Hasbro has spent $1 billion on upcoming video games following the success of ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’.
Hasbro has spent $1 billion on upcoming video games following the success of Baldur’s Gate 3
The entertainment conglomerate, which owns Wizards of the Coast - the company behind the ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ franchise - is moving into the video gaming market and has spent $1 billion on their upcoming titles due to the storming success of ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’.
Dan Ayoub, head of digital product development at Wizards of the Coast, told GamesIndustry.biz: “The biggest thing to takeaway, which is honestly a little surprise to a lot of people, is that Hasbro is in fact making video games.
“And we have a considerable investment in our studio structure; we've got over $1 billion in games right now being developed.”
Ayoub explained that Hasbro - who are currently working on a ‘G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes’ video game - wanted to take the aspects that worked in the Larian Studios-developed ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ and weave it into their upcoming title.
He said: “One of the great things we took from the success of Baldur's Gate 3 is that people really, really like a great, well-executed ‘D and D’ [‘Dungeons and Dragon’s] game, so we've got something like that.
“And with ‘Snake Eyes’, while it's not a new I.P., it's hopefully going to be a shot in the arm to the ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise and we can do some new things and express it in different ways in video games than we have traditionally.”
The company is also working on ‘Exodus’ - a new franchise which is being helmed by ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ lead designer James Ohlen - which it hopes will allow Hasbro to create a new range of beloved series.
He said: “What we're trying to do there is have the tail wag the dog a little bit and have things going the other direction for the company, which would be something new, where we can create a new I.P. through video games and then take advantage of the size and scale of Hasbro to do other things with it as well.”