Hasbro's announcement of its financial results and the success of Baldur's Gate 3 highlights the importance of video games.
Wizards of the Coast parent company Hasbro reported lower-than-expected financial results today, but it made good progress in one area: The company said it has earned about $90 million through its licensing deal with Larian for Baldur's Gate 3.
Hasbro said in its full-year financial report that its overall revenue fell 15%, driven by a 19% decline in consumer products and a 31% drop in entertainment. But its Wizards of the Coast and digital games businesses grew 10%, “driven by increased digital game licensing revenue behind Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian Studios and Monopoly Go! from Scopely.”
See also: Sony: Buys 50% of Michael Jackson's music for $600 million
“Baldur's Gate had another good quarter,” Hasbro Chief Financial Officer Gina Goetter said on a conference call with investors. “I think for the full year, Baldur's Gate had about $90 million in revenue.”
Baldur's Gate 3 is a hugely successful game, as we've said before, but this one needs to be emphasized: Its average concurrent player count over the past 30 days is nearly 131,000, and it remains in the top 10 most played games on Steam, an impressive feat for a single-player fantasy RPG that was released six months ago. It also remains strong on Steam's top sellers list.
See also: SONY: Implements IPO after PS5 sales decline
Baldur's Gate 3 has already surpassed 500,000 user reviews on Steam (though the actual total is around 560,000), and continues to have an "overwhelmingly positive" rating, with 96% of user reviews being positive. CEO Swen Vincke said on Twitter that the response from players "has been pure joy."
Goetter said that revenue from Baldur's Gate 3 "will start to decline" in 2024, but Hasbro expects to continue making money from it for many years to come. "Baldur's Gate 3 from our partners at Larian continues to win awards around the world and is one of the highest-rated video games of all time," CEO Chris Cocks said during the conference call. "We expect a long line through 2024 and beyond for this great success."
See also: Microsoft: Maybe it will bring Starfield and Indiana Jones to PS5
There was no mention of a Baldur's Gate 4 during the conference call, but – no surprise here – it sounds like there are more D&D-based video games in the future, albeit in the relatively distant future. Cocks said that “video games are obviously going to be a huge boost to the D&D business model,” and that “Baldur's Gate 3 is just the first of several new video games that are coming out over the next five to ten years that I think will continue to support this franchise.”
As for Larian, preliminary work has already begun on its next game, though there's no indication of what it might be: Vincke said in January that "it's not what you think" and also warned that "it'll be a while" before Larian is ready to talk about it.
Source of information: pcgamer.com
