How To Kill Your Golden Goose — Magic: The Gathering from an Investor’s Perspective
I’ve been an investor in Hasbro since I first got into investing in 2014. It is usually a company that pays dividends well and constantly tries to improve its bottom line for the benefit of its investors. But that’s not why I bought Hasbro (and continued to buy and hold the stock) over the years. No, the reason was because I was and still am an avid Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player. I’ve been playing the game long before I even started investing in Hasbro. And even though Hasbro owns the game, it’s operated by a subsidiary known as Wizards of the Coast (colloquially referred to as WotC by fans and detractors alike).
I could talk about the state of the game, or the terrible things that WotC are doing in their playtesting department, or all the power creep that has burdened the game. However, talking about that stuff will only interest nerds like me who actually play the game. No, today, I’ll be looking at why WotC and Hasbro are strangling the second-largest income earner they have. And why it might be a sign that another company should consider swooping in and buying up MTG from Hasbro. Because if this continues, I’m almost sure we may see a collapse of the MTG economy we know and love.
