Hasbro Opens New Wizards of the Coast Video Game Studio in Montreal to Support D&D Franchise

Hasbro has announced a new video game studio in Montreal, with a new focus on supporting D&D video games. The new studio, called Wizards of the Coast Studios Inc. will focus on developing new content for the Dungeons & Dragons franchise and expanding Hasbro's lineup of digital games. The studio is expected to support 200 jobs. Dan Ayoub, the head of the D&D franchise, will also run the new studio. Ayoub, you may recall, has a long pedigree in video game development.

The new studio will not replace Invoke Studios, Hasbro's other studio located in Montreal. The new office for Wizards of the Coast Studios Inc. will be located next to Invoke Studios.

Hasbro has big aspirations for expanding the D&D franchise via video games. Several D&D video games are in development at third party studios and now we're seeing an in-house expansion of the D&D digital portfolio. One obvious speculation is that the new studio will work on a Baldur's Gate 4, which Hasbro has promised will eventually be released following the mammoth success of Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Starmaster]

(Caveat: Psychological research is devilishly hard to interpret correctly, often does not generalize, and also often can't be reproduced.)

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/are-consumers-turned-too-many-choices-not-yet

The gist of it is this:

1. If someone's approach is "First I'll decide whether to buy a Widget, and then I'll pick the Widget I want," then having a lot of options makes it more likely that they'll buy a Widget.
2. If their approach is, "First I'll look over the available Widgets, and see if there's one I want enough to buy it," then having a lot of options makes it slightly less likely that they'll buy a Widget.

#2 seems counterintuitive at first, but if you've shopped on Amazon recently, you may have a sense of where this tendency comes from. When you're bombarded with dozens of options, many of them subpar, it's frustrating and demotivating, and if you aren't already committed to buying, you may throw up your hands and walk away.

When I go on the D&D website and look at their release schedule, I find myself scrolling through a long list of stuff I have no interest in. A Stranger Things tie-in. The 284,594th Drizzt novel. An introductory lore book aimed at middle schoolers. A Forgotten Realms supplement. A coloring book. A book of crochet patterns. And on and on.

Now, if I stop and read carefully, I see that the FR supplement claims to have a bunch of class options and similar rules with general application. And if the FR supplement were the only thing on the list, I'd probably at least look into it. But when you put it in the midst of a parade of tie-ins and knick-knacks... it looks like more of the same and I can't be bothered.

I wonder if FOBO (Fear of Better Options) contributes to the paralyzation that discourages some people from making a decision when confronted with more choices. I've experienced this myself. The more choices there are, the harder it is to be sure you're making the optimal decision, so sometimes it's easier to just postpone the decision rather than enduring the stress that one may have missed out on the best choice.

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I prefer more adventures (adventure paths & anthologies) and FR campaign lorebooks rather than more rulebooks. A few rulebooks will go a long way, but it's good to have a lot of options for adventures so a DM can choose the type they like the best. It's also helpful for modding/combining and stealing bits from different ones to pull something together. I also enjoy reading adventures and FR lorebooks much more than reading through rulebooks. Of course, I realize that rulebooks are aimed at both DMs and players, so many more copies of those will probably be sold.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

You know this from experience working in or with people in Quebec?

I grew up in Montreal, went to school there and worked there before I moved to the USA. I visit every once in a while and have friends that still live there that I am in regular contact with. I watch almost every Habs game. I even am a Quebec CPA which means needing to train and keep up with accounting in French. I have the hereditary right to send my children to English school (yes, that is a real thing in Quebec).

So, yes.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Let's remember this WotC will translate itself the sourcebooks to another languanges and these markets may be different.

Do you think WotC could develope a D&D videogame about training monsters?

Maybe they start in the begining, with games mobiles because these need less money and time.

 

[Hussar]

I wonder if the strategy is only to put out products that they think will make a lot of money and not to bother with those that only make a little money.

No need to wonder. This is exactly the strategy they are pursuing and they have made no secret of that. Every release is an EVENT. None of this, "Oh, hey, we'll publish 100 books a year but only actually promote like six of them." thing anymore. Every single 5e release is a big deal. It's a hugely successful strategy and I'm frankly baffled why anyone thinks WotC would stray too far from that formula.

Hrm... We saturate the market with a bunch of self-competing products and the business goes bankrupt vs we release only a handful of products, all heavily marketed and even the least successful of them is still selling very well years after release.

It's not a terribly hard mystery to solve.

 

[mamba]

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I prefer more adventures (adventure paths & anthologies) and FR campaign lorebooks rather than more rulebooks

same, I usually stick to the core or at most one additional rulebook (like Xanathar’s). Beyond that I consider it bloat with diminishing returns.

Given how few WotC released in the 10 years, they seem to share that reluctance

 

[TiQuinn]

I grew up in Montreal, went to school there and worked there before I moved to the USA. I visit every once in a while and have friends that still live there that I am in regular contact with. I watch almost every Habs game. I even am a Quebec CPA which means needing to train and keep up with accounting in French. I have the hereditary right to send my children to English school (yes, that is a real thing in Quebec).

So, yes.

Love it. Glad you watch every game.

Why didn’t you lead with all this rather than make someone ask to be sure you werent talking out your behind?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Love it. Glad you watch every game.

Why didn’t you lead with all this rather than make someone ask to be sure you werent talking out your behind?

Rather than needing someone to say where they grew up, how about you analyze the content of their message and determine its veracity based on that?

 

[payn]

No need to wonder. This is exactly the strategy they are pursuing and they have made no secret of that. Every release is an EVENT. None of this, "Oh, hey, we'll publish 100 books a year but only actually promote like six of them." thing anymore. Every single 5e release is a big deal. It's a hugely successful strategy and I'm frankly baffled why anyone thinks WotC would stray too far from that formula.

Hrm... We saturate the market with a bunch of self-competing products and the business goes bankrupt vs we release only a handful of products, all heavily marketed and even the least successful of them is still selling very well years after release.

It's not a terribly hard mystery to solve.

Yes, folks want 100 books. Why not a thousand?

 

[TiQuinn]

Rather than needing someone to say where they grew up, how about you analyze the content of their message and determine its veracity based on that?

Because others who actually did say they live there have said they don’t experience that and it took a simple question to suss out that they do have some experience with this; something that given the strength of their opinion they hadn’t taken the time to set the context.

 

[BovineofWar]

Huh, in related news Starbreeze has cancelled development of their D&D project:

Payday developer Starbreeze cancels Dungeons and Dragons project to focus on its flagship franchise, two years after it was announced

Starbreeze has cancelled its Dungeons and Dragons project to focus on its flagship Payday franchise.

www.eurogamer.net

So there's no net change in number of D&D video games in the works. Wonder how much this factored into rolling up a new internal studio...