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.

 

[Nylanfs]

WotC and Hasbro have NOT had a good track record when attempting to do anything digital in-house.

 

[Blue]

Being next to Invoke and in Montreal is a good thing though. The ecosystem is great, there's a ton of talent and lots of people looking for work right now.

Though being next to another studio doing the same thing for the same corporate owner -- it worries me that Invoke and WotCSI will be competing with each other for talent. Why not be in another area with a fresh talent pool?

 

[Blue]

Or they could, you know, put those resources into actual D&D.

Hey, this is only 200 jobs. Obviously the actual flagship product has to have an order of magnitude more than that?

Wait, wait? It's just a double handful of people? This studio with no product yet has a much larger staff than the flagship product? Well, it must be because those on the flagship are industry veterans hard to get that had to be lured in by sky-high salaries, right?

Industry veterans, but fairly average salaries?

Huh.

 

[Alzrius]

What studio are you referring to?

I believe they're referring to Skeleton Key game studio, as per this thread:

WotC Thread 'Skeleton Key game studio shut down?'

Feb 25, 2025

Take this with a grain of salt, but there's apparently a rumor going around that Hasbro/WotC has shut down their Skeleton Key game studio:

Wizards of the Coast's Skeleton Key's AAA Game Gets Shut Down

The news arrives several weeks after the rumored addition of Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Game Director to the team.

80.lv

To excerpt the relevant portion of the article:

As said by Ait-Kaci in his recent LinkedIn post, first spotted by Timur222, Skeleton Key's in-progress game has been officially discontinued, with him and other developers facing "the same misfortune."

At this time, Skeleton Key's Audio Director appears to be the only person to publicly comment on the...

• Alzrius
• Replies: 4
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

• 

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Though being next to another studio doing the same thing for the same corporate owner -- it worries me that Invoke and WotCSI will be competing with each other for talent. Why not be in another area with a fresh talent pool?

Montreal is one of the world's leading cities for video games. The pool is highly experienced, cheaper because of the CAD conversion and there's a ton of people looking for work right now. They're not gonna compete with each other, they might even be able to share resources on downtime or between projects.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I give it a 30% chance of getting a product out before it is shuttered or subsumed into another game studio.

I'd go higher, but the fact that the corporate parent also owns a game studio next door all but mandates, by corporate game studio ownership law, their merger as soon as either one slips up or an new executive comes along with a restructuring plan.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The one in the OP?

The one explicitly not being closed?

 

[Myrdin Potter]

My home city.

 

[Reynard]

Hey, this is only 200 jobs. Obviously the actual flagship product has to have an order of magnitude more than that?

Wait, wait? It's just a double handful of people? This studio with no product yet has a much larger staff than the flagship product? Well, it must be because those on the flagship are industry veterans hard to get that had to be lured in by sky-high salaries, right?

Industry veterans, but fairly average salaries?

Huh.

Right. Put those 200 people on D&D books. If the 10 million active players line has any truth to it, making a profit should be easy.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Montreal is a nice place with a lot of game devs and the benefit of being less bogged down by English-centric culture (more perspectives!), so hey if you're going to give it a go not a bad place for it.

If you were from there, you would know that they are more likely to get bogged down in ensuring the working language was French and all the signs are in the right language. Considering that they are targeting a mostly English speaking market, it actually is a negative. The weather really sucks, so at least more time inside coding, so that is a plus.