Hasbro's $1 Billion Video Game Development Investment Shows Its Commitment to "Play"

Hasbro is investing a billion dollars in its internal game development infrastructure and we might get a bunch of great new titles from it soon. Read on to learn more about Hasbro’s push for in-house game development and what it's working on.

Hasbro is Getting Back in the Game with a $1 Billion Push for Video Games

Four AAA Studios Enter Hasbro’s Fold

Hold on to your top hats, folks; Hasbro’s digging its heels into the video game industry. According to Dan Ayoub, head of digital product development at Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast brand, the company is now investing considerable resources into building out its internal video game development team.

"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," Ayoub said in an interview during the Game Developer’s Conference. "And we have a considerable investment in our studio structure; we've got over $1 billion in games right now being developed."

2023 was a big year for Hasbro’s video game business with GOTY winner Baldur’s Gate 3 and mobile breakout hit Monopoly GO. These two titles gave the toy maker its biggest video game hits to date, but they were licensing deals, made off-house by Larian Studios and Scopely, respectively.

Hasbro now has four AAA studios under their wing to create their own in-house hits, including North Carolina-based Atomic Arcade, Montreal-based Invoke Studios, Texas-based Skeleton Key, and Archetype, another studio based in Texas. Atomic Arcade is notably working on a Snake Eyes GI Joe game.

A Natural Adaptation for the Board Game Maker

According to Ayoub, the push for more in-house video game titles was a natural adaptation for the company, stating that "Hasbro's a 100-year-old company and it's built on play. It's always been about play, it's always been about entertaining people. [And] gaming is the predominant form of entertainment for a lot of people, and it's something that just continues to grow. So in a lot of ways, it makes sense for Hasbro to be in this space."

And adapt it did, with Hasbro’s portfolio of upcoming titles looking to capitalize on BG3’s resounding success. "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&D game, so we've got something like that," said Ayoub. "And with Snake Eyes, while it's not a new IP, 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."

Ensuring Quality for the Next Century

Ayoub also had much to share about the company’s vision for the next 100 years, expressing a focus on quality assurance. "A common theme you're going to see amongst all of these studios is leadership and teams that have kind of done something that we're trying to do before," he said, alluding to Atomic Arcade’s top brass having worked on Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Beyond allowing their new studios to stick with what they knew, he stressed that Hasbro had a "very, very deliberate plan" with their internal studios, and is willing to give them the time they think they need to get it right. This is in stark contrast to the contemporary industry practice of churning out content as quickly as possible. This decision was also likely affected by Larian Studios’ approach with BG3, which ended up paying off immensely.

"Everything's going to stay in the oven as long as it needs to," he says. "We're not going to rush anything out."

Source:
Hasbro's $1 billion bet on internal game development

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Aaron Bruce Albert..

A massive fan of roguelikes, turn-based RPGs, and open world adventure games. His gold standard games include The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker.