Hasbro Confirms New Unannounced Dungeons & Dragons Video Game in Development

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks has confirmed that an in-house studio is developing an unannounced Dungeons & Dragons video game. In a feature posted today on Bloomberg News, Cocks stated that Hasbro was actively developing a Dungeons & Dragons video game via one of its in-house studios. No further details were provided about the video game, nor was any timeline given about its release. Hasbro plans to release one to two video games a year by 2026, not including third party licensed games.

Hasbro is actively pivoting into a video game developer, having purchased or created several in-house studios in recent years. One of the most high-profile ventures is Exodus, a sci-fi RPG created by several BioWare veterans. A GI Joe video game focused on Snake-Eyes is also in development at a Hasbro-owned studio.

Hasbro is also actively working with several third party studios on new D&D video games. Gameloft, the maker of Disney Dreamlight Valley, is making a survival-life sim set in the Forgotten Realms, while Starbreeze Entertainment is also actively working on a D&D video game. Hasbro also cancelled several video game projects, including several Dungeons & Dragons-themed games back in 2023 as part of a strategic realignment.

 

[Chaltab]

I wouldn't be shocked if the new game in question is coming from the studio that did Dark Alliance a few years back, actually.

but that game was awful

 

[Parmandur]

but that game was awful

It sold, though, enough that Hasbro had to explain the drop I'm D&D revenue the next year had nothing to do with tabletop, same as BG3 (but on a smaller wcale). The studio has talent (they seem to have benefited from all the layoffs in the Montrela video game scene) and since being bought by WotC they have been given funding and time. Time will tell what they make of it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Here's to hoping.

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I would also just but a plug-in for the TV with 4 controllers.

WotC already had a studio try a modern D&D take on Gauntlet, which is to say Dark Alliance, which was an unmitigated disaster. In general co-op action RPG or even just co-op action game is an incredibly tough sphere to make games in, because you will be judged extremely harshly, and there are some very, very talented studios working in that area. And nostalgia-lead attempts to remake Gauntlet, even pretty good ones, have done sadly quite poorly. I do actually think you could remake Gauntlet in a way that was awesome and did well, but you'd need absolutely stellar art and sound design, like truly top-notch, and a really strong update to the gameplay.

Or like that weird Dragonshard game that came out shortly after Eberron first dropped

Yeah Atari's decision to launch a weird and not-great RTS at a time when both RTSes were dying as a genre, and the surviving ones were pretty incredibly well-made and tightly designed was a bold one for sure...

About 90% of D&D games which weren't CRPGs have been failures, either financially, critically, or more usually, both - the only real exceptions being the Capcom side-scrolling beat-em-ups and the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games (Diablo-style ARPGs).

 

[DarkCrisis]

Baldur's Gate Dating Sim

 

[Cergorach]

That sounds like an incredibly stupid and shortsighted thing for Hasbro to do.

What kind of choice do they have? Which studio could do a BG4 justice AND would want to work with WotC/Hasbro after Larian Studios made it very clear they wouldn't do it under no circumstances... And Larian was a group of developers that always wanted to make a D&D crpg, so they ignored a lot of red flags upfront. I don't think that a creative team that could do a BG4 justice, has the resources, and the will, would do that anytime soon.

I think that if it's a BG4, they lean heavily into the preorder and milk that sucker for all it's worth before BG3 fans figure out it doesn't live up to the hype. Then the BG IP can go can into torpor for a couple of decades...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What kind of choice do they have?

You never have to destroy your own IP/brand.

It's never mandatory.

There's no gun pointed at WotC's head.

They absolutely have a choice as to whether they attempt to spin up a BG4 internally or not. Particularly as doing so will take 4-8 years, even if they started already.

Which studio could do a BG4 justice AND would want to work with WotC/Hasbro after Larian Studios made it very clear they wouldn't do it under no circumstances... And Larian was a group of developers that always wanted to make a D&D crpg, so they ignored a lot of red flags upfront. I don't think that a creative team that could do a BG4 justice, has the resources, and the will, would do that anytime soon.

They absolutely have a choice here.

They could do as you say, and destroy the IP for a little short-term profit and a permanent loss of a viable IP and significant blowback on to WotC themselves. Gamers are real haters - you trick them into pre-ordering a bad game, they will hate you basically forever.

Or... they could probably pretty easily convince someone like Owlcat to make BG4. You say there are "no studios", but Owlcat 100% would do that. They're not locked in to Pathfinder, they are absolutely happy to make RPGs based on other people's IPs, and they're irrationally well-regarded by CRPG players (despite their consistently mediocre writing, dubious gameplay and horrifically bad minigames). The hype for an Owlcat BG4 (or IWD3) would be extremely high, even without BG3 levels of production values. And they'd probably deliver a game that was at least regarded as solid, and review and sold well.

Or they could just hold on to the brand for a few years until an opportunity arose (like, say, Larian's next CRPG was an absolute trashfire, which I don't think we can rule out).

 

[Birmy]

Sword Coast Legends 2 at last!

 

[OB1]

This is my vote. BG3 is still massively popular and a bad BG4 might blow up in their face. MUCH safer to do Icewind Dale 3 to capitalize on nostalgia and BG3 momentum, but also able to wave it off if the game does poorly.

Does WotC own the engine that BG3 was made with? If so, they could use that to quickly do an Icewind Dale or a Planescape sequel, maybe both! Point being that would give them some lower stakes IP to work with before trying to tackle BG4 internally. The combat engine in BG3 is so great it would be a shame not to use it to tell a few more stories.

If WotC doesn't own it, would still make sense to start with those rather than go straight to BG4.

 

[Parmandur]

Does WotC own the engine that BG3 was made with? If so, they could use that to quickly do an Icewind Dale or a Planescape sequel, maybe both! Point being that would give them some lower stakes IP to work with before trying to tackle BG4 internally. The combat engine in BG3 is so great it would be a shame not to use it to tell a few more stories.

If WotC doesn't own it, would still make sense to start with those rather than go straight to BG4.

Dunno about BG3, but Exodus at least is using Unreal 5, so my suspicion would be theybare using thst for everything.

 

[billd91]

WotC already had a studio try a modern D&D take on Gauntlet, which is to say Dark Alliance, which was an unmitigated disaster.

I was going to say "It was?!?" but then I realized I had played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on my X-box back in the aughts and that was different... but also not bad at all. Not as good as D&D: Heroes, but still reasonably fun.