodesia Island, severance pay is NOT required of employers to employees. If the in-house lawyer is on the ball, hard to imagine such corporate generosity.

I don't think we can assume they didnt get severance because they are asking for new jobs already. As stated in the video, getting jobs in this field is Hard. Even if they got money to cover a few weeks or months, they probably can't "afford" the time to sit around and take a mental health break. Especially when the few positions available will now have a large pool of candidates to consider

@KKRDM

7 ай бұрын

*not saying they aren't screwing people over and not offering severance. Just saying the assumption here may not be accurate.

I do not agree or disagree with the following, only relaying a trend: Big companies are reducing/closing their sensitivity and inclusion employees and/or departments. They feel the "experiment" actually reduced income, not increased it. Most of these employees are not part of that trend, but some were. This is a sad week.

Paizo should hire them. Get a ton of great artists while making themselves the heroes again when WotC screws up? Hell yes.

@SLJames354

7 ай бұрын

Exactly what I thought when I heard about it. Imagine Paizo snatching up these people who suddenly lost their jobs, it's gonna be like a collaboration between Pathfinder and D&D.

@jar8240

7 ай бұрын

I'm sure they'll pick up a some talent but paizo obviously didn't have hasbro deep pockets

@pizza725

7 ай бұрын

Paizo definitely couldn't afford to hire most of them. And they shouldn't tbh, Paizos art is miles ahead of anything WotC has put out for a long time

I have said this for years. If a company can fire you without notice then you can quit without notice. Ie no two weeks.

The more I learn of this, the less sense it all makes sense. This feels too absurd to be real. Just, what the hell?

Sadly this is just business as usual in corporate America.

I would love to find out if they received severance or what their severance was like.

In the private sector, there isn't a whole lot of earned severance package when you have been at a company 5 years or less...

I assume all of these are based in the USA ... since firing people with no notice and no pay is illegal in most civilised countries ... ...and I mean illegal in the fined eyewatering amounts, a lot going to the people you fired way ... Not the USA slap on the wrist way

Remember when everyone boycotted Hasbro and Wizards? Well you don't think the execs took that hit do you???

Aw shucks, you mean they got treated like everyone else in the world who has gotten laid off?

According to Hasbro's own investor relations page, WotC drove ALL the growth for the company in Q3... I think to the tune of 40%. The consumer products division is the one that lost them money. I think, from now on, when a company isn't hitting growth projections, the place to start cutting is the C-Suite.

If one was so disgusted by Hasbro that they didnt want any of their Christmas present money to go towards those pigs executive bonuses, would anyone have a list of the companies they currently feed off?

No one is irreplaceable.

Hasbro stock down 20% this year, and down 40% last year. These layoffs (and ending of corporate partnerships with printers and publishers and game stores and mtg judge training) only ensures similar figures for 2024, 50th anniversary edition D&D or no.

I suspect with the new version coming out, they had gotten the good out of these employees, and didnt need them anymore. Corporate ethics are abysmal, or completely absent. No loyalty to employees, none. Employees are completely expendable.

This has given me the conviction to know that my goal of making my ttrpg is correct

Before they let these people go, maybe the c-suite should take a pay cut. Instead of them making millions, have them go down to a measly 100k or something. Could have saved 100's of jobs.

If I'm not mistaken isn't DND only so profitable from licencing followed by subscription model then actual sales?

i like watching ur vids nonat... today u gain my deep respect

Imagine how many people they could have kept if they weren't wasting 10million a year on a CEO, not to mention they rest of the executive leeches.

This is heartbreaking...

D&D sales are way down. The D&D movie box office residuals are artificially bolstering those numbers. Hasbro's only profitable IP is Magic the Gathering. No one buys Hasbro games anymore. At one time every household had a copy of monopoly but you buy one and that's it for life. The Hasbro model of manufacturing and selling games is a thing of the past and they will inevitably go out of business. Those IPs will get sold off, WoTc will be sold and soon they only way you will be able to play Sorry, or Trivial Pursuit will be on your smart phone.

Cool. That means Paizo can hire anyone that's any good if they want. I stopped caring about WotC and Ha$bro long ago. I do feel bad about people losing their jobs, but the honest good news to ME is that Paizo can poach some talent from WotC.

I am wishing all the remaining WotC staff a very happy Unionize

I have watched many of these videos and its pretty clear who has been through one of these layoffs, and who has not. Hasbro is not the only company to have layoffs because they have taken losses, and not the only one to do it this year. Additionally, most layoffs come with a number of options as part of it. They announce it internally ahead of time so the persons can look for a new position within the company, or in some cases (including Hasbro's) they take an early retirement process. Likely these people were advised of the layoff, and also told not to mention the layoff in advance else lose out on all options or packages. Honestly, I think that this is getting bigger reactions because some of these people have become some level of celebrity to the fans of the games.

@SnowWolf9999

7 ай бұрын

Not necessarily, it's very possible that no one knew anything beforehand. My company laid off a bunch of people in various departments before Thanksgiving (me included) no one, not even the Sr managers knew anything was going to happen, and about halfway through the day the directors walked around and told random people to go to a meeting in the big conference room, once we got there HR was waiting with our folders and they had security walk us directly out of the building, then mailed everything from our desks to us a week later...... I've been through a couple layoffs with other companies in the past and I have never had one as cold and soulless as this one.

@Dlnqntt

7 ай бұрын

​@@SnowWolf9999 Understood that it can happen, but several news outlets already confirmed that was not the case with Hasbro. I love Nonat, but these videos were all reaction and no research.

It's funny that the richest RPG company in the market doesn't want to use the resources they have to make the most banger products. Any number of indie creators (including me) would foam at the mouth to have all the money to hire literally any of our favourite artists and designers to help make their rad book.

Turns out the D&D killer, was hasbro.

It's likely (but definitely not guaranteed) they did get severance but it may not be much (1 week per year of service is common but I've heard of 1 week per 2 years). It very well may have just been random. Big corporations (at least in the US) do that all the time. Some high level manager or bean counter just arbitrarily decides who (or at least how many from which departments) go without understanding anything about what those people/departments really do.

I tried sharing this info in a local Facebook group.. and people just attacked me for sharing.

i doubt its AI yet. AI art is not copyrightable. they want to be able to protect their IP. Laws will need to be changed before AI will take over the main portion of the art.

The leadership of Hasbro, and company leadership in general needs to be taken to task for taking millions in bonuses while cutting people like this. A CEO doing layoffs is not a successful CEO. At least, not to anyone outside of wall street

In the interest of accuracy, the US employees will theoretically be able to collect unemployment income, so they're not completely incomeless, but it still sucks.

This is why I hate capitalism. If you're not at the very top of the pyramid, you are not safe, no matter how hard you work, how long you've been working, the quality of your work, what industry you work in, nothing. No one is safe. Meanwhile the CEOs are all taking joy rides to space, buying giant superyachts to house their smaller superyachts that house their regular yachts, taking vacations all the time, etc. And if you're not being ruthless enough, someone who's willing to be more ruthless than you will run your business to the ground. It's disgusting. This needs to end. It's time for workers around the world to stand together and fight back against their oppressors.

@Gaurelin

7 ай бұрын

I want to like this many times, but can only do so once.

@emmasilver2332

7 ай бұрын

@@Gaurelin your support is appreciated nonetheless.

This is clear restructuring. Pruning positions that are no longer relevant in the new structure, and yeah, looking at where the majority of layoffs are (art and design), it's pretty clear what's going on here. This is just awful and someone needs to just take WotC away from Hasbro, they clearly don't give a flying fuck.

Firing the people who command higher pay so they can replace them with lower paid employees down the line. It's not new and in such a competitive job market it isn't that surprising. Still absolutely disgusting

I love the LinkedIn language of something that has been fired (they don't "let you go", they literally tell you to go out) and despite that they pretend that everything is ok with full of positivity

WotC should unionize and strike in retaliation and to prevent this from happening again.

Aren't they legally required to get severance? Or at least automatically eligible for unemployment?

These corporation like Hasbro shouldn't be allowed to buy other companies. Sure they can develop some things, but mostly it just hurts the IP that people love. They'll try to monetize it in bad ways, overreach and then fire a whole bunch of people. Honestly the rest of WotC should unionize ASAP.

Do people think that these big corporations are just infinite money machines? Look at Hasbro's financials for this year. It's not looking good for them. They've lost $428m in the first 3 quarters this year. It's not the fault of the people they let go, but how do you expect a company to pay it's employees if they keep losing money at that rate? Most companies will at least give out severance packages for these kinds of layoffs, and I hope Hasbro has in this case.

Huh, that's a shock. Still good news for the Furbie relaunch team.

Business is cold.

Chances are very high they will not find work in the same field. I had my product photography job shot out from under my feet by CGI. Now I work at a warehouse. They are smart to immediately start looking for a new gig. They will more than likely have to take whatever they can to pay the bills.

I don't know if anyone suggested this obvious thing for all these released employees that focused on tabletop based materials should definitely look at any of the many gaming companies that signed on with the ORC, cause that would be a double whammy against Hasbro's idiocy for this entire year and drive more nails into the coffin Hasbro has built for themselves.

There is another question here. Have they fired enough people with the right skills that someone with a new idea, game design or project can snap them up as a package? Is there room in the market for a new big project? How new and innovative does that project need to be to break into market share?

It doesn't sound like Trystan and Dixon were laid off, it sounds like they were expressing their feelings about the situation but they still have their own jobs. Both their LinkedIn profiles also still say "present" for WOTC.

I shall now double down on Chrono Conquest: Timeless Adventures. So fed up with what corporations are doing to gaming. From the tabletop and board games, to video games. All such greed focused, forgetting the key ingredient; You make a good game, the money will come. Game first, every time.