WotC’s Parent Company Hasbro Announced 1,100 Employee Layoffs Just Before Holidays
Hasbro becomes the villain of a low-level D&D adventure and/or a holiday movie, laying off 1,100 employees two weeks before Christmas.
WotC and Hasbro have generated some of the worst PR this year. Wizards of the Coast rang in 2023 with the Open Gaming License debacle — a move that rocked the tabletop gaming industry to its core and whose fallout the company is still feeling today.
Today, Hasbro, the parent company of the D&D and Magic: the Gathering, announced that they were laying off 1,100 employees (on top of an already downsized 800) two weeks before Christmas.
Hasbro Goes Grinch Mode at the End of 2023
The announcement from Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks came in the form of an internal memo that was shared with CBS MoneyWatch:
“Today we’re announcing additional headcount reductions as part of our previously communicated strategic transformation, affecting approximately 1,100 colleagues globally in addition to the roughly 800 reductions already taken.”
They’re not “firing people” they’re “announcing headcount reductions” that will “affect colleagues”. I don’t know if you can call the person you’re pulling the kind of move that Charles Dickens thought was so evil it would damn a man to an unmourned, celebrated death and leave them doomed for all time in the afterlife on, “a colleague”.
But it’s not all bad. As CBS MoneyWatch reported some of the reductions won’t occur right away, just over the next six months. Today is the day that people find out if they were fired. Er. Reduced.
This is almost a full fifth of its workforce gone. And literally two weeks before Christmas.
Cocks’ decision comes in the wake of a very “soft” toy market. But, according to an email published by the Wall Street Journal, Cocks remains confident in the future:
“While we’re confident in the future of Hasbro, the current environment demands that we do more, even if these choices are some of the hardest we have to make. I know this news is especially difficult during the holiday season. There is no sugar-coating how hard this is, particularly for the employees directly affected.”
Oh well, that’s good. At least Cocks knows that these are hard choices. Choices they’re being forced to make. But by who? The reason they’re announcing this now is to prepare for Q1 to make the numbers look better so that they can tell their investors that everything is going to be fine and that the burning tire fire in the corner is just the northern lights.
This is a move made to “keep Hasbro Healthy”. Meanwhile, per a regulatory filing, CEO Chris Cocks earns $1.5 million per year, and last year received $9.4 million in total compensation. If only there was some way to reduce the amount of money the company was shelling out. But, hey. That’s capitalism for you.
No word yet on whether the firings will work their way into Wizards of the Coast, which remains Hasbro’s favorite goose as long as it continues to lay golden eggs. After all, WotC continues to grow, showing positive earnings despite flagging retail markets.
However, even if they aren’t touched by layoffs, a move like this is sure to have WotC eyeing their bottom line closely as they head for the big year that is the launch of D&D 2024.
