Last year saw huge success with Larian Studios' masterpiece Baldur's Gate 3 and record-breaking mobile hit MONOPOLY GO!, but widespread layoffs due to poor performance in traditional toys and entertainment. “Hasbro” (hereinafter referred to as “Hasbro”) has been a hot topic for its sluggish business performance, which has significantly decreased compared to the previous year, but as attention is focused on the future of the “Baldur's Gate” series, in which Larian Studios is not involved in the development, Hasbro Mr. Dan Ayoub, who heads the digital product development department at the well-known “Wizards of the Coast”, a subsidiary of (After joining the company, he was appointed VP of game studio and publishing division) mentioned Hasbro's video game development business. It has been revealed that he is investing a billion dollar (approximately 158 billion yen) budget to strengthen video game development with an in-house studio.
The aforementioned “Baldur's Gate 3” and “MONOPOLY GO!” are both licensed titles developed by outside studios, but Dan Ayoub believes that “Baldur's Gate 3” truly represents the “Dungeons & Dragons” brand. While it was a great example of creating a video game in an authentic way, not all of the games will live up to fans' expectations like past Star Wars titles, and the quality of creating authenticity is paramount. Emphasize that it is a matter.
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Dan Ayoub, referring to Hasbro's current state of massive layoffs throughout 2023, revealed that Hasbro's current goal is to focus on “fewer, bigger, better brands.” The company explains that strengthening development through its in-house studio is in line with this policy.
For now, the details of the company's $1 billion in-house projects are unknown, but it has been revealed that the company currently has four AAA studios and is working on the following plans.
- Atomic Arcade:A studio based in North Carolina. He is currently developing a Snake Eyes “GI Joe” video game based on “GI Joe: Jet Black Snake Eyes.” According to Dan Ayoub, Atomic Arcade is staffed by veterans who worked on Batman: Arkham Asylum and is trying to do with GI Joe what Arkham did with Batman.
- Invoke Studios: Studio in Montreal. Currently, he is developing a new, unreleased Dungeons & Dragons game. Details of the new work are unknown at this time.
- Skeleton Key: New studio in Austin, Texas. Dan Ayoub explains that Skeleton Key does exactly what its name suggests: it does something creepy. It has been reported that Skeleton Key is a studio launched in July 2022 by veteran Christian Dailey, who previously led the development of “Dragon Age: Dreadwolf” at BioWare, and has started his debut AAA project. Ta.
- Archetype Entertainment:An Austin studio that includes former BioWare veterans James Ohlen, Chad Robertson, and Drew Karpyshyn. We are currently developing a new IP, our debut work “Exodus.''