Starlight Serenade

I think we are going off-topic as I was the one initially considering the potential implications of EG moving away from Discovery and where things could end up. I'll respond with a quick summation to your responses as I don't want to take anymore space from the original topic: I agree, they had seemingly had a plan at the start, however there were multiple factors at play that changed things. I would be inclined to agree that if G5 was very successful, they would be doing a lot more. If it was a flop, they would have cancelled TYT after the first season and not bother with multiple chapters of MYM with Netflix. I would say it has been moderately successful with the high social media numbers, multiple series/long running show, movie, specials, etc. However, Hasbro's business implementation really squandered its true potential if anything. I'm pretty sure they had production delays due to the pandemic, the writers strike, and other things that can't come to mind atm, we can't estimate or underestimate how much those factors changed things. The pandemic certainly affected multiple industries across the board and everyone adapted much differently. That and there are different animation teams for these series. We will have to double check, but Hasbro may have a big studio or multiple studios animating everything. A studio can have multiple departments working on multiple series and its not uncommon for a studio to outsource work to another or freelancers. Those could be reasons why the turnaround time in releases felt fast. Maybe one day we will have more insight on that process. I have heard similar things that some artists working on the projects claim this or that, but I take it with a pinch of salt as its a lot of finger-pointing. We'll see if another series comes out in the next year. As for Pony Life - I agree that it felt a bit transitional as they worked on G5's movie and other projects, but it really came off as a cash grab to me. If they really don't have anymore plans for G5 for the next year- I would assume that they are already in the beginning stages of planning G6(or whatever they end up doing) at this point as they need to map things out early.

It's understandable how you can speculate and feel that, and I respect it. I try to keep an open mind and don't intend to criticize people as I want everyone to obtain a better understanding of the big picture and why things happen. I look at things through a business lens as that's what I have been studying and currently trying to learn more about business decisions made behind the scenes. A lot of production changes could mean so many things, I could even start a video essay/rant on it, but I rather keep my sanity and avoiding going into long debates that go nowhere. Honestly speaking - I am actually disappointed with the implementation they took with G5, but have fairly enjoyed some of the series. As months before the movie released, I finished watching G4 and was sad that there wasn't much activity online as it was already over at that point. The initial movie and interviews around that the time from eOne/Hasbro's executives really hyped G5 to revamp the franchise, but not in the way anyone would have expected it. It's why I speculated before that it was the reason why many G4 characters have not shown up in G5 and why G5 ended up the way it currently is. From some of the interviews I saw, Hasbro originally had plans to do so many things such as world building/expanding upon the G4 world, but the rights for characters and ideas fell through. Otherwise, there is no legitimate explanation that makes sense on why they made all their current decisions. Not even monetary, because they could've made so much more! Don't you find it odd that Twilight, Spike, and the princesses were shown briefly in G5 media(not counting the comics) and did not do much? From all the financials and news that I could find publicly online, it's why I believe G5 may still have some more shelf life left. I thought it was obvious that they never planned for a season 2 of TYT until they saw the huge online following and wanted to pump out something immediately, as they were still dealing with MYM on Netflix. It's why the production and release schedule changed in the past year. That and please consider the industry wide writers strike a year ago that affected multiple industry projects by pushing things back. 2D animation has always been much cheaper and easier to produce than doing 3D/CGI. Its why they took out all the celebrity actors from the movie and put all these unknown voice actors for the main cast for the other series. When I heard that they hired those famous actors for the movie, I was like- "they are not coming back for a 2D series as it would be too expensive to have them recurring for Hasbro". It makes complete sense why they focused over to the cheaper TYT on Youtube after they reviewed everything and completed the deal with Netflix on MYM. It's why when something happens in TYT/MYM, they are quickly recapped or vaguely mentioned like when Misty joined the crew for example. One theory I had a year ago was that they may start an entirely new MLP series that airs only on Youtube in the future and they are testing the waters with TYT. Currently, I think Hasbro is aiming to keep various series rotating on multiple platforms for monetization purposes for the foreseeable future. However that doesn't mean that they won't do another 3D/CGI series, I have a feeling they might make another limited series and/or special soon as they did a while back for TYT. As for G4- they tried to make the Pony Life series to replicate the success of Teen Titans Go(look at the glaring similarities), but it did not fare well I believe as I haven't heard anything for a while. They still did some G4 collabs like some "mlp themed shops" in Asia with G4 and even Magic The Gathering did a collab recently as they are both owned by Hasbro. If they try to go back to G4 after whatever they do with G5, I think they will attempt to revamp G4 and it will never be the same. The early popularity that G4 experienced was lightning in a bottle that unfortunately ran out midway as that series declined. If they try to make another gen, I think they should take some ideas from G4 and G5, but let the new series take place away from them.

From the looks of it, I think both got what they initially wanted and are ready to move on. Idk when they made the contract, but G4 did come out around a decade ago and the media landscape has since hten changed. Oh yes, I recall you making some interesting posts about it. That and I recall seeing some Youtube shorts months ago saying that G5 was going to end by June of this year (which made no sense to me). Alongside those instances, I got another YouTube short a few days ago saying that with how things are going that G5 will end in August or something. Idk why some have different end dates already lol The reality is that nopony has any legitimate proof that the end is coming. We can only speculate what will happen next and the best we can with the current information given. My personal opinion- I speculate that we are around the midpoint for G5. Hasbro has implemented different approaches for the franchise and is slowly figuring out where they need to focus on. G5 is doing WAY better than some people think and things will be changing up during the next year. I found it interesting how the general opinion shifted more positively for TYT with the 2nd season and other projects too. (speaking of which - I need to catch up to the past month or so worth of episodes XD)

This is great news as Discovery had really tied down every single little part of the G4 franchise in general, which inadvertently affected G5. From what I recall about syndication and other intellectual rights for media, some of the shows that were still airing on Discovery's platforms prevented the use of certain characters without explicit permission and royalties from Hasbro. EG is something that would still be considered in that vein. To me it is what would explain why a lot of characters are vaguely mentioned or rarely shown at all throughout G5 media despite being in the G4 timeline. However, with recent rumors that G5 may end in Spring of next year, I can see the argument that they might really end it early in favor for something else. Though I wouldn't be surprised if G5 had the sudden appearance of familiar faces anytime soon. I say good riddance to Discovery's contract as it seemingly had Hasbro's hands tied and it really showed.

Thank you for taking a better shot! I wanted to put out that info earlier as there are some people who don't understand how inventory and sales work and instantly assume that everything has gone to Tartarus if the shelves still have items. It looks like they restocked some? Based on the photo- It looks like three of those box sets have been selling well as there is just one of each left and only the "shine collection" (far right) seems to be fully stocked after they restocked it. That shows me that sales are going well for most mlp products there if people are still buying sets without any discounts. Just to reiterate again for those that aren't aware of the situation - Hasbro has been having issues for a long time with their toy department in general. I just recalled that my local news station here in LA put an ad segment where Hasbro was offering signing bonuses for people to join their toy departments as they are taking a beating.

Pretty much. I've been gone for a while thanks to school, but I've been seeing a lot more of these types of posts here lately - I recommend for others to go find previous threads here where we discussed annual financial statements and more info that is publicly available online to get a more informed look at Hasbro's current situation. As for the original post: Sure G5 has it's own issues, but Hasbro has been on a downward trend especially with toys even when G4 was in the middle of airing. G4 revitalized things for a little while, but even that was temporary. Technically speaking- G5's overall social media metrics are higher than G4's and that's what they seem to be looking at. I theorized that they were trying to hit multiple types of media sources for marketing/exposure. I'll post a screencap from last year with some of the stats. I recall seeing around December 2023 that G5 as a whole had several hundred million to over around a billion social media interactions across all platforms up through the end of 2023. TYT alone had around 200 million views up to May 2023 based on what info they posted up publicly. I wouldn't count that as a "failure" in that regards, but I do agree that the toy segment is just bad in general. As someone who's actively studying inventory management, "clearance" can mean many things, some basic reasons like the store trying to get rid of excess or unsold merch that they haven't been able to get rid of - it would be better to eat some of costs and sell it at a loss compared to holding it any longer, incurring more holding costs, thus making it a complete loss. That's an issue that many industries are facing at the moment. That and toy prices have increased with inflation. I mean- "38.99" for that mini set?!?!? Jeez. Regarding pricing strategy from just those pictures alone(also need to keep in mind that the product types there are different too, you can't compare pricing of puzzles, model sets, and dolls)- some companies may not want to have sales all the time as certain items can have a smaller profit margin where having discounts can really cut into their profit. There are seasonal sales too as we are going from spring to summer. There are some federal regulations for sales too that could be affecting them too. Oh I found the screencap finally from around September 2023: