In the first-time promotion of Magic: The Gathering at its Toy Fair showroom, Hasbro had on display Archenemy Nicol Bolas ($60), a boxed set for a format not seen in several years. Archenemy games have three playing against one, though to even the odds, the one player starts with 40 life instead of 20 and is bolstered by a supplementary deck of scheme cards (they turn over one per round).

Archenemy Nicol Bolas will be released June 16th with four 60-card decks, 20 all new scheme cards, and a special double-wheeled life counter for the archenemy (counts 00-99).

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Action games were the highlight of Hasbro’s Toy Fair showroom this year. Though we’ve already covered Toilet Trouble, Fantastic Gymnastics, and Speak Out Kids vs Parents, I still feel the need to include this picture of fellow pawn, Thomas, being sprayed in the face by a life-sized toilet prop (just for journalistic accuracy, of course).

Following up on Pie Face and Pie Face Showdown, Hasbro plans for this fall Pie Face Sky High ($25). It still delivers whip cream to the face but this time does it with a device similar to those carnival sledgehammer strength-testers.

Egged On ($20) looks like a carton of eggs. The eggs themselves are flexible rubber and split in two with a pretty good seal. Fill some with water or other suitable substance and then play by smashing them against your head. Egged On will be available in Target stores in March and everywhere else in May.

Simon Optix is a wearable version of the pattern-matching Simon game. The person wearing it is supposed to wave their hands in front of the visor following the flash of colors.

Bop It! Maker (fall, $20) is another pattern-matching challenge. Unlike previous entries in the series, though, this one is user-programmable. That is, the user creates their own waves, shakes, and other moves—as well as records a name for each—which the device randomizes.

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Social media trends make for hot games these days, doubly so if they incorporate a fun action element. So it should come as no surprise that two companies at this week’s NY Toy Fair were promoting upcoming games based on water bottle flipping.

Hasbro’s Flip Challenge, due this summer at a retail price of $10, will include a set of targets and challenge cards but is BYOB (bring-you-own-bottle).

Buffalo Games’ Flip Tricks is also scheduled for the summer but at around $15 will include challenge cards and one specially designed bottle with a flat cap and made from heavier duty plastic. The company also plans to sell extra bottles in various colored patterns.

Two other water bottle flipping games are available now. Kap It ($20) comes with two square bottles and one target mat divided in to several point zones. The recommended game has players flipping bottles until one wins with 21 points. With Bottle Flip ($25), you get one bottle, challenge cards, a target board, and a scoreboard.

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According to Hasbro, gaming as a general trend has seen a 75 percent increase in 3 years, up from 1.2 billion gamers in 2013 to 2.1 billion in 2016.

In its presentation to investors at New York Toy Fair today, Hasbro revealed that 20 percent of its products in 2016 went to consumers 20 years of age and older. The hottest of those products, of course, was Magic: The Gathering, for which the company produced last year 117 million booster packs. In another interesting statistic, 5 million viewers watched 350 million minutes of Magic video online. To keep the trend going, subsidiary Wizards of the Coast will be launching a series of new events in local game stores called “Magic Open House”. At these events will be giveaways and how-to-play sessions for beginner players.

Magic Digital Next was also mentioned but the better information on it comes from a WOTC website article posted today. In it, Jeffrey Steefel described Magic Digital Next as an “internal umbrella term for the entire landscape for Magic: The Gathering experiences around digital games.” This includes:

• Back-end technology upgrades to support both digital and tabletop play.
• More and better ways to play Magic digitally.
• Expanding the Magic experience and setting to “diverse platforms and genres.”

For the first time that I know of, a WOTC CEO participated in the Toy Fair presentation and gave some recognition to Dungeons & Dragons. Chris Cocks said that in 2016, D&D had its best sales in 40 years. He even mentioned that Duel Masters experienced its fastest growth ever last year.

On the board game side, 30 million Hasbro games were manufactured in Longmeadow, Massachusetts last year. The company claims 13 of the top 15 face-to-face games in United States—number 1 was Pie Face and number 2 was Speak Out.

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After over 4 million votes in Monopoly’s Token Madness campaign, the results are in. The first revealed cut? The iconic thimble token. Originally added in 1935, the token will now be retired and replaced with another token fans have voted in. Hasbro will reveal some more info on the vote statistics during the New York Toy Fair this coming weekend, but the full results won’t be revealed until World Monopoly Day on March 19th of this year.

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It appears we’re not finished with the mouthguard game trend. Hasbro’s latest entry in the field is Speak Out Kids vs Parents. This one comes with separate sets of phrase cards and mouthpieces for adults and children.

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Surprising the market, who’s lower expectations for the company were based at least partially on weaker performance by Mattel, Hasbro on Monday reported a 13 percent net revenue growth in 2016. That put the company’s total year revenue over $5 billion for the first time. Following the news, Hasbro’s stock hit a new high and closed up 14 percent.

The company’s performance in the games category was strong. Led by sales of Pie Face and Magic: The Gathering, revenue grew 9 percent year-on-year.

Hasbro’s strongest growth was in its partner brands category, which was up 28 percent on the success of Disney Princess, Disney Frozen, Dreamworks’ Trolls, and Yo-Kai Watch.

On the subject of the company’s largest individual game brand, CEO Brian Goldner reported that 2016 was the 8th straight year of growth for Magic: The Gathering. He also suggested that consumers would start seeing some results from the Magic Digital Next initiative before the end of the year.

Magic Digital Next, which has been an investment for a number of years, and will continue to be a bit of an investment this year because of course late this year you’ll start to see some of the evidence of what the team has been working on as they begin to put that platform out to the market.

Hasbro also revealed an interesting change in its approach to financial reporting:

Beginning with the first quarter, we will no longer report revenue along the boys, games, girls, and preschool categories. Instead, we will provide a revenue breakdown of franchise brands, partner brands, Hasbro Gaming, and emerging brands. We believe this is a more relevant and appropriate view of our business.

Later Monday afternoon, Hasbro announced the appointment of John Frascotti as President of the company—he was previously President of Hasbro Brands. Brian Goldner remains with the company and will serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

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Our initial exposure to Magic Digital Next came a little over a year ago in a presentation by Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. At that time, we saw it only as a new Magic: The Gathering product, albeit a sophisticated one for a range of players. From a new article posted online by Wizards of the Coast President Chris Cocks, we now learn, though, that Magic Digital Next (though not specifically named in the article) is just one part of a more comprehensive digital strategy update being pursued by WOTC.

Cocks describes “adjustments to and increased investments in our digital teams” as the “biggest move” currently underway at the company. WOTC has created a new Digital Games Studio with significant new outside talent, the existing Magic Online team, and digital art and game design staff.

But these changes don’t pertain just to Magic. Rather, WOTC is looking to apply a digitally integrated experience to all its games (including Dungeons & Dragons), incorporating such elements as augmented-reality games, MMOs, tournament organization, home game management, and other “unexpected settings, genres, and platforms.”

We are reimagining digital versions of Magic and other Wizards games… We will bring our characters and worlds to other games and experiences… We will make your Wizards experiences more efficient, connected, and convenient.

Perhaps we might hear more about this initiative from Hasbro leading in to New York Toy Fair.

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When developing a game, American game designers often weigh the advantages of printing locally in the United States with printing overseas. Overseas printing is usually cheaper, but slower to produce. For small companies or individuals fulfilling their first Kickstarter campaign, this can be a simple decision to make. For larger companies, overseas printing can result in substantial savings as current U.S. corporate tax laws can allow toy and game manufacturers to deduct the cost of imported goods from their profits. But a proposal to apply a broad adjustment to tax law would strip larger companies of that ability.

“The border adjustment, part of the Republicans’ plan for a revamped tax system, would apply taxes based on where a product is sold rather than where it is made or where the maker’s operations or executives are based. Imports couldn’t be deducted as a cost of doing business, while exports would be exempted,” reads an article published in the Wall Street Journal. Timothy Conder, a toy-industry analyst for Wells Fargo, stated that Hasbro generates about half its revenue domestically but manufactures about 95% of its product overseas. Under a worst-case scenario, he estimates Hasbro’s 2017 earnings would drop from $4.76 a share to $4.14 with the tax code change.

Additional reporting can be found at The Wall Street Journal.

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Pinnacle Entertainment Group (Savage Worlds RPG) is recruiting for a part-time Production Assistant, by which the company apparently means they will do a little bit of everything: project management, marketing, sales, customer service, and graphic design. Working remotely is a possibility.

Panda Game Manufacturing needs Account Managers to work with publisher clients, one with an Asia focus, one with a France focus, one with a Germany focus, and one general. Also the company is looking for a Project Manager. Everything is remote.

Asmodee North America (Fantasy Flight Games) is looking for a Legal Assistant, an Application Developer, a Help Desk Support Technician, and people to work in the FFG Games Center. All positions are in Roseville, Minnesota.

In Rhode Island, there’s a Design Manager position available with Hasbro Gaming. Duties involve coordinating between market feasibility, production, licensing relationships, and other aspects of product development.

Hasbro subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast, has a several openings, including Software Developer, Program Manager, and Digital Marketing for MtG in Renton, Washington; Community Coordinator in Spain; and WPN Senior Store Lead in Germany.

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