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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

People hate to admit it for some odd reason, but edge and sex sells. This is a universal truth and has been for as long as I've been alive.

This is true, but it's somehow more true with CRPGs and perhaps any "story-based RPG" than pretty much any other genre except VNs, and I don't think it's an accident that VNs (uh Visual Novels for those who don't know) are basically story-based RPGs with the game elements removed (the story and choices may be more or less complicated than a story-based RPG).

 

[Scribe]

This is true, but it's somehow more true with CRPGs and perhaps any "story-based RPG" than pretty much any other genre except VNs, and I don't think it's an accident that VNs (uh Visual Novels for those who don't know) are basically story-based RPGs with the game elements removed (the story and choices may be more or less complicated than a story-based RPG).

I'd argue that the story/roleplay experience, taking on the lead character (and the often assumed romantic interest that naturally follows) combined with games obviously giving people access/exposure to violence that most will never ever engage with in reality...is all part of the point.

I didnt play an edgelord in BG3, the setting, the story, that was all dark and grim enough. My Paladin was straight-laced "Lawful Good" as it gets, but yes, I did end up going to hell with my girlfriend....BUT ANYWAY.

To me, thats the whole point of gaming. Get into something outside of your own reality, and punch issues in the face.

 

[Blue]

I'll remain cautiously optimistic; Im afraid that BG3 was the pinnacle of D&D video games. We'll see.

BG3 did things they literally couldn't do when BG or BG2 was made. There will be improvements in the technology and delivery, not just better graphics but things leading to things like wider range of choices with more impact on stories.

It's an emotional take, not a realistic one, to think "they will never be able to match some parts, and then exceed in others because of advances in the technology, and end up with something better". And that's the most pessimistic approach, where there aren't advances that help with story, characterization, relationship, dialog, plots and subploits, and the rest of that as well.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I don't think AAA games of their own properties need to be too family friendly, as those types of games tend to be more out of reach for those below 18. They'll probably go with something that's PG and generally acceptable for 16 year olds.

But all things considered, I saw movies like Terminator and Aliens before I was 18, and played the original Doom and Mortal Kombat games before reaching that age.

 

[Lidgar]

Another hot take: a redo of the Temple of Elemental Evil video game. Still one of my favorites after the patches by the Circle of Eight.

 

[J.Quondam]

I'm betting on a game with a story loosely based on Tyranny of Dragons, built on the Flappy Bird engine.

 

[Scribe]

But all things considered, I saw movies like Terminator and Aliens before I was 18, and played the original Doom and Mortal Kombat games before reaching that age.

lol Wizards would not release any of those properties post 2016-2018. We who grew up on such things know its fine, but thats not the Wizards of today.

Its not a general statement of 'oh well these other media have been released so its fine'. Look at 5.5. Thats what Wizards wants to push as D&D.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Can you provide some support for that statement because I haven't heard anything about it? Swen Vincke from Larian has said multiple times that it wasn't WotC. About the only thing he said that could be taken negatively about WotC is that the team they worked with isn't employed with them anymore. But that didn't happen until the end of the process.

This is not correct.

What you seem to be missing is that, three months after that tweet, Vincke went on stage and ranted for some time about the greed of companies is what leads to layoffs, and how dumb and stupid it was - this was about the videogame industry in general, but the idea that he wasn't thinking of WotC when he said this, despite having tweeted about WotC doing precisely that was laughable.

Further, he hasn't said "multiple times" that it wasn't WotC AFAICT, he's said it once (or possibly twice), and it was very clearly an attempt to be diplomatic and reasonable. But the problem for people who want to believe WotC are saintly angels here is that he's also contradicted another claim he made around when he said it wasn't WotC.

So, Swen's original story, his diplomatic story, was that he went to his employees, after BG3 and before they'd started on anything else, and asked if they wanted to keep making BG stuff, and they said no. He was vague about the timing of this.

Then more recently, I believe after he went on the "greed" rant about layoffs at a game show, he revealed that in fact Larian actually had started work on BG4, and was some way into pre-production when they decided not to make BG3, and the timing he indicated would be necessarily after WotC fired everyone they'd worked with.

So I find it laughable wishful thinking to believe that Larian abandoning BG4 after starting work on it (pretty early work, sure), and after WotC fired everyone, has no connection to WotC firing everyone, especially given the (admittedly later) context of the head of Larian ranting about how layoffs are the result of greed, had absolutely nothing to do with WotC.

And others in videogames have been more direct - Josh Sawyer for example, outright stated that he'd never work with WotC, and he is not an intemperate or angry man - quite the contrary! To get him to make a statement like that would require considerable distaste.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd argue that the story/roleplay experience, taking on the lead character (and the often assumed romantic interest that naturally follows) combined with games obviously giving people access/exposure to violence that most will never ever engage with in reality...is all part of the point.

I didnt play an edgelord in BG3, the setting, the story, that was all dark and grim enough. My Paladin was straight-laced "Lawful Good" as it gets, but yes, I did end up going to hell with my girlfriend....BUT ANYWAY.

To me, thats the whole point of gaming. Get into something outside of your own reality, and punch issues in the face.

Sure, and I think on a certain level it doesn't really matter why - it's been "a thing" with CRPGs (and story-based RPGs) for at least 32 years now (christ, time flies!) - and RPGs that have tried to buck this trend have not been well-received. Even DAV just toning down the ability to be an edgelord lunatic got it a huge amount of hate of a very wild kind.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Did BG3 get renamed?

Like picture anime high school dating game genre but with BG3 characters.

Some fan drew a great picture of the characters but in modern times handing out at a convince store like before going to class or something.

Like that but it's a magic school and set in actual BG.