Barron’s Streetwise Podcast about Trading Card Game Investments

7569CE10-240D-4957-A17A-06EB92E25C9C.jpeg

Very interesting podcast episode.

Today I listened to an episode from Barron's Streetwise Podcast and it's very exciting for us as well, for several reasons:

  • It's about the well-known trading card game Magic the Gathering, a sort of precursor to Splinterlands.
  • The shown situation of the card market shows clear parallels to Splinterlands.
  • Fantasy trading card games like Magic are more niche than mainstream, but their profitability and traction is enormous.
  • The podcast is a format of Wall Street mainstream magazine Barron's , yet the topic of trading card games has apparently come into focus.

What specifically is it about?

The host discusses the Magic the Gathering brand, which has been part of the Hasbro Group for years.

C9B214B9-E91F-410C-8274-5DF4FCEB4460.jpeg
Magic the Gathering website

It's about possibly too many new card releases lately, falling card prices and the community behind it. It is a fact that also in Magic the card prices are falling since months and that is more and more reason for worries of the player community. On the other hand, it quickly becomes clear that such card games are a real cash cow: Magic provides about 15% share of sales of Hasbro for about a third of the profit.
Players are interviewed and analysts' opinions are discussed. The tenor is that investments in such games or the cards are very risky and speculative. The moderator Jack Hough even thinks, even more risky than cryptos. At this point consider... what would he say about our crypto trading card game Splinterlands? 🤣

Summarizing.

For me, two points from the episode are particularly relevant:

  1. that in the current market environment collectible card prices are dropping is nothing out of the ordinary. It's no different for Magic the Gathering than it is for Splinterlands. So no need to worry too much, it can all recover quickly when the market sentiment improves.
  2. the community is central for such games, if it starts to crumble here in the core, the brand is in danger. To avoid this, communication should be open and reliable, and long-term planning should be made (map releases, game development, personnel planning, etc.). Here I see Splinterlands basically in a good position, even though they miscalculated the personnel during the hype last year. Just a few days ago it became known that almost half of the staff will have to be laid off.

My recommendation: Listen in!

Here you can find the Episode on Spotify. Worth a listen, especially if you are a Splinterlands Player!
And here you find a Clip from the episode on the importance of Magic the Gathering to the Hasbro corporation.



0
0
0.000
0 comments