However, this new announcement seems to be going in the opposite direction.
You can read Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner's quote below, coming from their first Quarter Financial Results Conference Call, where he states that Hasbro is currently looking into opportunities in the NFT (non-fungible token) market and pairing it with their properties, of which Transformers is called out by name.
Now, for those unaware of what an NFT is, in layman's terms, it is a digital file that is encrypted using a blockchain so that only the owner can have access to it. Now a block chain is the very same kind of system that is used in crypto currency where currency is mined by powerful computers solving an equation that grows in complexity to the point where a big part of the worth of whatever you are mining is equal to how much it is costing you to mine it (hence why it is always more expensive to mine for more Bitcoin). Of course, this ever growing need for more powerful computers means that the energy used for the creation of an NFT is immense and more than any of us would consume in electricity in a month. You can read more about those impacts here. These NFTs are traded similarly to crypto currency, the difference here is that the copyright of the image is retained by Hasbro who would get a percentage of the value these NFTs are sold for every time one person buys it from someone else. Meaning once an NFT is on the market, the copyright holder (Hasbro) can accumulate wealth in perpetuity without ever being involved again in the process.
“NFTs are a real opportunity for us. As you know we have so many brands that really operate on multiple demographic levels; whether it’s Transformers, whether it’s Magic [The Gathering] and the D&D brand, and brands like G.I. Joe. We have a team that is leading our effort out of the west coast. We have our arms around this and see multiple opportunities on the NFT side and you’ll hear more about that as we move forward. But, we are actively developing our opportunities here and we do see it as substantial.”
