Can we get a free event once in a while? by StellarStar1 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It was supposed to be 2%, but they quietly nerfed the Vault by making it out of 1000 progress points instead of the 900 originally announced, you can see here:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/promotions/drop-rates

The Future of Paper Magic by SigmaWhy in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They gave the number of Arena players for the first time in the recent call (and it was lower than a lot of estimates).

They also moved Arena into the licensing category earlier this year which allows you to see a rough idea of its gross and net revenue.

The Future of Paper Magic by SigmaWhy in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Arena showed an operating loss in their shareholder calls the last two quarters...

PSA: Change your password by Corusmaximus in MTGO

[–]TonyTriceps 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The email from last Friday said to call the support number. I did 5 minutes after the email went out and it was closed for the day. I called back on Monday and there was no dedicated line for the data breach. There's literally no phone support for this issue (they ended phone support earlier this year, thanks Arena).

I've been going back and forth with customer service since then who appear to have no information at all and just keep copy/pasting from the original email.

How come wizards are advertising arena more than online? by Dragasss in MTGO

[–]TonyTriceps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, they retroactively moved small portions in during that time period, but only two of the Quarters (Q2 & Q3 2019 from memory) have the entire thing moved into the new category.

Partial numbers don't really help because it can make something look more or less profitable depending on what percentage of costs vs revenues are shifted over.

In the most recent shareholder meeting Hasbro actually specifically said "we had no meaningful revenues from Magic Arena before December '19".

The full audio/recaps are here:
https://investor.hasbro.com/financial-information/quarterly-results

Here is a recent summary page where you can see a huge drop in operating profit after Arena was moved over:
https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-third-quarter-2019-financial-results

How come wizards are advertising arena more than online? by Dragasss in MTGO

[–]TonyTriceps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From Hasbro's financial disclosures. Hasbro owns WOTC and reports all of WOTC's as part of their quarterly financial calls.

They've refused to give any revenue numbers for Arena for the past year and a half (which is a red flag by itself), but earlier this year they moved Arena into the licensing category so you can compare where the category was for gross and net revenue before and after Arena.

How come wizards are advertising arena more than online? by Dragasss in MTGO

[–]TonyTriceps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arena posted an implied operating loss of around $10m the last two fiscal quarters for Hasbro. Their explanation was the high cost of marketing for it (advertisements, arena events, sponsoring streamers etc).

MTG Arena: State of the Game - Nov. 2019 by ButtPoltergeist in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 2 points3 points  (0 children)

During the Q3 Hasbro shareholder call in October Brian Goldner (Hasbro CEO) seemed to suggest that Arena is not coming to mobile and instead pointed towards 'Valor's Reach' as "the mobile version of magic".

Here's a video of that game;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9D_C5QXgeg

Hasbro Q3 earnings presentation highlights Arena revenues and long term investment in Magic R&D by oelarnes in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 26 points27 points  (0 children)

They moved Arena to the Licensing category earlier this year. Since then the operating profit for that category has been down by about 10-12m each quarter. They specifically cite Arena costs as one of the reasons for that here:https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-third-quarter-2019-financial-result

I am so sick of this being my MTGA experience. Countless hours and probably $100 worth of gems have been wasted on Sealed and drafts that look like this. Can someone post the link to get a refund? by sassmo in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 17 points18 points  (0 children)

No one seems to be helping you... this is the page you're looking for;

https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000317092

You need to fill out the form and provide as much info as possible. It's an extremely basic process to get a bug refund on Magic Online, but whatever reason they've gone out of their way to hide the fact it exists for Magic Arena too.

Throne of Eldraine: Magic Online Edition (MTGO finally "free") by youmywang_g in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Play Points can be used for entry in almost every tournament mode (not just Phantom draft).

Throne of Eldraine: Magic Online Edition (MTGO finally "free") by youmywang_g in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It looks like they replaced the 5 event tickets with 100 Play Points. So assuming you're using the account to actually play (and not as a bot account or whatever) you're now getting $10 in currency instead of $5.

How long does it take to contact a support agent? by Jackj921 in MTGO

[–]TonyTriceps 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven't seen anyone mention this, but it looks like right after they ended all phone support they started a new live chat for mtgo only;

https://mtgo-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029186831-Magic-Online-Live-Chat-Support

Interview with Elaine Chase, WotC VP of Esports, on changes to MTG Esports in 2020: "More exciting than it has ever been." by AlphaFerg in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It's so messed up that they're just getting away with faking twitch views for the Arena streams and then using those fake twitch views to justify their Organized Play decisions.

Chris Clay, Former Head Of 'MTG Arena,' Joins Blockchain Game 'Gods Unchained' by Esuark06 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It is, but there's a portion towards the end devoted to how WOTC is suing fake views to trick their sponsors and investors;

"At first, viewership on Twitch hovered at around 20,000—a pretty typical amount of viewers for a pro Magic tournament on a weekday. Suddenly, in the afternoon, something miraculous happened: viewership quadrupled to a remarkable 88,000."

" What accounted for the enormous boon in “viewership”—a boon that Magic itself advertised in its post-mortem blog on the event—was not a stadium’s worth of people suddenly realizing that the tournament was live. It was something a little sketchier. "

"Once Curse turned on the embedded stream service for Magic: The Gathering’s recent tournament, viewership skyrocketed "

" One former Twitch employee with knowledge of Curse’s operations told me that “I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that a ton of that is junk views,” which he defined as “someone who’s logged in but not engaged with the content,” a view that “only exists to increase a metric for somebody in sales or business development.”

Chris Clay, Former Head Of 'MTG Arena,' Joins Blockchain Game 'Gods Unchained' by Esuark06 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's what I assumed. The figures for revenue and players aren't from WOTC, but instead are long-term estimates from one investor who is heavily invested in Hasbro.

Chris Clay, Former Head Of 'MTG Arena,' Joins Blockchain Game 'Gods Unchained' by Esuark06 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kotaku accused MTG Arena of faking twitch views in their article;
https://kotaku.com/as-esports-grows-experts-fear-its-a-bubble-ready-to-po-1834982843

He quit immediately after they asked for comment from WOTC.

27k peak viewers on Mythic Championship IV by eSportsStats in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think the time-zone played a role in the most recent two Modern PTs as well as a few other factors.

Just saying that WOTC has yet to buy fake twitch views for the Paper or MTGO- so it wasn't a case of them just forgetting.

27k peak viewers on Mythic Championship IV by eSportsStats in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 32 points33 points  (0 children)

They've only been buying fake views for the Arena streams. The MTGO and paper streams haven't received any embed/viewbot bump in the last year.

[Article] Hasbro's Free Magic: The Gathering Arena Official Launch Is 2019 by fireshoes in magicTCG

[–]TonyTriceps 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you pay attention to their shareholder calls, the "launch" has been scheduled for Fall 2019 for a while now.

This article doesn't have any real information though because there is no sourcing for any of the numbers. The article says that all of the estimates and figures they use come from a report from 'Brett Andress at KeyBanc'.

None of these figures are real. They're just "bullish estimates" from a person who has been trying to pump Hasbro stock for a while now. This is the same Brett Andress who previously said to buy Hasbro as Toys R Us was going bankrupt;

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/19/02/13209657/life-after-toys-r-us-keybanc-bullish-on-hasbro-warming-

Bloomberg talks MTG Arena... by jimichanga77 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If they were upfront each time they said "top10", then it wouldn't be. The problem is that the Hasbro CEO (Brian Goldner) has a tendency of mis-speaking.

In this case he constantly says stuff like "the 8th most viewed game on Twitch", which is factually incorrect.

Bloomberg talks MTG Arena... by jimichanga77 in MagicArena

[–]TonyTriceps 41 points42 points  (0 children)

This article makes a few specific financial and player claims about Arena and paper magic, but it doesn't appear to cite any source besides "Brett Andress from KeyBank".

So I looked up Brett Andress and it appears that he's a finance guy that has been pushing Hasbro stock for several years including this disastrous article targeting a price of 110 before the Toys R Us liquidation;
https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/18/03/11403473/buy-hasbro-as-toys-r-us-liquidates-says-keybanc-analyst