Hasbro, the company that owns and runs the creators of Dungeons & Dragons – Wizards of the Coast – has already invested over $1 billion (£799 million) in order to create new video games based on the tabletop roleplaying game.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Dan Ayoub – head of digital product development at Wizards of the Coast – discussed Hasbro’s plans for developing and publishing new titles based on the company’s various properties, including Dungeons & Dragons.
Ayoub confirmed that : “we (Hasbro) have a considerable investment in our studio structure; we’ve got over $1 billion in games right now being developed.” It was already announced in late 2022 that Invoke Studios – once named Tuque Games – the developer behind 2021’s D&D video game Dark Alliance, is currently working on an “original Dungeons & Dragons-inspired” video game.
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According to Ayoub, the video game division of Hasbro – which currently features four separate studios, has “something like” last year’s critically-acclaimed roleplaying video game Baldur’s Gate 3: the third entry in a series of video games directly based on D&D. Developed and published by Larian Studios, who had licensed the rights to the series from Wizards of the Coast, Baldur’s Gate 3 has since become one of the most critically successful video games ever released, winning multiple awards for Game of the Year from several different organisations.
Ayoub commented that: “one of the great things we took away from the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 is that people really, really like a great, well-executed D&D game.” Despite the layoffs implemented by Hasbro last year – which saw 1,100 staff losing their jobs in order to “keep Hasbro healthy,” – the company has invested the $1 billion into more than just the four studios it has publicly revealed.
According to Ayoub, besides putting money into the video game studios Atomic Arcade, Invoke Studios, Skeleton Key and Austin, Hasbro has more investments elsewhere in the video game space: “that’s to say nothing of the other game investments that are happening […] we’ve (Hasbro) got a portfolio that goes much, much larger than anything we’re talking about right now” said Ayoub, “video games is an integral part of Hasbro’s strategy going into the next 100 years.”
The Wizards of the Coast representative stated that the company is steering these new investments via “strong leaders” and “thinking about the long game.” Ayoub followed this statement up with the assurance that “everything’s going to stay in the oven as long as it needs to, we’re not going to rush anything out.”
“We have to make sure that everything that comes out is top quality, is authentic and is something we can build upon.”
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