Suffering and success.

  • half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    For the likely large overlap this audience might have with dnd, it didn’t make 100mil a year so it gets to eat shit. It doesn’t help that the video game license isn’t counted in that total. Other Hasbro brands do make 100mil a year.

    I thought magic was one. It is surprising to see layoffs there.

    Anyway, of course a corporation does evil shit. The only moral is the line going up.

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      MtG made over a billion dollars. From what I can see WotC, products/services/licenses, make up over 3 billion of Hasbro’s 5.something billion revenue.

      • half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, card crack is real. They’ve been whaling and getting kids into gambling since the 90s. Don’t know why lay offs there. Line go up just a little more probably.

        • Holyginz@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s not that. It’s that the fewer people they have to pay the more money they get to keep. It’s incredibly short sighted and self destructive. But they don’t care at this point.

          • heyoni@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            That or they’re planning to lean on generative ai to produce content

            • lorty
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              11 months ago

              IIRC they contract and credit the artists. I don’t think theyveven use any in-house srtists.

              • caseofthematts@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                They’ve been caring less about artists and the community in recent years.

                At cons, they used to pay for artists hotels and give them free booths to set up, now artists get nothing and have to pay something like $750 for a booth.

                • tmyakal@lemm.ee
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                  11 months ago

                  I think that’s more about WotC giving up on cons and tourneys than giving up on artists. If they’re having events at all, they’re not putting as much money into them as they used to.

                • lorty
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                  11 months ago

                  You mean using AI to design the card’s mechanics? I’d like to think we are still a ways away from that, specially since they’d have to train their on model that adjusts not only for the text generated but what the actual card would do in a game. they could use it for french vanilla cards I suppose, but it’s not like those take a human that long to make anyway.

                  • optissima
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                    11 months ago

                    I didn’t say they needed to be quality or anything, they just need to appear quality to corporate, as all the corps are starting to cannibalize staff at the idea of using LLMs. Corporate doesn’t play the game and doesn’t care about long term, just the short term gains.

              • heyoni@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                1100 layoffs and they don’t use in house artists? I find that hard to believe but you might be right.

                • lorty
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                  11 months ago

                  If the layoffs earlier this year are any indication, they might be cutting their non-english product support staff. With the art being contracted (and the artists retaining rights to sell full version in miscellaneous products) and the fact that they release a ridiculous amount of product, I don’t think they’d be able to cut design and play testing staff.

        • Diotima@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, my partner really likes the art but we’re both aware that MtG was just the real world precursor to the current micro-transaction culture.