Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering Owner Hasbro Is Laying Off 1100 Employees

gameinformer.com:

Hasbro, the parent company behind Wizards of the Coast, which itself is responsible for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, is laying off 1100 employees, as reported by Dicebreaker and The Wall Street Journal. The company, which is also behind the Transformers franchise (toys and other media),  announced this decision yesterday, on December 11. 

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks called the need for layoffs in an email sent to staff a «lever we must pull to keep Hasbro healthy» and «a last resort.» As noted by Dicebreaker, Cocks became CEO of Hasbro in February of last year and earns roughly $1.5 million in salary in the position – his total earnings for 2022 amounted to $9.4 million, however. 

«While we're confident in the future of Hasbro, the current environment demands that we do more, even if these choices are some of the hardest we have to make,» Cocks writes in the email, which The Wall Street Journal published. «I know this news is especially difficult during the holiday season. There is no sugar-coating how hard this is, particularly for the employees directly affected.» 

Dicebreaker reports that laid-off employees will be notified sometime over the next six weeks and that Hasbro will vacate a Rhode Island office as a result of cost-cutting measures next month. While Hasbro is laying off 1,100 employees out of its 6,400 employees – it laid off 800 people earlier this year – it's unclear which of the company's teams, including Wizards of the Coast, are affected. Last week, Payday 3 developer Starbreeze announced a partnership with Wizards of the Coast to develop a multiplayer co-op title set in the D&D universe. 

These Hasbro layoffs join an unfortunately ever-growing list of layoffs affecting workers in 2023