Hasbro Gamer CEO focuses on games after movie business sale

(Bloomberg) — Hasbro Inc. Chief Executive Chris Cocks couldn’t hide his disappointment as he opened two packs of the company’s “Magic: The Gathering” playing cards at a New York board game cafe.

Cocks likes to play with a red deck, with aggressive cards that can quickly deliver creatures and spells to hammer opponents. Instead, he’s given a more thoughtful blue card that requires him to patiently strategize to drain his opponent’s health and win the game. He shuffled the cards resolutely and drew the first hand.

Cox, a gamer at heart, was appointed to take charge of what was then the largest U.S. toymaker in 2022 following the death of his predecessor, Brian Goldner. Like other toy companies, Hasbro has seen a surge in sales as parents buy gifts for children stuck at home during the pandemic.

But that boom began to fade once kids returned to school and other activities. Sales in the company’s consumer products division, which includes classic toys like “G.I. Joe” action figures and Play-Doh, are expected to fall for a third straight year. Analysts predict only modest growth in 2025. Hasbro has laid off more than 1,000 employees and is considering moving to Boston from its longtime headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, films Hasbro has co-financed, including the recent Transformers One and Dungeons & Dragons: Thieves of Honor, have received critical acclaim but underperformed at the box office. The company sold off most of its film and television businesses last year, with longtime rival Mattel Inc. surpassing it in annual sales.

While studios such as Sony Corp. and Lionsgate Entertainment Inc. will continue to make movies based on the company’s products, Hasbro itself will not co-finance the films. It’s part of a larger strategy to invest more in video and other games, which are popular with children and adults and take up more of consumers’ leisure time.

“We want to take fans where they want to go and increasingly do that through digital expressions of their favorite brands,” Cox said.

The Microsoft veteran joined Hasbro in 2016 as president of the company’s Wizards of the Coast division, which makes Magic: The Gathering and the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games. The segment’s sales nearly doubled between 2019 and 2023, to $1.4 billion, as Cocks launched new Magic card packs and an online version called Magic Arena.

A licensing deal for the popular game “Monopoly Go” is expected to bring in $105 million this year, while another licensing deal for “Baldur’s Gate 3” will bring in $90 million in the first six months.

Hasbro wants to make more games of its own. The company has invested $1 billion in developing video games. Cox said he is setting aside $100 million to $150 million a year for future projects, including a new sci-fi adventure game called “Exodus,” which will be led by veterans of “Baldur’s Gate” developer BioWare.

Cocks said Hasbro is also developing a new, previously unannounced “Dungeons and Dragons” video game, as well as an action-adventure game based on “G.I. Joe” that is currently in pre-production. The company aims to release one to two video games per year by 2026.

Video games are not a foolproof way to combat resistance in toys and movies. In 2023, Wizards of the Coast canceled at least five video games due to the industry’s post-pandemic shrinkage. More than 11,500 video game workers have lost their jobs so far this year. Some analysts predict the market will rebound in 2025 but still not reach the coronavirus-driven highs of 2021.

“Video games are very, very competitive, I can’t stress that enough,” said Arpine Kocharyan, an analyst at UBS Securities. “The only way to win is to have these games that can stand the test of time. Strong branding, but also strong execution, when you marry those people, you’re going to have success like Monopoly Go or Baldur’s Gate.”

Hasbro is looking to invest more in its Magic: The Gathering video game format. Sales of this fantasy card game have grown annually over the past six years, with revenue exceeding $1 billion in 2022. But Cox said Magic Arena, while popular, didn’t capitalize on Magic’s two biggest growth areas: collectibility and the Commander format, which involves more players and cards.

Currently, Hasbro is testing a video game version of Commander that may be separate from Arena and allow more than two players to compete. Hasbro also wants to make digital versions of its cards, like the popular game Marvel Snap, more collectible.

Magic: The Gathering is adding characters from The Lord of the Rings and Marvel Comics into its fantasy gaming setting, which is drawing mixed reactions from fans who feel Hasbro is diluting the Magic vibe. Despite this, Magic’s Lord of the Rings cards are the second in the series to gross over $200 million, and are the fastest-selling and highest-selling cards in the game. Hasbro hopes these sets will bring in new and retired players. The Spider-Man inspired series will launch in 2025.

“Think of Magic as a canvas,” Ken Troop, the game’s global head of gaming, said in an interview last month at Hasbro’s New York offices. “Magic IP is one of the things we can put on the canvas, but there are other things we can put on top of it.”

Back at the Manhattan Café, Cox takes the lead in the Magic game. He held a card close to his chest and joked that it could play an important role in the game. Once his victory was assured, he revealed it: a useless gray card.

“The reasons why Magic is so successful will drive Hasbro’s future success,” Cox said, with a little giggle in his voice. “It’s game-based.”

—With help from Thomas Buckley.

(Adds analyst comment in paragraph 13.)

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