Between the $1000 30th anniversary editions, the swath of licensed crossover sets, and the six discrete Dwight Schrute cards, the recent years of Magic: The Gathering have felt like Hasbro has abandoned any pretense of restraint—and its own shareholders seem to agree.
In a 76-page lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Rhode Island last week (via GoLocalProv), a group of investors allege that Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, former Wizards of the Coast president Cynthia Williams, and company executives engaged in “breaches of their fiduciary duties as directors and/or officers of Hasbro” by devaluing the Magic brand, even as shareholders raised concerns about the ramifications of overprinting cards and sets.
In 2022, the lawsuit says, Bank of America issued a report concluding that Hasbro was “overproducing Magic cards, which have propped up Hasbro’s recent results but are destroying the long-term value of the brand.” Despite questioning from shareholders and analysts, however, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants “repeatedly denied such speculation,” issuing “materially false and misleading” statements during shareholder calls where those concerns were raised.
“Hasbro’s strategy with regard to printing Magic cards was not as carefully thought out as portrayed,” the lawsuit says. “The Company was in fact printing a volume of Magic sets which exceeded consumer demand; the Company’s inventory allocation management was problematic, particularly as it pertained to the Company’s printing strategy for Magic sets; the Company was overloading the market with Magic sets to generate revenue and to offset shortfalls within the Company; as a result of the Company’s overprinting of Magic sets, existing Magic cards were devalued; and the Company failed to maintain internal controls.”
IGN reports that the lawsuit’s 76 pages also include an allegation that Hasbro executives attempted to manufacture a perception of high demand for Magic’s controversial $1000 30th anniversary set. Less than an hour after the set’s release in 2022, Wizards of the Coast tweeted that “sale has concluded, and the product is currently unavailable for purchase,” implying that—despite its exorbitant price—it was so sought after that the company almost immediately sold through its inventory.
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