Hasbro told investors that it would be increasing the prices of its products in response to the rising cost of freight, which could mean an increase in the prices of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering products. Last week, Hasbro held its quarterly investor calls, providing an update on its earnings and plans for the rest of the year. During the call, Hasbro CFO Deb Thomas noted that it would implement price increases that would play out over the rest of the year. “We are implementing price increases during the third quarter, that should be fully realized by the fourth quarter,” Thomas said. “We expect this to offset the rising costs in freight and commodities we continue to see across the business.”
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The price increases come even as Hasbro reported a 54% increase in revenue and an adjusted operating profit of $211.6 million during the second quarter of 2021. Wizards was a major driver in the company’s business, with the division reporting $406 million in revenue and $192 million in operating profits.
The rapid increase in freight costs were caused by a confluence in events ranging from disruption in supply lines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to bottlenecks at freights and the unexpected blockage of the Suez Canal earlier this year. Unfortunately, freight costs are expected to remain high until at least 2022, leading many companies to make tough decisions on whether to increase the cost of goods to offset the freight costs or to simply eat the costs.
It’s unclear how much Hasbro’s price increases will impact announced Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering products. Wizards of the Coast will be releasing two D&D rulebooks in 4Q2021 – Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos – and a new Innistrad set for Magic: The Gathering. As of press time, both D&D books have their prices listed at $49.95 on both Amazon and Wizards of the Coast’s website. No retail listings are currently available for Magic: The Gathering sets outside of the game’s just released “Adventures in the Forgotten Realms” set, which also maintained current prices.
