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.

 

[The Soloist]

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.

It's a long story that goes into politics, I will not go into that. Some people cannot wrap their heads around the fact that a province in Canada is French first. Before Covid, the Quebec economy was a power horse, often out pacing Ontario which is usually THE economic locomotive of Canada.

My wife works 35 years in a private school that specialized in teaching French to the immigrant worker's kids. Kids adapt quickly and they have a second language as a bonus. They love it.

Montreal is an international city, with two government founded English universities, three English tv channels, three English radio stations, two English newpapers, an English theatre, access to movies in English. We have a super-hospital complex that gives services in English and many local health clinics in English. One can live only in English if they choose to.

The poster is doing the usual very subtle Quebec Bashing we often see in media and forums.

 

[The Soloist]

I have multiple posts in this thread, including my first one that said it is my home city.

The issue with Montreal is the need for workers to speak French. I speak French well (I used to be fluently bilingual to the point where I thought in French when I spoke it but not I am just bilingual). This requirement is not just that it is a French place, it is required by law including the requirement to send your kids to French schools and it is almost impossible to get healthcare delivered in any language than French. Taxes are also quite high.

It also is a fun city with a lot to do, lots of winter sports around. A pretty good video games talent pool that is even more available today because Ubisoft has been struggling, affordable housing compared to many U.S. markets, especially California (house mortgages interest is not tax deductible and the French requirement has get the immigration pressure in housing prices down compared to the rest of Canada).

WoTC traditionally has done poorly on in-house computer games, so I am not sure this is a wise investment. Yes, the latest Balder’s Gate made much more money than the license fees they received, but they also were not capable of delivering it and would not have earned anything if they had tried and failed themselves.

Some people cannot wrap their heads around the fact that a province in Canada is French first. Before Covid, the Quebec economy was a power horse, often out pacing Ontario which is usually THE economic locomotive of Canada.

My wife worked 35 years in a private school that specialized in teaching French to the immigrant worker's kids. Kids adapt quickly and they have a second language as a bonus. They love it.

Montreal is an international city, with two government founded English universities, three English tv channels, three English radio stations, two English newpapers, an English theatre, access to movies in English. We have a super-hospital complex that gives services in English and many local health clinics in English. One can live only in English if they choose to.

Stop your very subtle passive-agressive Quebec Bashing.

 

[Hussar]

there is a big difference between wanting more WotC material and wanting more 5e material. Most people never get anything from DMsGuild or 3pps in general. You can pretend that is not the case, but that makes you miss the point

Again, this is more a customer issue than anything. The idea that anything that doesn't have the official WotC stamp of approval isn't worth the time is the bane of the hobby.

That is not a customer problem, that is a WotC problem. Liek all big companies subject to investors, they are risk averse, so they churn out he same stuff over and over again.

"Allowed." Right...

Again, you can shake your finger all you like. I mean look at 2024. Tell me how much innovation the fandom allows from WotC. An entire edition that spent the first five or six years doing absolutely nothing but replaying the greatest hits of D&D and any time they stray from that and try something new or original, out come the pitchforks and torches.

We are getting exactly the D&D that fans demand.

 

[Reynard]

Again, this is more a customer issue than anything. The idea that anything that doesn't have the official WotC stamp of approval isn't worth the time is the bane of the hobby.

I think that position is undermined by the presence of some pretty high profile non WotC stuff on Beyond.

Again, you can shake your finger all you like. I mean look at 2024. Tell me how much innovation the fandom allows from WotC. An entire edition that spent the first five or six years doing absolutely nothing but replaying the greatest hits of D&D and any time they stray from that and try something new or original, out come the pitchforks and torches.

We are getting exactly the D&D that fans demand.

I mean, WotC could do whatever they want. They could also not engage in the performative "playtesting" they use as marketing.

There are millions more loyal WotC customers now than there have ever been. There has never been a better time to experiment and see what sticks. Listening to a tiny sliver of the "fans" is just an excuse not to have to be creative.

 

[mamba]

Again, this is more a customer issue than anything. The idea that anything that doesn't have the official WotC stamp of approval isn't worth the time is the bane of the hobby.

sure, but that doesn’t mean it does not exist, and it can easily explain why some people want more WotC products despite there being so many 5e products

Heck, the majority of products I have are 3pp, not just in number but also in total price, and I still would like to see WotC release more per year (maybe 2 more, I am not talking dozens) because it increases the chances that they release something I am interested in

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Some people cannot wrap their heads around the fact that a province in Canada is French first. Before Covid, the Quebec economy was a power horse, often out pacing Ontario which is usually THE economic locomotive of Canada.

My wife worked 35 years in a private school that specialized in teaching French to the immigrant worker's kids. Kids adapt quickly and they have a second language as a bonus. They love it.

Montreal is an international city, with two government founded English universities, three English tv channels, three English radio stations, two English newpapers, an English theatre, access to movies in English. We have a super-hospital complex that gives services in English and many local health clinics in English. One can live only in English if they choose to.

Stop your very subtle passive-agressive Quebec Bashing.

Je suis Quebecois and you are not the police to tell me what I can post. Quebec is floundering and getting worse and Montreal is becoming ground zero for it as the international part is stripped away.

I went to both of the Montreal English universities, btw. Concordia for undergrad and McGill for graduate degree. I was there in April and was able to drive to downtown and later to my old neighbourhood in Brossard without using GPS.

Toronto is way more international today than Montreal and Montreal has suffered from underinvestment for quite a while because it is becoming a more and more unfriendly place if you don’t speak French.

The video game industry there is in a downdraft so I am sure they can pick up staff locally for a while. But they will have issues getting people to move there.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

sure, but that doesn’t mean it does not exist, and it can easily explain why some people want more WotC products despite there being so many 5e products

Heck, the majority of products I have are 3pp, not just in number but also in total price, and I still would like to see WotC release more per year (maybe 2 more, I am not talking dozens) because it increases the chances that they release something I am interested in

I can't point you to peer-reviewed papers or or anything, but I can tell you that having sold D&D for four full editions, WotC's 5e limited number of books-per-year is a godsend. Four to Six is the sweet spot.

You're right that if we get only four, they had better all be bangers, and if they want to put out silly niche things like Stranger Things boxes, they ought to be on TOP of four other books, not in place of one.

OTOH, if you were to put out, say seven actual books, you will absolutely see a drop. It happened a couple of times in the ten years of 2014 5e.

I'm afraid that what you want really shouldn't be done.

(Now, if only I could convince Marvel to put out less comics...)

 

[Reynard]

I can't point you to peer-reviewed papers or or anything, but I can tell you that having sold D&D for four full editions, WotC's 5e limited number of books-per-year is a godsend. Four to Six is the sweet spot.

You're right that if we get only four, they had better all be bangers, and if they want to put out silly niche things like Stranger Things boxes, they ought to be on TOP of four other books, not in place of one.

OTOH, if you were to put out, say seven actual books, you will absolutely see a drop. It happened a couple of times in the ten years of 2014 5e.

I'm afraid that what you want really shouldn't be done.

(Now, if only I could convince Marvel to put out less comics...)

Thanks for an on the ground view, as it were.

It is too bad we can't see actual numbers. I would be really interested to know how many copies of whatever the newest adventure is, versus the total number of core rules sold over time. My gut says a bigger player base should be able to support more products and more innovative, experimental products, but I don't actually know that.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I think that the amount and popularity of the 3PP material is what lead to the OGL disaster. Obviously the more money Hasbro makes the better. They do charge a royalty for DMsGuild and most of the material there barely sells.

I think they could expand production somewhat of traditional books, but I don’t think they see as big a market opportunity as digital. My only issue with that is there long history of failure trying to do this in house and if D&D as an IP really would move the needle for success of a game. We are not the best to decide as we are all invested in D&D. The question fundamentally is - did Bards Gate 3 do well because it was a D&D game or because it was a great game? I personally think that it is the latter and that Hasbro has shown zero ability to release their own hit video games. I struggle to be able to name any companies like them that have video game studios as an adjunct instead of their reason for existence that are major.

I do think they could increase revenue by 25% to 50% by producing more of their traditional product, but they could do that by making better product and marketing better.

Right now they depend on interweaving teams of contractors and full time employees and farm out the work by sections. In my opinion this has resulted in worse products, mainly because they’re uneven. I don’t think they could produce more this year if they doubled staff now and probably not until the end of next year. Certainly the opportunity is bigger for digital games than existing products.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Thanks for an on the ground view, as it were.

It is too bad we can't see actual numbers. I would be really interested to know how many copies of whatever the newest adventure is, versus the total number of core rules sold over time. My gut says a bigger player base should be able to support more products and more innovative, experimental products, but I don't actually know that.

I think that from "our end", WotC could easily slot in a fifth (or some years sixth) spot for experimental product, but I would say that from "their end", well, I think they'd say that they already do it (one could argue HotB and the Stranger Things box are experimental, and really so is the formatting of the FR books, though not their specific contents).

And no one tends to notice when they experiment, unless it's a failure!