Hasbro has invested $1 billion into internal game development following the mega-success of Baldur’s Gate 3, which itself has loose ties with Dungeons & Dragons — an IP owned by Hasbro.
According to Dan Ayoub, the head of digital product development at Wizards of the Coast, who spoke with GamesIndustry.biz during the Game Developers Conference, the company has invested heavily into its internal development studios. At this time, the toy maker has four major studios under its belt working on different projects, such as a Snake Eyes GI Joe game under its Atomic Arcade banner or a completely new IP like Exodus, backed by developer Archetype and spearheaded by former BioWare vet, James Ohlen.
It sounds like Hasbro plans on capitalizing on the BG3 success with its own more traditional D&D ventures, as if the game’s success taught any studio anything, it’s that a well-executed D&D-like game can make waves in the market. With Larian Studios also bowing out without any plans on releasing any DLC, this could leave a small gap in the market that Hasbro itself could try and fill with one of its handful of in-house studios.
Ayoub also assures fans that games won’t be rushed and the games will “stay in the oven as long as it needs to.” Meanwhile, we assume Starbreeze’s D&D game is still in the works.
