The major industry of Hasbro is not games and toys but licensing. Most of Hasbro’s new games each year are the same games with new themes from movies, television shows, and other pop culture sensations.

Now, Hasbro is beginning to think of itself as a brand. Having acquired exclusive rights to some of the brands they use on their games, as well as having achieved top brand recognition for their own products, such as Monopoly, Hasbro’s new CEO is looking for ways to license their brands out to others, as is evident from recent news items about Hasbro movies, online games, game shows, and so on.

Which begs the question: are we going to see Hasbro products which are themselves the results of licensing end up relicensed to other products? A Powerpuff Monopoly television show, for instance? Maybe a Hannah Barbara UNO cartoon?

Where does it end? To paraphrase William Gibson (originally on Tommy Hilfiger ): There must be some sub-licensing event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more licensed, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul.

(source)