Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering owner Hasbro is laying off 1,100 employees.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal yesterday, December 11, Hasbro, which owns Dungeons & Dragons parent company Wizards of the Coast, is set for layoffs. The parent company will be laying off a total of 1,100 staff around the world, in a move that Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks called "a last resort."
The layoffs appear to be the fallout of sluggish toy sales, at least according to Cocks, especially in the lead-up to the crucial Holiday period. It's worth pointing out that Hasbro shares have declined a huge 21% over the past 12 months, as first noted by Dicebreaker, and the Dungeons & Dragons movie starring Chris Pine wasn't the financial hit Hasbro had hoped for.
"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," Cocks said in an internal email to staff. "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."
Employees affected by the layoffs from Hasbro will be notified within the next six months, according to the internal email from Cocks. Additionally, Hasbro is going to entirely vacate its physical office space in Rhode Island when its lease ends next month in January 2024.
Right now at least, it remains to be seen how Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast will be affected. Cocks and Hasbro stopped short of revealing which sectors of their owned companies would be directly affected by the layoffs, and to what degree.
Elsewhere for D&D though, Chris Pine is "pretty confident" Dungeons & Dragons 2 is happening, and he's game to return.
