Hasbro's CEO lets AI Peppa Pig help design toys
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What is Hasbro's strategy for engaging adult toy consumers?
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Hello, and welcome to Decoder. I'm Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. Today, I'm talking with Chris Cox, the CEO of Hasbro. You know Hasbro. The toys and games company makes some of the most iconic products in the world, from Transformers and My Little Pony to Monopoly and Magic the Gathering, and of course, Dungeons and Dragons. Chris was last on Decoder three years ago. He was a newer CEO then, just a year into the role. And we spent quite a bit of time talking about his plan to collect more data, spin off parts of Hasbro, and really think about the future of collectibles, which at that time meant NFTs. Look, a lot's happened in three years.
NFTs just weren't one of them. You'll hear Chris laugh about how wrong he was throughout this conversation. You know what did happen, though? Well, a global supply chain and manufacturing nightmare precipitated by tariffs, the AI explosion, and of course the endless chaos of the video game industry. And then there's the relentless continuation of a trend that defines the modern toy industry. More and more toys and games being made for adults who have a bunch of money instead of kids who don't. Chris and I talked about that quite a bit, and I think his point of view here is at once totally logical and also completely surprising. Chris and I also talked a lot about Hasbro investing so heavily into video games in a time of relative uncertainty in the industry.
For example, you'll hear Chris mention several times how important Monopoly Go, the mobile game, is for Hasbro. And while Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons are already huge brands, Hasbro's trying to expand with original video games, like Exodus, which is slated to be released next year. That's another huge set of challenges in an era where video game studios are shutting down more or less weekly, and the distribution market is controlled by a small handful of players like Sony, Microsoft, and Steam. And being a company that's so reliant on big IP with big fandoms, well that puts Hasbro right at the center of a bunch of thorny cultural issues as well. Because fans have really strong feelings about the stories they love and the creators they maybe don't love so much.
For example, Hasbro just signed a big deal to distribute Harry Potter merchandise for the next several years. So Chris and I spent some time talking about whether the Harry Potter fandom is growing. and whether it can grow as fast as he wants it to in the face of J.K. Rowling's politics. You can tell there's a lot going on in this one. Toys are a complicated business. I think you're really going to like it. A quick reminder before we start, you can listen to this episode or any episode of Decoder completely ad-free by subscribing to The Verge. Just go to theverge.com slash subscribe. Okay, Chris Cox, CEO of Hasbro. Here we go.
Chris Cox, you are the CEO of Hasbro. Welcome back to Decoder.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to talk to you. It's been about three years since our last conversation. I was looking at that episode. Boy, we talked about NFTs a lot three years ago.
If we talked about it at all, we talked about it too much.
Well, yeah, it was interesting what you were worried about then. You had just changed the license terms for Magic the Gathering. You were chasing Creative Commons and you're trying to protect against NFTs. And that feels like it all essentially came to nothing.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Hasbro's strategy for engaging adult toy consumers?
0:00–5:09
2
How has AI impacted Hasbro's product development?
5:09–10:09
3
What challenges does Hasbro face in the video game market?
10:09–14:22
4
How does Hasbro navigate cultural issues with its IPs?
14:22–20:43
5
What role does licensing play in Hasbro's business model?
20:43–26:18
6
How is Hasbro adapting to changes in consumer demographics?
26:18–31:22
7
What are the implications of tariffs on Hasbro's manufacturing?
31:22–36:34
8
How does Hasbro view the future of its franchises amidst changing fandoms?
36:34–1:15:11
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Decoder with Nilay Patel
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