Hasbro US Conference talks about a Cinematic Universe

[griffin]

At the annual JP Morgan Conference in America, the CEO of Hasbro was there to tell the audience about the future of the company, and a little bit about its major brands... including Transformers.

The full list of the details can be seen here, but these are the highlights that relate to Transformers...

- The Transformers Brand is currently going through a transition period, but didn't note what that meant. (we've already seen them taking back the Convention & Club licenses, so they are obviously a part of their new marketing strategy)

- Transformers 5 will continue the story of the previous movies.

- The Fan Community (noted as customers over 16), are acknowledged as being a significant part of their revenue, and they will be looking at more fan-focussed items in the future. (A figure of 20% of their revenue is noted, but that was added in later, so I'm not sure if that was in the speech, and if it was, how would Hasbro know that for sure anyway, so it could just be a very rough estimate.)

- As I had heard someone mention earlier in the year, Nerf has now replaced Transformers as Hasbro's number one earning Brand.

- They mention Activision in the past tense, so maybe their future games will be by someone else (or in-house, as they have been developing their own interactive departments recently, like Allspark Pictures and Allspark Industries).

- There is a mention of "Frustration Free Packaging" specifically for Online Retailers, which could mean more toys that are not for regular retail release, just being packaged in a bag inside a brown box, like the Amazon exclusive Rescue Bots toys last year... as online retailers don't need fancy packaging, and prefer a more condensed packaging for storage.

- The confirmation of a "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" (if it wasn't already officially revealed), which will see the first movies come out in 2018/2019, with the HCU featuring Micronauts, GIJoe, ROM, MASK and Visionaries (and probably Transformers some time down the road, when it is time for a reboot, or one series needs the support of the other).
(it seems everyone is trying to to copy the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now)

[UltraMarginal]

It'll certainly be interesting to see where games go from here. perhaps they were disappointed at Activision for letting High moon bite the dust when everyone was looking forward to a follow up game to Fall of Cybertron.

[DrLockdown]

Ugh...why does EVERYTHING have to be a cinematic universe now? Can't we just have standalone blockbusters that don't need sequels?

[GoktimusPrime]

Ugh...why does EVERYTHING have to be a cinematic universe now? Can't we just have standalone blockbusters that don't need sequels?

I'm all for it, because it might improve the story-telling quality for TF films.
It couldn't possibly be worse.

[UltraMarginal]

I don't mind the cinematic universe thing, it's like non-episodic television, which is what the world seems to love. just with bigger budget and more time between episodes.

It's an interesting space, actors signing up for a decade or more worth of film, potentially only ever being well known for one character, writers spending the majority of the prime of their career on only a couple properties.

I expect there will be a swing back the other way at some point, where people just want a stand alone story. but if something is really good, you always want to see more of it, so even though it may have started out a single film, there will be another if the studios think there is an audience, look at Independence Day, it took 20 years but the sequel is coming out this year.

[griffin]

Another US conference, that has a few minor bits of info about the future of Transformers, but is mostly about other Hasbro brands.

[Lord_Zed]

I'm all for it, because it might improve the story-telling quality for TF films.
It couldn't possibly be worse.

I dunno about that, to me the move to a cinematic universe smacks of a poorly thought out copycat move without addressing any of the fundamental issues with the existing movies.

It's just going to be years of the same, but hey now Transformers and Gi Joe, Mask etc are linked so you should watch all of them even though they are still just as crappy.

[griffin]

- The confirmation of a "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" (if it wasn't already officially revealed), which will see the first movies come out in 2018/2019, with the HCU featuring Micronauts, GIJoe, ROM, MASK and Visionaries (and probably Transformers some time down the road, when it is time for a reboot, or one series needs the support of the other).
(it seems everyone is trying to to copy the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now)

Further confirmation of Hasbro going ahead with its Cinematic Universe, as we've already seen the IDW version start this month, and Jon Barber from IDW looks to be a key factor with the Cinematic version. But it seems that the inclusion of Transformers is still yet to be decided or confirmed.

I guess they don't want to upset the successful formula for Transformers, but as it will eventually lose steam, it could then be rebooted and introduced into the HCU some time later.

[griffin]

We still don't know if Transformers will be joining Hasbro's Cinematic Universe, but two properties have been dropped - MASK and ROM.

GIJoe and Micronauts are still going ahead for 2020, but it seems odd that MASK was dropped, as it would work in well with GIJoe (and Transformers - humans trying to replicate the alien converting technology).

[bowspearer]

We still don't know if Transformers will be joining Hasbro's Cinematic Universe, but two properties have been dropped - MASK and ROM.

GIJoe and Micronauts are still going ahead for 2020, but it seems odd that MASK was dropped, as it would work in well with GIJoe (and Transformers - humans trying to replicate the alien converting technology).

I suspect it was needlessly race-bending Matt Trakker which did it. He's a pretty iconic character and a live action movie with the changes wouldn't have gone down well with the nostalgia crowd the movie would be targeting.