Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks has made it known that the future of the Dungeons & Dragons brand will be heavily focused on new video games and improvements to D&D beyond. In a recent Hasbro Q3 investor call, Chris Cocks made a point that the sale of Dungeons & Dragons 2024 rulebooks is only part of the reason behind why Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has had financial growth.
It is no surprise that Hasbro has wanted to shift its priorities to D&D-themed video games and digital media. After the massive success that was Baldur’s Gate 3, Hasbro would want to see if it could recapture that lightning in a bottle. However, their ability to imitate that success is uncertain.
The success of Baldur’s Gate 3 is largely placed on the backs of Larian Studios, which is considered a AAA indie studio, that worked in a partnership with WotC to create the game. After the completion of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larion has moved on to work on their next project.
In an effort to expand their capabilities, WotC has opened a second video game studio dedicated to producing new D&D video games. This studio will be founded in proximity to their existing studio in Montréal, making a new hub of game design.
Personally, I am hoping that the new games produced by Hasbro and WotC will be as successful as Baldur’s Gate 3, so long as they can reach a similar level of quality. One of their most recent games, Dark Alliance, was a disaster and had its servers shut down only a few years after its release. I hope the designers have learned from their partnership with Larian and can produce another groundbreaking game that fans will enjoy.
