Where can I watch the hasbro fireside chat?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Dec. 15, 2022, 8:41 a.m. by shadow63
I've tried finding it on youtube and all I can find is lame ass reaction videos. I know its bland and tone deaf. But I still want to watch it. If anyone has a link to it I'd appreciate it.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day
You can find a written transcript here if you would prefer to just read it.
Also, worth taking every single reaction with a grain of salt - especially the ones that say the chat was tone deaf. Those reactions are all missing the point - this was a video for investors and the presentation was, of course, going to be filled with investor lingo and information presented in a more straightforward, direct way. It was designed to respond to a Bank of America report that put Hasbro stock prices in chaos - and it did that quite effectively by undermining a number of key assumptions from that report.
Overall, any player who finds it tone deaf (for a reason other than calling it a “fireside chat”—a term popularised by FDR—on the anniversary of FDR’s famous Infamy Speech declaring war on Japan) clearly missed the point and stumbled upon something they fundamentally did not understand.
Overall, for those who don’t want to listen or read the transcript, here are the key takeaways—presented without editorial—related to Magic (there’s also some stuff in there on D&D which is being equally misunderstood by that community):
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Shifting focus from breadth approach on 1500 brands to their core 8-10 brands.
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2016, when Chris Cooks started with Wizards, they decided to start surveying to discover what type of player they had, instead of what they were doing—(stupidly) assuming their main players were competitive. They identified a few categories of players. Presently the gift they 80% as casual, 20% as competitive; 50% are some kind of collector; 70% play Commander.
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More MagicFests - four next year.
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Magic has a strong following among players who know of the game, but low brand recognition outside of the core demographic of gamers. One of their main focuses is going to be on player acquisition and brand recognition, which is why they have been pushing Universes Beyond content.
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Wood pulp prices continue to go up; plan is not to raise prices again. Instead focusing on producing products appealing to wider range of customers through wide range of release types and UB.
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Acknowledge end of 2022’s release schedule was a problem for players. Place that blame on supply chain and pulp/printing crunching the releases together. 2023 plan is to return to two months between “Temple” (big product) releases.
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Print on demand means not overprinting product - they don’t have inventory sitting around (effectively shifting blame for product overstock mentioned in Bank of America report on Walmart and Target). Goal of print on demand is to ensure product is not limited quantity at release and subject to price increases by resellers.
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70% of sales are through WPN stores, not the big box stores BoA report focused on.
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80% of WPN stores reported growth or staying static from last year; 60% reported growth.
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For Magic 30th packs, they “scaled back the expected supply to ensure a greater collector experience.” This would be why they said the sale was completed, without saying they sold out like they normally would.
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Say WPN stores are not reporting abnormal problems with the secondary market, as BoA suggested.
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Wizards has low employee attrition for the industry. Just hired 350 people (fails to mention most of those people are for their brand new video game division that is gearing up).
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Can’t keep up with demand on UB products - 40k already on its third reprint. Expect “mega brand” of LotR will be huge for the game.
December 15, 2022 10 a.m.
December 15, 2022 11:07 a.m.
After listening to it and hearing about the data they have I can't blame them for feeling the way that they do. It will be interesting to see how the data holds up through 2023. Considering where getting like 8 sets next year. But part of their approach is to try and please everyone and when you do that you offten end up pleasing no one. I
December 16, 2022 8:16 a.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #6
They have to try and please as many people as possible to get as much profit as possible. That's the nature of the company. Though it is a very fine line to tread on, I agree.
December 16, 2022 3:18 p.m.
I mean, I think that the thing to remember is that this isn't the kind of thing where they would have actual conversations about the game. The main people at hasbro and even the main people at wizards are not people interested in the inner workings of magic the gathering, so when they are talking, you can't really expect that they'd address what is happening in magic, just what is happening with magic. If the game developers aren't having serious talks about how to do better by their players, then that's a problem, but if the higher ups aren't talking about it, it's because they don't have a reference to do so.
I really hope that things get better, it's just, I don't think that this talk is indicative of anything really. We will see how things look when they start releasing new products in 2023, but I don't think we will really know anything before that. Most game decisions will be, probably rightly, made behind closed doors, and I guess all we can do is wonder if the game designers are listening to feedback. Because, I don't think that all of 2022 was bad, there were some really fun magic parts of it, but ask 1000 magic players what their favorite year in the game was, and 1000 of them will tell you anything but this year.
PartyJ says... #2
You can listen to the webcast, as there is no video. But as you already mentioned, it is kinda a struggle to hear it out....
Fireside chat
Good luck and 'enjoy'.
December 15, 2022 9:42 a.m.