Is Hasbro Destroying The Magic In Magic: The Gathering?

That’s what the advisors from Bank Of America seem to think. Let’s face it, we’ve all had our issues with Hasbro this year. The prices are going up, the quality is starting to dip, and windowless packaging has been a real pain in the butt for MIB collectors and victims of figure swaps. Let’s not even talk about poorly planned Haslab projects like Reva’s lightsaber or the most recent Ghost Rider set. Interestingly, those aren’t the things that have analysts worried. It’s all about Magic The Gathering.

Magic accounts for up to 15% of Hasbro’s total profits right now and the game saw serious growth during the pandemic. However, that growth has stopped and BOA thinks that it is because of poor management. In fact,  Analyst Jason Haas lowered his rating on the stock from buy to underperform, while cutting his price target from 73 to 42.

The real concern is that they are focused too much on trying to get consumers to spend more instead of trying to attract new consumers. One major example is their recent 30th Anniversary set which cost $999, but only included four packs of cards. Moreover, the packs included reprints of highly sought-after cards from the past, tanking the original cards’ values on the secondary market. It’s not attractive to new players and it alienates the fans who have been with the game for years.