Dungeons & Dragons is having its best year ever, Hasbro CEO says
- Fantasy role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons" is seeing its best year ever, Hasbro Chairman and CEO Brian Goldner tells CNBC's Jim Cramer.
- Immersive games like these could one day be "ripe for global esports competition," the CEO says.
Fantasy role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons" is seeing its best year ever, Hasbro Chairman and CEO Brian Goldner, whose toy- and game-maker owns the brand, told CNBC on Monday.
"People are more into 'Dungeons & Dragons' today than ever before," Goldner told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer in an exclusive interview. "People are re-engaged with that brand because it’s a face-to-face game, it’s immersive and it’s a game that people really enjoy playing with one another."
The double-digit new user growth could have in part been spurred by Netflix's nostalgic, 1980s-set hit drama "Stranger Things," in which the characters play "Dungeons & Dragons."
But the surge in popularity of both "Dungeons & Dragons" and fellow high-fantasy game "Magic: The Gathering" seem to be part of a broader, longer-term trend of interest in immersive and online gaming.
"We just announced this afternoon that there’ll be a crossover between 'Dungeons & Dragons' and 'Magic: The Gathering' in the fall, and I think our fans and gamers are going to be very excited about what’s coming," the CEO said.
Goldner also announced that Hasbro, which reported second-quarter earnings Monday, would create a "suite of digital games" around both games to satisfy the modern player.
More than a million people signed up to test the beta version of the online spin-off of "Magic," titled "Arena," the CEO said. Millions of users watch others play the two games live on streaming platforms like Twitch, he told Cramer in 2017.
He added that Hasbro's goal over time will be to build fantasy games like "Magic" into esports properties "ripe for global esports competition" as consumers increasingly choose digital gaming over standard tabletop games.
A spokesperson for Hasbro later clarified that while the strategy for building digital gaming capabilities for "Dungeons & Dragons" remains intact, the game has not yet been classified by the company as an esport because of its limited competitive scope.
Hasbro's stock popped 12.89 percent on Monday, settling at $106.04 a share after the toymaker's profit and revenue results topped Wall Street estimates.
Watch Brian Goldner's full interview here:
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