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Novo Nordisk said its diabetes pill Rybelsus showed cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial.
The pill lowered the risk of cardiovascular-related death, heart attack and stroke by 14% compared to a placebo after four years on average in patients with diabetes and established heart disease, with or without chronic kidney disease.
The results pave the way for it to become a new treatment option for people living with diabetes and established heart disease. 

Flags with the logos of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, maker of the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy are pictures while the company presents the annual report at Novo Nordisk in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on February 5, 2025. 
Mads Claus Rasmussen | Afp | Getty Images

Novo Nordisk on Saturday said its diabetes pill Rybelsus showed cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial, paving the way for it to become a new treatment option for people living with diabetes and heart disease. 
The pill lowered the risk of cardiovascular-related death, heart attack and stroke by 14% compared to a placebo after four years on average in patients with diabetes and established heart disease, with or without chronic kidney disease. The Danish drugmaker presented the results on Rybelsus, which is already approved for Type 2 diabetes, at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in Chicago.  

Novo Nordisk has already applied in the U.S. and EU to expand the pill’s approval to include lowering the risk of serious cardiovascular complications, Stephen Gough, the company’s global chief medical officer, said in an interview.
Rybelsus is the once-daily oral formulation of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes injection Ozempic, which is taken once a week. Both treatments, as well as the company’s weekly weight loss injection Wegovy, contain the active ingredient semaglutide.
Wegovy in March 2024 won U.S. approval for slashing the risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and who are obese or overweight. But the pill data presented on Saturday suggests that patients who are hesitant to take injections, such as those who are afraid of needles, could soon access treatment in a more convenient way. 
“We know not everybody wants an injection, whether it is painful or not, they want the option of an oral medication,” Gough told CNBC. “We provide that option, that you can have one or the other, depending on what the patients and the healthcare professional think is right in that joint discussion.”
The data comes as a slate of other drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, work to develop oral GLP-1s for diabetes, weight loss and other conditions, such as sleep apnea.

The phase three trial examined just over 9,600 patients 50 years and older who received either Rybelsus or placebo, both on top of their standard treatment regimen, for an average of just under four years. Nearly half of all patients received medications called SGLT2 inhibitors, which are primarily used to lower blood sugar in adults with Type 2 diabetes, at some point during the trial. 
By the end of the trial, 12% of people taking Rybelsus and 13.8% of those taking placebo experienced cardiovascular-related death, heart attack or stroke. That represents a 14% overall lower risk among those who took Rybelsus. 
Researchers said that the reduced risk is in line with the cardiovascular benefits observed in eight previous trials involving injectable GLP-1s, which include semaglutide and other popular medications, according to a release from the American College of Cardiology. GLP-1s mimic certain gut hormones to tamp down appetite and regulate blood sugar, but also have other effects such as reducing inflammation. 
Rybelsus helped lower the risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 26% compared to the placebo, which was “the primary driver” of the overall reduction of risk for cardiovascular complications in the trial, the release said. The pill also slashed the risk of non-fatal strokes by 12% and cardiovascular-related death by 7% compared to placebo. 
There was no significant difference between the Rybelsus and placebo groups in outcomes related to kidney function, the release added. But the trial was “clearly” designed to examine the cardiovascular rather than kidney benefits of the pill, Gough said. 
Ozempic is already approved to treat chronic kidney disease in diabetes patients. 
The most common side effects reported in the study were gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea, diarrhea and constipation, which rarely led patients to stop taking Rybelsus, according to the release. Those symptoms are consistent with the side effects of injectable semaglutide. 
Similar results were seen across all subgroups of patients – by age, sex and among people with different health conditions at the start of the trial, the release said. 
Unlike its injectable counterparts, Rybelsus must be taken on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes before breakfast with a small amount of water. Despite those requirements, the study offers “reassurance that patients were able to take the drug as directed and reap cardiovascular health benefits from it,” said Dr. Darren McGuire, professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the study’s first author.  More

Trips from Canada to the U.S. are dropping, threatening to widen the United States’ $50 billion travel and tourism deficit.
Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States.
The White House said Friday that Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state.”
Several other countries have issued travel warnings for travelers considering going to the U.S.

Canadians hold an “Elbows Up” protest against U.S. tariffs and other policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 22, 2025.
Carlos Osorio | Reuters

Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. and visitors from other countries could soon follow threatening to deepen the United States’ $50 billion travel deficit.
Experts say they’re pulling back for a variety of reasons, ranging from an unfavorable currency exchange rate to the U.S. political climate given President Donald Trump’s trade policies and his public statements on annexing Canada, as well as high-profile detainments of people who already had visas to be in the U.S., long wait visa times and other policies that have added to tensions with longtime close allies.

Reached for comment Friday, a White House spokesperson said by email that “everybody wants to come to President Trump’s America.”
Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state” and that “Europeans are eager to enjoy the Golden Age of America if they so choose to,” the spokesperson said.
In response to President Trump’s tariff plans at the time, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month urged Canadians to “choose Canada” and suggested “changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”
The cross-border travel trends and Trump administration’s policies are worrying some in the United States’ travel industry, which draws in more than $1 trillion in direct spending a year.
The U.S. Travel Association said in a statement to CNBC that there is a “a question of America’s welcomeness, a slowing U.S. economy and recent safety concerns.

“These challenges are real and demand decisive action,” the organization, whose members include large hotel groups, airlines and other major travel companies, said, adding that is “actively working with the White House and Congress to advance policies that drive economic expansion and keep the U.S. competitive on the global stage.”
There are billions of dollars on the line. People from the United States already travel abroad and spend more in other countries than the U.S. brings in from foreign travelers.
Last year, the United States’ travel deficit was more than $51 billion, meaning Americans spent that much more abroad than foreigners visiting the U.S. spent, stripping out spending for medical and educational purposes, which still showed a deficit, according to Commerce Department data.
The U.S. brought in more than 72 million visitors last year, still below pre-Covid levels, according to a report from Jefferies. Visitors from Canada were the largest group, accounting for 28%, followed by Mexico at 23%, the bank said in a note this month.
Travel and tourism of inbound visitors are counted as U.S. exports, and they accounted for about 8% of U.S. exports of goods and services, according to the Commerce Department.
International visitors from overseas are especially important because they tend to stay longer and spend more money than local tourists, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

Some Canadians travel elsewhere

Both air travel and land crossings between the United States and Canada are down.
In February, Canadians’ return flights to Canada fell 13% over last year while return trips by car dropped 23% according to Statistics Canada.
Hotel demand in some area along the Canada-U.S. border are also down. As of March 15, they were off 8% in Bellingham, Washington, and 3.5% in the Niagara Falls area, according to hotel data firm STR. However, demand throughout Florida, a top destination for Canadian travelers, is up 3% over last year, the firm said.
Canadian airlines are cutting some routes and flights to the U.S.
Canadian airline Flair, for example, said it canceled its planned Toronto to Nashville, Tennessee, route.
“Our network decisions are driven solely by consumer demand—we deploy our aircraft where demand is strongest to provide the lowest fares to the most travellers,” a spokeswoman for the airline said by email.
Canadian airline WestJet said it has seen Canadian customers shift bookings from the U.S. to other popular sunseeker destinations like Mexico and the Caribbean.
“The airline remains focused on knowing where people want to go, and we will continue to fly where there is demand,” a spokeswoman said.

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The shift comes as travel executives have warned about weaker-than-expected bookings for domestic U.S. trips, meaning more local tourism might not be able to make up for the drop in trans-border travel. While U.S. household credit and debit card spending overall was up 1.5% over last year as of March 22, spending on airlines dropped 7.2%, according to a Bank of America report this week.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, for example, said at an investor conference earlier this month that the carrier is trimming routes in part because it’s seeing “a lot of it trans-border, big drop in Canadian traffic to go into the U.S.,” as well as a sharp drop in flights that had previously catered to U.S. government-tied travel.
Lara Harbachian, who works for a digital printing company in Montreal, and eight friends (so far) had been considering several U.S. destinations this year to celebrate their 40th birthdays: San Diego; Palm Springs, Calif.; Savannah, Georgia; or Nashville. The winner was farther east: Barcelona, Spain.
While the flights to Europe were more expensive than the ones to the U.S. destinations, Harbachian said it will be cheaper for her and her friends to visit the popular Spanish city, where they won’t need to rent a car and high-end meals and hotels are cheaper, especially with a weaker Canadian dollar over the greenback.
“I can get a 15 euro meal but I can’t get a $15 meal” in the U.S., she said.
Trump earlier this month created a task force for the 2026 FIFA World Cup that the U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada to “showcase the Nation’s pride and hospitality while promoting economic growth and tourism through sport.”

Travel warnings about the U.S. grow

Another challenge for the U.S. travel industry this year is a growing number of travel warnings about the visiting the United States. So far, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Finland have issued travel warnings for their citizens who are planning to go to the United States.

Those were prompted by detentions even of individuals who had visas to be in the United States as well as Trump’s executive order that the country would only recognize two biological sexes, prompting concerns from governments in Europe about travelers whose passports state a different gender than the one they were born with.
For example, Germany said that “travelers with the gender entry “X” or whose current gender entry differs from their birth date should contact the responsible U.S. diplomatic mission in Germany before entering the country to find out about the applicable entry requirements.”
Travel warnings “could deter international visitors, especially first-time travelers,” said Carolin Lusby, assistant professor in tourism at the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University.
She said there is often a rebound after an incident or tragedy occurs, such as after the Paris terror attacks in 2015. “But a lot of times is we know that once a destination image changes, it takes a lot of effort to bring back the trust,” she said.
“In terms of the economic consequences, that could turn into billions of lost dollars,” she added. More

The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant.
The FCC said in a letter that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, began a similar investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal in early February.

The main gate at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, on Sept. 25, 2023.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant.
The FCC, the agency that regulates the media and telecommunications industry, said in a letter dated Friday that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”

“We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions,” a Disney spokesperson told CNBC.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, began a similar investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal in early February. The inquiry comes after Trump signed an executive order looking to end DEI practices at U.S. corporations in January. The order calls for each federal agency to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations” among publicly traded companies, as well as nonprofits and other institutions.
“For decades, Disney focused on churning out box office and programming successes,” Carr wrote in the letter to CEO Bob Iger. “But then something changed. Disney has now been embroiled in rounds of controversy surrounding its DEI policies.”
An FCC spokesperson didn’t comment beyond the letter.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

Lululemon reported earnings and revenue beats for its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
But the retailer’s 2025 guidance came in below expectations.
Revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024 totaled $3.61 billion.

Lululemon store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., on July 15, 2024.
Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, but issued 2025 guidance that disappointed analysts.
On an Thursday earnings call, CEO Calvin McDonald said the athleticwear company conducted a survey earlier this month that found that consumers are spending less due to economic and inflation concerns, resulting in lower U.S. traffic at Lululemon and industry peers. However, he said, guests responded well to innovation at the company.

“There continues to be considerable uncertainty driven by macro and geopolitical circumstances. That being said, we remain focused on what we can control,” McDonald said.
Shares of the apparel company fell more than 10% in extended trading.
Lululemon was only the latest retailer to say it expects slower sales for the rest of this year as concerns grow about a slowing economy and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Here’s how the company did compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ended Feb. 2, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $6.14 vs. $5.85 expected
Revenue: $3.61 billion vs. $3.57 billion expected

Fourth-quarter revenue rose from $3.21 billion during the same period in 2023. Full-year 2024 revenue came in at $10.59 billion, up from $9.62 billion in 2023.

Lululemon’s fiscal 2024 contained 53 weeks, one week longer than its fiscal 2023. Excluding the 53rd week, fourth-quarter and full-year revenue both rose 8% year over year for 2024.
Lululemon expects first-quarter revenue to total $2.34 billion to $2.36 billion, while Wall Street analysts were expecting $2.39 billion, according to LSEG. The retailer anticipates it will post full-year fiscal 2025 revenue of $11.15 billion to $11.30 billion, compared to the analyst consensus estimate of $11.31 billion.
For the first quarter, the company expects to post earnings per share in the range of $2.53 to $2.58, missing Wall Street’s expectation of $2.72, according to LSEG. Full-year earnings per share guidance came in at $14.95 to $15.15 per share, while analysts anticipated $15.31.
CFO Meghan Frank said on the Thursday earnings call that gross margin for 2025 is expected to fall 0.6 percentage points due to higher fixed costs, foreign exchange rates and U.S. tariffs on China and Mexico.
Lululemon reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $748 million, or $6.14 per share, compared with a net income of $669 million, or $5.29 per share, during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Comparable sales, which Lululemon defines as revenue from e-commerce and stores open at least 12 months, rose 3% year over year for the quarter. The comparison excludes the 53rd week of the 2024 fiscal year. Analysts expected the metric to rise 5.1%.
Comparable sales in the Americas were flat, while they grew 20% internationally. Lululemon has been facing a sales slowdown in the U.S., although McDonald said its U.S. business stabilized in the second half of the year and partially attributed the improvement to new merchandise. He added that Lululemon will expand its stores to Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Turkey and the Czech Republic this year. More

General Motors stock fell more than 6% Thursday after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on auto imports.
The divergence from shares of other automakers stems from the amount of vehicles that GM imports, and its exposure to Mexico in particular.
Roughly 30% of GM vehicles sold in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2024 were assembled in Canada and Mexico.

The GM logo is seen on a water tank of the General Motors assembly plant in Ramos Arizpe, in Coahuila state, Mexico, on Feb. 11, 2021.
Daniel Becerril | Reuters

As auto stocks reacted to the latest tariff announcement out of Washington, D.C., on Thursday, General Motors took the brunt of the hit.
Shares of GM fell more than 7% in Thursday trading, far underperforming the likes of Ford and Stellantis, which shed more than 3% and roughly 1%, respectively. Tesla stock was essentially unchanged for the day.

The divergence stems from the amount of vehicles that GM imports, and its exposure to Mexico in particular.

Read more CNBC auto news

“Tesla and Ford appear to be the most shielded given location of vehicle assembly facilities although Ford does face incremental exposure on imported engines,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note Thursday. “GM has the most exposure to Mexico.”
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his administration would impose 25% tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States” and some automobile parts. The executive order signed Wednesday allows for some leniency for components that are compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but it was not immediately clear what relief that might offer the North American automotive industry.

Stock chart icon

General Motors stock falls after Trump tariff announcement.

Mexico accounted for 16.2% of vehicle imports into the U.S. as a percentage of sales in 2024, according to GlobalData. That was the largest share of any country, about double the shares of South Korea and Japan, which ranked second and third in terms of import volume, respectively.
Roughly 52% of GM vehicles sold in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2024 were assembled in the U.S., according to research by Barclays analyst Dan Levy. That leaves 30% assembled in Canada and Mexico, and another 18% brought in from other countries.

Levy also pointed out that GM relies heavily on Mexico and South Korea for production of some of its small crossovers, including its Equinox and Blazer vehicles.
“Roughly half of GM’s US sales are produced in the US, but imported parts are a concern,” he said.
During the same period, 57% of Stellantis vehicles and 78% of Ford vehicles sold in the U.S. were assembled stateside. Levy reported Stellantis assembled 39% of its U.S.-sold units in Canada and Mexico, and Ford, just 21%.
Wolfe Research’s Emmanuel Rosner said the tariffs primarily affect foreign-brand automakers, but noted that 15% of GM’s U.S. vehicles come from South Korea.
John Murphy from Bank of America said in comparison to the broader automotive market, GM is “relatively exposed to the tariffs” and may need to rebalance.
GM stock is down 13% year to date. Shares fell sharply in late January after investors worried that the automaker did not address concerns about tariffs in its most recent earnings report. More

Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions has sold an approximately 10% stake to a new platform run by former Endeavor executive Patrick Whitesell.
The stake sale will value Omaha at more than $750 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Omaha Productions has produced more than 30 TV series and live events, including the “ManningCast” on ESPN.

Peyton Manning on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
Theo Wargo | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

Peyton Manning has a new business partner.
A new platform run by Patrick Whitesell, the former executive chairman of Endeavor, has acquired a minority stake in Manning’s Omaha Productions.

The stake, which is approximately 10% of the company, values Omaha Productions at more than $750 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Private equity firm Silver Lake announced Whitesell’s new platform, which will invest in sports, media and entertainment companies, earlier this week. Silver Lake is contributing an initial $250 million to the fund. The Omaha Productions deal is the first investment.
A spokesperson for Whitesell and spokespeople for Omaha and Silver Lake declined to comment on financial terms.
“Omaha’s strong track record of creating engaging content puts them in a strong position to capitalize on new opportunities across entertainment and sports,” said Whitesell in a statement.

Patrick Whitesell Executive chairman of Endeavor.
Courtesy: Endeavor

Omaha Productions has produced more than 30 TV series and live events for a variety of media partners, including Disney, Netflix and Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The company is the executive producer of Netflix’s “Quarterback” and “Receiver” documentary series and developed “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli,” colloquially known as the ManningCast, where the Manning brothers comment on the game and interview celebrities.

Silver Lake is a longtime investor in Endeavor. This week, it closed its transaction to take the company private. When accounting for Endeavor’s existing stake in TKO Sports, Silver Lake marked the deal at an enterprise value of $25 billion.
Manning and media executive Jamie Horowitz founded Omaha in 2020. As it takes on Silver Lake as an investor, the company aims to grow into new business ventures that can utilize Manning in other ways beyond media, the company said in a statement. Omaha recently announced an investment in Good Good Golf, a golf and lifestyle company.
Omaha has been profitable since its founding, the company said, suggesting the investment is more about increasing Omaha’s value and expanding its opportunities than needing cash.
Both Silver Lake and Whitesell were instrumental in moving Endeavor beyond a talent agency into an expansive sports and entertainment empire. The company, run by Ari Emanuel, eventually acquired both UFC and WWE, merging them into a new publicly traded entity called TKO Group.
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More

Critical Role has expanded from a single live-stream of Dungeons & Dragons into a multiplatform media company.
It operates a production studio, a publishing arm, a gaming division, a streaming service, a record label and a charity initiative.
While Dungeons & Dragons will remain a cornerstone of Critical Role’s identity, the company is now building its own legacy.

The cast of “Critical Role” playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Critical Role

A decade ago, a group of professional voice actors gathered around a table to live-stream a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Now, they run a media empire.
Critical Role, both the name of the original show and the company, has expanded exponentially since its first episode aired in March 2015. Today it operates a production studio, a publishing arm, a gaming division, a streaming service, a record label and a charity initiative.

The company’s growth comes at a time of disruption in the traditional media landscape. More consumers are turning to niche streamers and alternative content than ever before, with services like Critical Role’s streaming platform Beacon becoming more and more prevalent.
Critical Role is a private company and does not disclose its financials, however, a leaked Twitch report noted that the company generated $9.6 million in direct payouts from the streaming service between September 2019 and September 2021. It’s an impressive total for a company built on a 50-year-old fantasy game.
Critical Role’s business strategy centers on its intellectual property. The company and its founders — Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham — have crafted a complex fantasy world, named Exandria. Through partnerships and expanding in-house production, they’ve captured fans across a wide swath of mediums.
The company has created more than 2,500 hours of original content, more than 30 original shows and published nearly 70 books, comics and novels in the last 10 years, many of which are based on the IP of its games.
As the company continues to mature, it has broadened its focus beyond the confines of the Hasbro-owned table top roleplaying game.

“We’ve been doing this for quite a while,” said Mercer, the company’s long-time game master and chief creative officer. “Our core main campaign it’s very much been kind of the tentpole of our community and the growth of this whole endeavor … People throughout the company have kept eyes out in the space to look for really talented, up-and-coming people that might be an opportunity for us to collaborate with and let them grow — kind of more or less give them part of our garden and let them flourish.”

‘How do you want to do this?’

The basis for Critical Role’s content is what’s known in the D&D realm as a “campaign,” a longform game that can take place over the course of several weeks, months and even years. 
Critical Role’s third campaign, the adventures of a group known as Bell’s Hells, wrapped in early February with an 8-hour finale. The campaign, which took place over the course of 121 four- to six-hour episodes, started in October 2021.
Its final session marked the culmination of a decade of storytelling and the beginning of something new. While Critical Role will continue to deliver fan-favorite content, it’s now looking to delve into new domains.
“In the animation world alone, animation takes a long time, and it’s very expensive and feature animation is its own unique challenge, but it’s something we are exploring,” Willingham said. “We love experiential things. We’re always looking for anything that someone might be able to come and engage with in a real world aspect.”

Titmouse developed “The Legend of Vox Machina” for Amazon Prime Video based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign from Critical Role.
Amazon Prime Video

Already, Critical Role has a successful animated series on Amazon Prime Video, “The Legend of Vox Machina.” The project was first fundraised by Critical Role’s ardent fanbase, who shelled out more than $11.3 million on Kickstarter to bring a 10-episode season to life. Amazon quickly funded a second season of the show, which is now headed for its fourth.
Still to come is a second show centered on the characters in the adventuring party known as the Mighty Nein, who featured in Critical Role’s second campaign. Both projects are being completed by independent animation house Titmouse.
The company will continue to explore the world of Exandria in new video content, called actual plays, with the “Wildemount Wildings” announced as its next adventure.
Riegel is set to take on the role of game master for the new limited series, which launches April 3. The three-episode event follows a rag-tag group of teens at a summer camp learning how to be heroes. Their guides are two famed characters from Critical Role’s Mighty Nein, Beau and Yasha, played by founders Ray and Johnson. The cast also includes Eden Riegel, Aleks Le, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Libe Barer.

Critical Role’s “Wildemount Wildlings” features Sam Riegal as the game master alongside veteran cast members Marisha Ray and Ashley Johnson. They are joined by Eden Riegel, Aleks Le, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Libe Barer.
Critical Role

Additionally, Darrington Press, the company’s publishing arm, is set to release a romance novel called “Tusk Love,” based on an in-game novel of the same name; O’Brien has penned a book of fairy tales from the Zemni Fields, a fictional area within Exandria; and Riegal wrote a self-help book from the perspective of his character, named Fresh Cut Grass.
The company’s main cast is also gearing up for a multi-city live show tour in the U.S. and Australia, with hopes to visit other countries in Europe and South America in the coming years.
Critical Role sold out Wembley Stadium in London last fall.
“That was the largest venue we had ever explored, and watching it sell out that quickly, and then just the energy from that room was massive,” Willingham said.
“It’s all a gradual acceleration, but it’s also exciting for us, because anybody that’s been to a Critical Role live show knows there’s nothing like it,” he added.

‘You can certainly try’

Critical Role’s aspirations are even further reaching.
“We’ve built such a robust world, and we have so many other stories to tell and things that we want to add to those stories, but something that we love as gamers is providing the audience a way to get their hand on the stick and have some agency in that story, manipulate it, change it, see what their own personal experience would be,” said Willingham, teasing that a video game announcement is expected within the year.
Metapigeon, Critical Role’s production studio, has also been exploring live-action and feature film development alongside its continued animation aspirations.
“The thing about Beacon was that it’s intended as a starting point,” said Willingham. “It is something we can add to … we just have to measure and explore at our own pace, but that’s fully our intention.”
The Beacon streaming service costs $5.99 a month for ad-free and exclusive content, as well as early access to live event ticket sales and a percentage off Critical Role merchandise.
The company declined to say how many subscribers its Beacon service currently has.

The cast of “Critical Role” includes Marisha Ray, Matthew Mercer, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Travis Willingham, Liam O’Brien and Laura Bailey.
Critical Role

Perhaps the biggest investment Critical Role has made is in its new table top roleplaying game system called Daggerheart. This ruleset, which is due out in May, is set to be the basis of much of the company’s video content in the future.
“The intent of this was to look at all the different systems we had played and comparing that with the style of how we play,” said Mercer. “There’s a history of prominent game systems that facilitate epic, cinematic storytelling, but often are kind of in conflict with the rules as they’re written and presented.”
Mercer and the team at Critical Role wanted to build a system that allowed for more creative gameplay where rules didn’t delay or prevent players from creating unique story moments.
Critical Role will still use other game systems, like Dungeons & Dragons, but having its own proprietary module allows it to not only grow in scope of content, but also in revenue. Those funds can then be reinvested into other projects.
“The perpetual joke is, if you say it out loud, there’s a chance that it will happen,” said Willingham. More

Ferrari said Thursday it will raise prices on certain models after April 1 in response to new U.S. auto tariffs.
The sports car maker’s more popular models, including the Purosangue SUV, the 12Cilindri and the F80, will get price increases of up to 10%.
Ferrari produces all of its cars at its Maranello factory.
Last year, the company produced 13,752 cars.

The Ferrari logo is seen outside the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy.
Ciancaphoto Studio | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Ferrari said Thursday it will raise prices by 10% on certain models after April 1 in response to new U.S. auto tariffs, adding up to $50,000 to the price of a typical Ferrari.
The Maranello, Italy-based sports car maker said prices will remain unchanged for all cars imported before April 2. After that, the “commercial terms” for three of its model families — the Ferrari 296, SF90 and Roma — will “remain unchanged,” the company said in a release.

Yet, its more popular models, including the Purosangue SUV, the 12Cilindri and the F80, will get price increases of up to 10%.
For the Purosangue, which starts at about $430,000, that price hike amounts to about $43,000. For the limited edition F80, which starts at more than $3.5 million, the increase will add more than $350,000 to the price tag.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced tariffs of 25% on all cars not made in the U.S. Ferrari produces all of its cars at its Maranello factory.
Last year, Ferrari produced 13,752 cars. The company plans to launch its first all-electric Ferrari in October.
It is unclear what effect the tariffs will have on Ferrari sales, since there is already a waiting list of more than a year for most of its vehicles. Ferrari buyers are generally wealthy enough to easily absorb the price hikes.

Ferrari also said Thursday it “confirms its financial targets for 2025” but added that there is a “potential risk of 50 basis points on profitability percentage margins.”
In an interview with CNBC this month, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said even though Ferrari buyers are wealthy, the company has to be sensitive to passing on too much of the added cost of tariffs.
“When we look at the client, we consider that these people to buy a Ferrari, they have to work,” he said. “We have to respect them. Because for us, the most important thing is the client. So we need to make sure that we treat them in the right way.”
Shares of Ferrari were slightly higher Thursday morning, while shares of the U.S. “Big Three” automakers were largely lower.

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