RichStein13
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hipstersofthecoast.com
RichStein13
@hipstersofthecoast.com
he/him

President/Chairman of Hipsters of the Coast

Here to talk about Social Justice, Fabula Ultima, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, Final Fantasy, and Ice Hockey.
I'm pretty sure I specific did not include Birds of Paradise because why would need mana of other colors and it had no power to attack with. I probably added Fyndhorn Elves when Ice Age came out.
August 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
At 13 years old my favorite deck was Wild Growths, Instill Energy, Llanowar Elves, Force of Nature and Giant Growth. And Lifeforce to stop any Terror/Dark Banishing shenanigans.
August 8, 2025 at 2:44 PM
This will eventually be the sites account once I make some time to switch my personal stuff to another account
July 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Alright, I'll give it a shot, thanks!
July 23, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Collecting is definitely a massive driver for tabletop. I'm not surprised tabletop brought in way more revenue than digital. What I'm surprised by is that digital revenue was down at all, especially given Monopoly Go! raking in money.
July 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
That's a great point. How many people took the money they'd normally spend on Arena and just bought as much physical product as they could? Especially the Collectors boxes given the BANANAS prices for some (a lot of) cards! Shooting themselves in the foot!
July 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
That's certainly a fair take!
July 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Believe me, I'm pulling for this thing. There's nothing I'd love more than a great 3D VTT for D&D that seamlessly integrates with my D&D Beyond account and all my encounters, monsters, etc., and player data.

But yeah, the rollout of Sigil has been kinda lackluster.
July 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM
That's possible. I wonder if they decided to change the definition of who counts as a player? Hasbro claims Magic has 50M fans. It would take a big # of self-reporters to bring the avg up by even a month let alone 5 years.

The FF release stuff is the only explanation I can think of for WPN stores
July 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
That's all I have on this. Would love to hear other people's thoughts that aren't related to how G.I. Joe and Transformers are holding the company back (they're not).
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
That's a big change in 3 mos. Who's doing this accounting? We trust Wizards to understand their consumers. Mark Rosewater talks about the marketing research they do and the trust they put in that. But to be off 17% on a key demographic like age, and to miscount retailers by 25%? What gives?
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Anyways, the third thing to focus on is the Magic info box that was towards the end of the presentation. This is in my article for Hipsters. Three months ago for Q1 earnings, Wizards said the average player was 30 and there were 7500 WPN stores. Now its 35 and there are 9000 WPN stores.
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Or, is Dungeons and Dragons Beyond such a money pit that it weighs everything down? D&D recently tried to move into the 3D virtual tabletop space with Sigil but it doesn't seem to be building momentum yet. I don't think it was mentioned in the earnings report at all.
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Is Magic Arena losing players? Are players not spending as much money? Where Tabletop Magic is very clearly relying on Commander and collectibles (Secret Lairs) as cash cows, what is Arena relying on? You'd think giving away all those Final Fantasy Collector Booster Boxes would have had some impact?
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Magic Arena is a big part of Wizards' overall strategy, so much so that they completely off-boarded Magic the Gathering Online to a 3rd-party vendor. But Digital Games revenue is down quarter-over-quarter and that's supposedly with Monopoly Go! bringing in a ton of money.
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Second, do pay attention to the vast gulf between Tabletop and Digital revenue! Why does Final Fantasy's success result in massive revenue shifts in Tabletop but not Digital? Digital LOST revenue this quarter. This is a story not a lot of folks are looking at, but it should be.
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
First, don't pay attention to the "goodwill impairment charge" mostly because it applies to the consumer goods side of the company, which I think we've all known has been floundering for a while. The impairment is likely an acknowledgement of the shifting waters in that industry and Hasbro's role.
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I wrote a short news piece for Hipsters on it this morning, but because our preference for news articles is to provide facts and context I didn't provide too much editorial. We want people to know the difference. And I didn't want anyone to misconstrue financial advice.

But I do have opinions...
July 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM