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.

 

[R_Chance]

I guess most of you don't follow the video game industry. Studios open and close regularly. Today's darling is tomorrows crash and burn. Ayoub, the head of the D&D franchise, has a solid video game background. If anyone is going to make this work for WotC he can. As for 2 studios close together, that's help next door for your project, and expansion work to keep a studio open between major projects. A number of major video game publishers (Zenimax, Ubisoft, Microsoft etc.) have multiple studios under them.

 

[EthanSental]

Tying this in with my 2nd passion, hockey, I hope the Leafs break though this year in the playoffs and make a Cup run!

 

[doctorhook]

Well, good for Canada! Remains to be seen if this studio makes any solid games, but I’m happy Canadians are getting the investment.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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.

I think that would be a bad idea, even if they wanted to massively increase book output, they still don’t need such a massive increase of people.

 

[Parmandur]

Different management, different strategies.

But yeah, the opening and closing of game studios within WotC sure seems like the company does not have its act together. And folks losing jobs is the result. Yay, capitalism!

Hopefully, this time around the decisions will be stronger and more lasting . . . without layoff news within the next year or so . . .

They haven't really closed any of the video game studios they opened in the past 5-6 years, just haven't released anything yet.

 

[Reynard]

I think that would be a bad idea, even if they wanted to massively increase book output, they still don’t need such a massive increase of people.

Yeah, there's nothing worse that a deep pool of talent to draw from,with the side effect of those people getting decent wages and benefits in the process.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

2E AD&D shows that throwing more money and more product at the wal is not necessarily profitable.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Like here are the credits for Dragon Delves, I don’t know how many jobs could be added for a book like this to justify 200 more people.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Video game development is much more complex than TTRPG development so 200 people makes sense there.

For the RPG I am not sure what a ton of new people can and should do outside of subbing for each other in the same roles.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Tying this in with my 2nd passion, hockey, I hope the Leafs break though this year in the playoffs and make a Cup run!

Now that is a highly unpopular opinion in Montreal. Cheering for the Laffs? it is all Habs there.