Bumblevivisector wrote:And in the inevitable polarization of any mention of Elon, one relevant point has been missed so far.
Contrary to any posts advancing the B.S. narrative that everyone critical of Musk's handling of Twitter/X are against his "support of free speech" and politics, the reason people have been abandoning X in fresh droves over the past few weeks is his decision to sell user data to third parties for use in training A.I. bots, sparking privacy concerns. Now Musk suggests the possibility of buying Hasbro due to interest in it's gaming division, shortly after Chris Cocks announces plans to shift the company's focus to online gaming over physical products.
Put all those factors together, and Musk buying Hasbro any time in the near future seems like exceptionally bad timing. Hasbro's marketing is going to have to spend the next few years convincing parents that their gaming platforms will be safe for their kids to use, and even if they do set up the necessary safeguards, Musk's handling of Twitter will just undermine those efforts if he owns Hasbro, regardless of how much or little meddling he actually does.
Not being much of a gamer, I'm not crazy about Cocks's new direction for Hasbro, but I certainly don't want his grand plans to backfire so spectacularly that it hurts the company enough to affect our most beloved brand.
I've been mulling over writing another article about Cocks and how he wants Hasbro to change. It's extremely compelling stuff for the future of the company with some crazy drastic steps being taken by Hasbro in 2025, like having Playmates design and make toys of Hasbro properties instead of it being Hasbro themselves. However, there hasn't been mention of Transformers anywhere. No plans for that brand within their investments in gaming, nor in their foregoing of manufacturing toys. Maybe I'll write it closer to the new year in a summary/look towards the future type of thing. Hasbro is really going places we never expected, it's just unclear where Transformers sits in all this where it seems more status quo while everything around it changes.
