Hasbro, Inc. (Hasbro) operates as a game, intellectual property (IP), and toy company.
The company delivers play experiences to kids, families, and fans around the world, through physical and digital games, video games, toys, licensed consumer products, location-based entertainment, film, TV, and more. Through the company's franchise-first approach, it unlocks value from both new and legacy IP, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, MONOPOLY, HASBRO GAMES, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-...
Hasbro, Inc. (Hasbro) operates as a game, intellectual property (IP), and toy company.
The company delivers play experiences to kids, families, and fans around the world, through physical and digital games, video games, toys, licensed consumer products, location-based entertainment, film, TV, and more. Through the company's franchise-first approach, it unlocks value from both new and legacy IP, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, MONOPOLY, HASBRO GAMES, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, and PEPPA PIG, as well as premier partner brands. Powered by the company's portfolio of iconic brands and a diversified network of partners and subsidiary studios, it brings fans together wherever they are, from tabletop to screen.
Strategy
The key elements of the company’s strategy are to expand its consumer base and drive play and collectible experiences for fans of all ages, recognizing that consumers aged 13 and above are gaining purchase share; engage across the play spectrum to where it under-index and captures new consumers across demographics and markets; and embrace new ways to engage with its consumers through video games, digital technology and direct-to-consumer interactions.
Business: Games, IP, and Toys
The company operates in three lines of business: games, IP, and toys, each playing a role in driving the company's play-focused mission.
Games: As consumers embrace digital, the company's game portfolio offers new channels to express its brands.
IP – Licensing & Entertainment : The company's capital-lite, partner scale opportunity. Licensing drives the company's brands across consumer product categories, screens, and experiences.
Toys: The company's first handshake with consumers; a cash-generative business in a stable category driven by brands, innovation, and licenses.
Brand Portfolio
Toys and Games. The company markets and sells toys and games based on its owned and controlled brands globally at retail stores, through e-commerce platforms, and through its fan-based direct-to-consumer platforms, Hasbro PULSE and SECRET LAIR. The company's key brands are MAGIC: THE GATHERING; Hasbro Games; PLAY-DOH; TRANSFORMERS; DUNGEONS & DRAGONS; PEPPA PIG; and NERF.
Additionally, through license agreements with third parties, the company develops and sells products based on popular third-party brands through these channels. Key partner brands include MARVEL, including SPIDER-MAN and THE AVENGERS; LUCASFILMS' STAR WARS; BEYBLADE; SECRET LAIR partners such as Final Fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, and Fallout; and Owned by The Walt Disney Company (Disney).
The company's products include a wide range of games, trading cards and collectibles, action figures, arts and crafts and creative play products, dolls, play sets, preschool toys, plush products, vehicles and toy-related specialty products, sports action products and accessories, and many other consumer products, which represent an array of internationally recognizable brands that capture the imagination of its consumers worldwide.
The company's gaming business continues to transform gameplay with new and innovative games and play experiences. To successfully execute its gaming strategy, the company focuses on brands that capitalize on existing trends while evolving its approach using consumer insights and data analytics, technology advancements, and offering gameplay experiences addressed to consumer demand for face-to-face, trading card, and digital game experiences played as board, off-the-board, digital, card, electronic, trading card, and role-playing games.
The company's subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast (Wizards), is a critical part of its gaming business, driving innovation and growth through its popular role-playing and fantasy card-collecting games. These games include:
MAGIC: THE GATHERING, one of the original collectible card games, is a strategic trading card game with compelling characters in multiple universes that continue to expand through new card sets, including with well-known third-party properties such as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth card set released in 2023. MAGIC: THE GATHERING became Hasbro’s first billion-dollar brand in 2022.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, one of the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing games, is a cooperative, storytelling game where players take on the roles of different characters within a story. There are dice and basic rules involved, and often maps and miniatures or tokens, but the tools that come into play most often are the imaginations of the players. An update to the fifth edition of the D&D rule set was published in 2024.
The company's other iconic game brands include long-time favorites such as MONOPOLY, JENGA, CONNECT 4, THE GAME OF LIFE, SCRABBLE, CLUE, and TRIVIAL PURSUIT, as well as many other well-known game brands and newer games that are geared toward a mature consumer.
Digital Gaming: Key to the company's success is the continued investment in, growth, and development of its digital gaming business, including the development of AAA games, games as a service, and licensed games. Spanning action role-playing games for web-based play, PC, and gaming consoles, to Hasbro-branded mobile application-based games, the company's digital gaming business helps to unlock the full value of its brands and achieve its mission of storytelling and bringing its brands to life. Recent examples include:
The popular Monopoly Go! free-to-play mobile game, released by Scopely, Inc. during 2023 and based on the classic board game, MONOPOLY;
The 2023 release of Baldur's Gate 3, the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS-based role-playing video game from the company’s partners at Larian Studios which won several awards, including Game of the Year at the 10th annual Game Awards.
The company continues to develop and enhance other digital games internally and through third parties. For example, it has developed and launched the digital version of the MAGIC: THE GATHERING card game, Magic: The Gathering Arena, and its related mobile application, both of which complement the company's direct-to-customer relationships with its new and long-time MAGIC: THE GATHERING fan base. Developing and publishing its own games requires a substantial amount of time and investment, and there are risks that the games it develops will not be successful.
Licensing IP: Hasbro is one of the world’s largest and most diverse licensors, and a growing part of its Playing to Win strategy is to extend the reach of its brands through the out-licensing of its intellectual properties to third parties for consumer products, digital games, and entertainment.
Consumer Products Licensing: The company licenses its intellectual property for a variety of consumer products, including apparel, publishing, home goods, and electronics, or in certain situations, toy products where the out-licensing of brands is more effective and profitable than developing and marketing the products itself. A recent example of this includes the return of the company's LITTLEST PET SHOP brand through its partnership with Basic Fun, a global marketer of toys and consumer products. Together, they relaunched LITTLEST PET SHOP through a Roblox experience in December 2023, along with a refreshed LITTLEST PET SHOP product lineup in the first half of 2024 featuring new characters, collectibles, and playsets. Another recent example, in 2024, the company saw a resurgence from MY LITTLE PONY through licensing across merchandising categories, music, and trading card products.
Digital Games Licensing: The company out-licenses certain of its brands to other third-party digital game developers who transform Hasbro brand-based characters and other intellectual properties into digital gaming experiences such as Monopoly Go and Baldur's Gate 3.
Location-Based Entertainment: Location-based entertainment (LBE) includes licensing the company's brands to theme parks, water parks, hotels and resorts, family entertainment centers, retail, dining, and entertainment, shows, exhibits, and exhibitions such as Hasbro City, the recently opened Hasbro-themed family entertainment center located in Paseo Interlomas, Mexico, featuring thrilling theme park rides and experiences, live shows, food and beverage options, and the region's first Hasbro-themed retail location. These experiences bring the company's brands to life and further immerse its consumers in its storytelling in a capital-efficient manner.
Entertainment: Reinforcing storylines associated with the company's owned and controlled brands through entertainment mediums, including television, film, digital content, and other programming, is its primary entertainment strategy. With its cross-platform capabilities, the company's entertainment business leverages film and television production and sales, digital content, and children's programming to create compelling entertainment and driving creativity and overall awareness across brands with merchandising and licensing tie-ins. Principal brands include PEPPA PIG and MY LITTLE PONY, whose content entertains children worldwide and generates revenues through licensing and merchandising programs across multiple retail categories.
Hasbro Direct: The company's Hasbro Direct business adopts a ‘Fans Come First’ approach, intended to create direct connections with its consumers. It includes the following platforms:
Magic: The Gathering Arena - the free-to-play online adaptation of the MAGIC: THE GATHERING card game where players can explore the fantasy worlds of Magic: The Gathering Arena, play a variety of game formats to collect cards, and test skills against friends and other players around the world, or enter in-game tournaments.
SECRET LAIR: The company's internet-based storefront where MAGIC: THE GATHERING fans can purchase exclusive and limited versions of cards.
D&D Beyond: The premier digital content platform for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS where fans can access online versions of official rule books, character sheets and catalogs, adventures, and other digital tools such as character builders and official D&D content available for purchase.
Hasbro PULSE: Hasbro's ultimate fan ecommerce destination.
With these platforms, the company is expanding and enhancing its capabilities beyond traditional e-commerce to serve its consumers and activate brands. Connecting with fans directly makes its products more accessible in more markets and enables it to sell brands and showcase selected items, creating more brand awareness while gaining a deeper understanding of its fans and what they want and expect from Hasbro.
Other Elements of the company's Strategy: Other aspects of the company's strategy that help drive its consumer reach and storytelling experiences include digital content. The company understands the importance of digital content to drive fan engagement, including in gaming and across other media, and of integrating such content with its products. Digital media encompasses digital gaming applications and the creation of digital environments for traditional products through the use of complementary digital applications, social media, and websites which extend storylines and enhance play.
Segments
The company operates through Consumer Products, Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming, and Entertainment segments.
Consumer Products
The Consumer Products segment engages in the sourcing, marketing, and sales of toy and game products around the world. The Consumer Products business also promotes the company's brands through the out-licensing of its trademarks, characters, and other brand and intellectual property rights to third parties through the sale of branded consumer products such as toys and apparel. Additionally, through license agreements with third parties, the company develops and sells products based on popular third-party brands.
Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming
The Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming business engages in the promotion of the company's brands through the development of trading card, role-playing, and digital game experiences based on Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast games. Additionally, the company licenses certain of its brands to other third-party digital game developers who transform Hasbro brand-based characters and other intellectual properties into digital gaming experiences.
Entertainment
The Entertainment segment engages in the development and production of Hasbro-branded entertainment content, including film, television, children’s programming, digital content, and live entertainment focused on Hasbro-owned properties.
Marketing and Sales, Customer Concentration and Advertising
Marketing and Sales
The company's global marketing function establishes brand direction and messaging and assists the selling entities in establishing local marketing programs. The global marketing group works with the global development function to deliver unified, brand-specific consumer experiences. In addition to the global marketing function, the company's local selling entities employ sales and marketing functions responsible for local market activities and execution.
The company's products are sold globally to a broad spectrum of customers, including mass-market retailers, distributors, wholesalers, discount stores, specialty hobby stores, drug stores, mail order houses, catalog stores, department stores, and other traditional retailers, large and small, as well as e-commerce retailers and direct-to-customer through its fan-focused Hasbro Direct business. The company's own sales forces account for the majority of sales of its products, with remaining sales generated by independent distributors who, for the most part, sell the company's products in areas of the world where it does not otherwise maintain a direct presence. The majority of the company's product sales are to large chain stores, distributors, e-retailers, and wholesalers.
Advertising
The company advertises many of its products and brands through digital marketing, social media, and on television. Products are strategically cross promoted by spotlighting specific products alongside related offerings in a manner that promotes the sale of not only the selected item but also those complementary products.
Part of the company's strategy includes focusing on reinforcing storylines associated with its brands through several mediums, including digital and tabletop gaming, consumer products, television, film, and live action experiences. The company's brands obtain marketing and advertising support through entertainment appearing on major networks globally, theatrical releases, as well as on various other digital platforms.
Many of the company's new products are introduced to major customers within one to two years leading up to their year of retail introduction. The company's advertising expenditures are impacted by its product mix in any given year. For example, brands based on major motion picture releases generally require less advertising as a result of the promotional activities around the motion picture release, whereas leading into a major digital gaming launch, the company's Wizards of the Coast business will have substantial increases to advertising, marketing, and promotional expenses to acquire players and promote gaming releases.
Supply Chain and Manufacturing
Beginning in late 2022, the company launched a multi-year initiative aimed at transforming its global supply chain into a best-in-class network that delivers competitive advantages through performance efficiency, operating model integration, and organizational accountability.
The majority of the company's toy and game products are manufactured in third-party facilities principally in the U.S. and the Far East, primarily China, Vietnam, India, and Japan. The company continually looks to diversify its manufacturing footprint. Most of the company's toys and games are manufactured from basic raw materials such as plastic, paper, and cardboard, although certain products also use electronic components.
Seasonality
The company's Wizards and entertainment businesses are subject to variations in sales based on the timing of the release of card sets, games, and content releases. Release dates are determined by several factors, including the timing of holiday periods, geographical release dates, and competition in the market. As a result, a disproportionate volume of the company's net revenues from its consumer products business has historically been earned during the third and fourth quarters (year ended December 31, 2024) leading up to the retail industry’s holiday selling season, including Christmas.
Product Development
The company’s product development expense in 2024 totaled $294.1 million.
Government Regulation
The company’s Human Rights and Ethical Sourcing program is dedicated to ensuring that facilities involved in the production of its toys and games, or licensed consumer products, comply with the company’s Global Business Ethics Principles.
The company’s toy and game products sold in the United States are subject to the provisions of The Consumer Product Safety Act, as amended by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, (as amended, the CPSIA), The Federal Hazardous Substances Act (the FHSA), The Flammable Fabrics Act (the FFA), and the regulations promulgated thereunder. In addition, a few of the company’s products, are also subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
The company’s business is subject to other regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, which restricts the collection, use, and retention of personal information, as well as data protection laws in the United States and other countries.
History
Hasbro, Inc. was founded in 1923.
