Wizards of the Coast has until October 13 to answer a letter aimed at the division that carries Hasbro. On Tuesday, the teams behind Dungeons & Dragons, D&D Beyond and tabletop Magic: The Gathering told company leadership they are forming a union. The Magic Arena team did the same in April and won its election in June. The new letters come with a deadline, a long list of demands and informing Wizards that they’re the ones who creat proift for the company.
What the D&D Letter Demands
The D&D team’s letter, dated Tuesday, October 6, lists eleven reasons for organizing under the Communications Workers of America. The team says it has “a public supermajority of employees” behind it. The points:
Layoff protections. Employees “live in fear of suddenly losing their jobs,” the letter says, and want protections strong enough to build long-term careers.
AI language in the contract. The letter credits Wizards with resisting Hasbro’s push for AI tools and says the company “kept AI out of our games.” The team wants that locked into a contract.
A written remote work policy. The company’s return-to-office rules have left workers unsure whether their current living situation works for their jobs. The letter cites unpaid commutes and rising costs of living.
Fiscal transparency. Once the union is recognized, its bargaining committee could request financial information and more insight into company finances.
Limits on crunch. The letter describes mandatory unpaid overtime on some teams and says workloads have grown without matching headcount.
Defined career paths. Workers want clear role definitions, raises and promotions.
Wages that track the cost of living. Many staff, the letter says, bring home less each month after inflation than when they were hired.
Support for working parents. The team wants fewer hurdles in the company’s day care policies and more flexibility.
Easier healthcare. The letter asks for less red tape on claims and reasonable deductibles and co-pays, and states that “No WOTC employee should have to turn to GoFundMe in a medical emergency.”
Ownership of work made at home. The letter says Hasbro can claim anything an employee creates in free time with personal resources, and asks that it belong to the employee.
Stewardship of the game. “Short term, profit-driven decisions may be lucrative,” the letter says, but the team wants products that grow D&D sustainably.
The letter also asks Hasbro and Wizards to publicly stay neutral toward “all Hasbro employees and unionization efforts, present and future.” If leadership agrees to voluntary recognition in principle before 5 p.m. Pacific on October 13, the union will withdraw its National Labor Relations Board election petition and set up a third-party card check. If leadership does not agree, the election goes forward.
Studio X Points to the Profit Numbers
The Studio X letter covers the workers behind tabletop Magic: The Gathering and Duel Masters. It opens with a claim about money: the studio is “responsible for back-to-back billion dollar years and a vast majority of Hasbro’s profit.” The demands track the D&D list almost point for point, from pay and healthcare to AI protection and ownership of work made outside the office. The letter sets the same October 13 deadline and asks leadership to sign a labor neutrality agreement.
The numbers behind the claim are public. Hasbro reported that its Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment earned about $1.0 billion in operating profit on $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, up 59% and 45% from the year before. In the second quarter of 2026, Magic revenue reached $545.3 million, up 32% and the first time the game topped $500 million in a quarter. The segment’s operating margin that quarter was 40.7%.
How the Arena Union Got Here
The Arena team’s letter went out April 27. It asked for voluntary recognition by May 1, International Workers’ Day, and named seven issues: layoff protections, remote work, AI, workload, career progression, ownership of free-time work and stewardship of the game. Wizards did not agree. The company said a fair, democratic vote was the right path forward, and the election took place June 2.
Organizers said management ran a counter-campaign after the April announcement. They pointed to a letter from Wizards president John Hight warning that benefits could end up with “more, the same or less” than workers have now. The union announced its win on June 23. More than 100 Arena employees were in the unit, and the union says its focus has moved to a contract. The union says the Arena team helped prepare Tuesday’s announcement.
Layoffs Keep Piling Up
The letters did not come out of nowhere. Hasbro cut about 1,100 jobs across the company in December 2023, roughly a fifth of its workforce, and about 100 of those were at Wizards. In March 2025, around 30 employees on the Sigil project lost their jobs. That was the year Magic set a sales record of $1.72 billion. Game producer Xib Vaine described the mood afterward as “a sword of Damocles just looming over us.”
The cuts have not stopped. On September 29, D&D community manager LaTia Jacquise and Magic social media marketing manager Jordan Hopkins announced they had been let go. Hopkins called it part of “a greater restructure.” Wizards had not commented publicly when the news broke.
The video game side is shrinking too. Hasbro took a $56 million impairment charge in the second quarter over canceled digital projects scheduled for 2028 and beyond. The company plans to cut digital spending by at least 25% by 2028 and move more development to outside partners and lower-cost regions such as Montreal. Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said the money will go where he sees “the clearest upside.”
Wizards Is Searching for a President
John Hight announced on July 27 that he is stepping down as Wizards president, effective September 1, after about two years in the job. His predecessor, Cynthia Williams, resigned in April 2024 after roughly two years. Hasbro said Hight’s exit and the impairment charge were “in no way connected,” and Wizards said “there is no change to the strength of the Wizards business.”
No successor has been named. Wizards is running an internal and external search, and Cocks, who ran Wizards from 2016 to 2022, is overseeing the division directly. D&D leadership reports to him on a temporary basis. Cocks has called himself an “AI bull,” so the union’s AI demands now land on the desk of the executive who has pushed AI hardest.
The rest of the picture is unsettled. D&D veterans Christopher Perkins and Jeremy Crawford left the team in April 2025. Hasbro disclosed $10.8 million in costs from an unauthorized network access incident in March 2026. Remote Arena staff were told to relocate to the Renton office or resign. A division with a vacant president’s chair and three union drives is not a calm place to negotiate from.
Why a Union Complicates Hasbro’s Math
Hasbro needs Wizards more than Wizards needs Hasbro, and the financial statements show it. Hasbro posted a net loss of $322.4 million in 2025 after a $1.02 billion goodwill impairment in its Consumer Products segment, which lost $942.6 million at the operating level. Wizards earned $1.0 billion. The profit holding the parent company up comes from the one group of workers now organizing.
The letters ask for things that cost money or take options away from management. Layoff protections remove the tool Hasbro used in 2023 when sales fell. Raises that keep pace with inflation add payroll, and so do healthcare and day care changes. Crunch limits tied to headcount require more hires. Remote work rules limit what managers can require. A seat at the table for financial disclosure gives a bargaining committee a look at the books. AI language in a contract takes a cost-cutting tool away from an executive who has championed it. All of that arrives while Hasbro is trying to cut digital spending by a quarter.
The union’s answer is the profit itself. A segment running a 40.7% operating margin has room, and Studio X makes that case before it lists a single demand. The risk for Hasbro is the timing. A contract fight is starting while the company has no Wizards president, an unfinished digital strategy and a Consumer Products segment that lost money in 2025. A union cannot change how much Hasbro depends on Magic. A contract can change what it costs to run it.
If a division running a 40% margin cannot promise its workers job security today, what will Hasbro agree to put in writing once a union can ask to see the books?
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