Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) Has Huge Toy Hit Coming With Star Wars Angry Birds 2

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I wrote about how the launch of “Disney Infinity” could be the savior to Disney’s money-losing interactive division. In fiscal 2012, the interactive business segment posted an operating loss of $0.2 billion. This was the only segment to lose money on the year. Revenue declined 14% to $0.8 billion for Disney Interactive, the company’s smallest segment.

Having interactive toys to use in video games is nothing new. In fact, Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) has made quite a large sum of money off of it. Since “Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure” was launched in October of 2011, Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) has seen sales of $1 billion from the interactive game.

The game has turned into one released sequel – “Sylanders Giants” – and the upcoming highly anticipated third Skylanders game, “Skylanders Swap Force.” The company saw huge success in releasing a game with several toys and then selling the additional interactive characters as two-packs and three-packs. Sales of the toys were strong on Amazon and Ebay as the company saw overwhelming demand keep supply off the shelves.

Rovio has long been thought of as a one-trick pony with Angry Birds. The company has released several sequels to the highly downloaded mobile game and now entered new territory with Star Wars characters. I expect Rovio to continue to expand the game to other well-known characters. The obvious winner in this is Hasbro. With an already existing deal with Rovio, Hasbro will profit from toys related to the Angry Birds line of games. Future releases could significantly help Hasbro’s sales and reach blockbuster status.

Disney continues to be a great company going forward. Acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars have added billions of dollars in sales across all business segments. I expect to see strong sales of “Disney Infinity” and think the turnaround of Disney Interactive could help beat analysts’ projections for revenue and profits.

The pressure continues to be on Activision to pump out blockbuster video games. With strong sales of the Call of Duty, Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft franchises, Activision has found another hit with Skylanders. If sales are strong for “Disney Infinity” in August, Activision shares could drop off due to the competition.

The article Hasbro Has Huge Toy Hit Coming With Star Wars Angry Birds 2 originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Chris Katje.

Chris Katje is long Activision Blizzard shares. The Motley Fool recommends Activision Blizzard, Hasbro, and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS). The Motley Fool owns shares of Activision Blizzard, Hasbro, and Walt Disney. Chris is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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