Hasbro Continues To Strip Mine Wizards To Make Up For Its Movie Failures

Earlier this year, I published a thread discussing Hasbro's announcement that they were re-entering the video game market in response to the "surprise success" of Baldur's Gate 3. On top of that, Hasbro was estimated to be paying upwards of $1 billion to get its skin back in the video game scene. The announcement was a shock, considering the rest of the industry has been scaling back their video game efforts in what many have perceived as an industry-wide downward trend. Their announcement was also met with a great deal of skepticism, considering the projects they announced to drum up support along with this news involved "a mature GI Joe game" by developer Atomic Arcade, an original horror-themed title by developer Skeleton Key, and a new AAA franchise led by former BioWare alum, James Ohlen. Because, you know, starting your own independent video game development efforts is incredibly easy, and snatching veteran BioWare talent to lead fledgling studios has never backfired. And let's not forget that Hasbro's previous attempts to get into the video game industry, Hasbro Interactive, at one point, lost $74 million on revenues of $237 million in a single quarter, resulting in them selling all of their game studios to Atari SA/Infogrames.

This week, we got a better idea of how "serious" Hasbro is about its renewed focus on video games, which it has repeatedly characterized as a "focus on play." First, Hasbro is shutting down all of its dedicated movie studios and film productions, essentially pulling out of the film industry entirely. Does that mean you'll never see a new Power Rangers or Transformer film? Not necessarily, but any future movies will be left to external studios to fund exclusively, which inevitably means the rest of the film industry will be highly selective about which Hasbro IPs they pick for future productions. This change is a shame because, while a financial failure, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was an entirely admirable effort to bring the world of D&D to the silver screen and way better than it had any right to be. The same could be said about this year's Transformers ONE, which industry insiders have characterized as a "financial disappointment." Nonetheless if Hasbro isn't spending the money they allocated towards multimedia into movies or TV shows, where is the cash going? Well, in comes a recent Bloomberg interview with Hasbro's CEO in which they essentially said, while being pressured about Hasbro's recent film and other toy-based failures, "Yeah, dawg, we're just going to have Wizards print more Magic cards, and these video games seem cool."

Okay, his response was more nuanced than that, but he affirmed a continual investment in video and card games alongside Hasbro's legacy divisions (i.e., board games and physical children's toys). This point signals that his company's reliance on Wizards owning two golden geese (i.e., Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons) is only bound to intensify. Baldur's Gate 3 courted GOTY favors and did admirably well during awards season; Hasbro has seen that as a sign that the mine is rich with potential, and they might be right. Is there room for smaller-scale games based on different campaigns or settings in the Dungeons & Dragons IP? Sure, but mirroring what Larian did with Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't seem viable, considering they required years to work on that game, and it was practically in Early Access for two years. A suit at Hasbro will not look at that as being kosher with the shareholders; instead, they will want a more "traditional" game development cycle or release. Also, will Hasbro sign off on another AAA single-player campaign that takes four to five years to make? I don't believe they will. I think you're just going to have more hero or arena shooters but now set in the Magic or D&D universe. And there's already growing concern by people like myself that there are red flags that Hasbro is overvaluing their intellectual properties. Magic and Dungeons & Dragons are one thing. However, thinking that G.I. Joe is somehow relevant today or in the future, and to that extent, relevant enough to make a "mature" game property in the hope of reviving its popularity with Millennials and Gen Z? Yeah, that's one of the dumbest things I have heard in a while. So, Hasbro sounds like they are going buck wild, which might be a looming disaster for them and the people they hire to lead these projects, but there's more to it than you'd think.

Let's Run Down Some Of Hasbro's Notable Failed Game Projects

So, here we see Hasbro waving around a handful of big names in the IP market, thinking owning these properties is a proverbial "secret sauce." Sure, Hasbro, video game fans today are absolutely not privy to bad tie-in games to pre-existing properties and will mindlessly buy anything with the right name on it. Consumers ABSOLUTELY haven't become more cognizant that tie-in games have a mixed track record, and they don't need to lock into buying games at launch. Ignoring those quibbles, it sure is "something" that Hasbro doesn't want you to recall that their previous attempts at getting into the games industry in recent history have sputtered out or fallen flat on their faces. In fact, look at how they handled the Dungeons & Dragons IP in the world of video games at the height of Stranger Things' popularity or when Critical Role first snagged its now monolithic audience of supporters during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. What did Hasbro and Wizards have to get people invested in new D&D campaigns or settings via video games? Why, they dropped Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, a game that was so viciously and immediately rejected by fans and the gaming press that the studio behind it, Tuque Games, rebranded itself shortly after its release to "Invoke Studios." The only "real" tie-in game Hasbro and Wizards published before Baldur's Gate 3 for a 5E adventure model was a complete stinker.

Things have been the same in the world of Magic-oriented video games. After sinking nearly four years of development time and resources into Magic: Legends, Wizards and their partner Cryptic Studios, who developed the Neverwinter MMO, announced it would be canceled and all in-game purchases would be refunded. Admittedly, Magic: Legends seemed doomed from the onset. After announcing the game in 2017, Cryptic and Wizards had to clarify that the game wasn't an MMORPG but, instead, a "massively multiplayer online action RPG." When the game eventually entered Early Access, the project revealed itself to be an ARPG with a nefarious in-game microtransaction shop that would have made the original Diablo III real-life auction house blush. It was a goddamn disaster. Therefore, with many reporting that a Commander video game might be in the works, you may not be too surprised to hear that I do not think Hasbro will be able to pull it off. Also, it's not like the Commander fanbase is undergoing a significant source of strife, with its entire player base on edge and ready to pounce on ANYTHING that rocks the boat. No sir! Everyone is happy and ready to buy more card packs to fund a G.I. Joe video game! On a more positive note, Hasbro's affairs with its mobile game investments have been "fine." Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is still running as of the publishing of this blog. Likewise, Lords of Waterdeep is an admirable digital board game, and Monopoly Go made $1 billion in three months. That last one likely inspired Hasbro's revived interest in video games, but more on that in a bit.

Beamdog's Enhanced Editions of classic D&D games slightly bridge the gap between the release of Baldur's Gate 3 and the preceding last interesting D&D game projects. Still, things could improve there, especially after Embracer gutted them in 2023. Nonetheless, there does seem to be this habit of Hasbro burning through their contracted studios after a project is done, and the reason for that isn't exactly a secret. Hasbro, especially regarding its Wizards-based properties, is NOTORIOUS about micro-managing their contracted game projects. Larian feeling burned out after the release of Baldur's Gate 3 and not wanting to revisit their game with additional post-release content is just the latest example in a long-established rap sheet that Hasbro either has unrealistic expectations for everything it greenlights or they want everything their way with little to no wiggle room. During the early phases of Baldur's Gate 3's development, Hasbro and Wizards said they were not interested in Larian's ideas to modernize alignments. The old guard at Obsidian has been incredibly frank about the suits at Wizards and Hasbro being extremely pernicious when they were responsible for the Neverwinter Nights video games. And even during the Golden Age of BioWare, there was a reasonably public beef between Wizards and the team that led Dragon Age: Origins, as the game was initially planned to run 3.5E.

2024 Was Such A Weird And Messy Year For D&D And Magic

I need to be clear that I am NOT a Magic expert. However, I was following the news about Wizards needing to take control of the Commander Rules Council closely. In short, despite Commander being a community-created format, the original rules council was making hotly controversial decisions that resulted in some members of the Commander community threatening their lives and families. It was a very relaxed situation that in no way, shape, or form speaks to the toxic elements of the Magic community and what they are capable of in their most potent form. Nope, everything was "fine," and even mentioning this event has me not worried about my safety online or on social media. Yet, if we are going to be honest, Wizards taking control of the entire affair was probably the right call.

Nonetheless, there's no denying that Commander has been a massive moneymaker for Wizards, with whole sets printed to satiate the unknowing and always-hungry Commander community. Nonetheless, with things being "shakey" at best in the Commander community, it was odd to see the CEO of Hasbro openly say during their Bloomberg interview that making a digital platform for Commander was one of their top priorities for 2025 and the future. Because, you know, things have been great with Magic: The Gathering Arena and Arena's "unique" Alchemy format. Sure, Hasbro, you're getting more blood from the Magic community after gutting the World Championship prize pool by $750,000 three years ago, and your chief business strategy whenever you launch an official digital platform be "make everyone buy their shit a second time." Seriously, how much do you have to charge for commander decks before people finally stop playing Magic? And how much more blood is there to extract from the Commander community?

And then there's One D&D, or, I should say, the "2024 revision of 5th Edition." After kicking the can on offering a new revision of 5th Edition, Wizards has taken an incredibly half-assed approach to addressing long-recurring issues with the longest-lasting dominant format of D&D ever. After pissing off the entire tabletop community when they tried to change the Open Game License for homebrew campaigns or more extensive offerings like Pathfinder by developer Paizo, One D&D has been a perpetual clown show. What's worse is that 2024 was the 50th anniversary of D&D, and the most notable new product Wizards had to mark the occasion outside of artbooks or memorabilia was an advanced adventure module featuring Vecna. Wow, great job, Wizards, you brought back Vecna for the umpteenth time! It does not help that everything they've done with D&D in the last three years has been either unremarkable or notably disliked. Planescape and Spelljammer were announced for 5E and, after some early hype, were met with anemic reviews and fan disappointment. Like most of 5th Edition, Planescape 5th Edition lacked the grit that made it a profoundly unique setting in previous incarnations, and the same can be said about the 5E permutation of Spelljammer. Likewise, how did we get ten solid years of 5th Edition, and the only new job Wizards ever gave us after the original Player's Manual was the Artificer? If you ever needed evidence that the current D&D design team is shy about taking risks, that's Exhibit A!

Two things need to be said about Hasbro and Wizards' attitude toward D&D and their belief that it is a goldmine for video games. First, their CEO Chris Cocks, is a former Microsoft executive who worked under the tenure of Don Mattrick, which in and of itself is a red flag. However, whenever they are pushed to explain their strategy for breaking into the video game industry after a "hiatus," he seems happier to talk about increasing Hasbro's game projects to $2 billion than sharing a honed business strategy or identity. I can tell you that they are sinking their billions of Monopoly Go money into AAA projects instead of a bunch of indie outfits, but that's it. In the Bloomberg interview, Cocks admits that Hasbro's video game investments are costing Hasbro about $150 million per year. The second and more pressing concern is that Hasbro doesn't get how lucky they got with their last two game hits. Larian was the only studio that could have made Baldur's Gate 3. They were the last respected CRPG studio still willing to jump at making a Baldur's Gate game despite Wizards and Hasbro's reputations. Likewise, the fact they have been making billions off of Monopoly Go to fund their video game efforts is almost despite all signs pointing to them mismanaging their mobile game division. Monopoly Go's developer and Hasbro spent upwards of $500 million to market the game. That insane marketing budget is why YouTube and mobile ads continue to inundate you about its existence. Nevertheless, that marketing budget is more than the average video game budget and is NOT a sustainable business model.

Despite All Of These Red Flags, Hasbro STILL Might Pull It Off

The funny part about this situation is that Hasbro's best chance of pulling their video game affairs off is if they do not try to reproduce Baldur's Gate 3. Make a retro RPG with a classic Wizardry or Ultima aesthetic. Pay WayForward money to make a cutesy Magic or D&D action platformer. Do one of those vibes shop simulators, but you have to run a potion and alchemy shop, and Elminster occasionally yells at you for doing a shitty job. Revive some Gold Box games as a roguelike deck builder for all I care! DO ANYTHING THAT ISN'T JUST TRYING TO CAPTURE LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE A SECOND TIME! There are a lot of things they could do to make their current go at making their way into the video game industry work. Nevertheless, more fundamentally, we find ourselves looking at a version of Hasbro and Wizards that thinks it has complete control of its destiny. Hasbro feels that it, and no one else, is to thank for the renewed interest in D&D or the continual success of its tie-in Magic cards that have no place in the competitive scene. They think they are the ones that caused all of this.

And yet, we all know that's not the case. I give the people at Wizards all the props in the world for finding a way to right the ship after D&D 4th Edition and making the 5th Edition pull off a tricky tightrope act. 5th Edition has overstayed its welcome if you pushed me on it, but its enduring popularity is thanks to it having much of the roleplaying heart of the franchise while being a tabletop roleplaying game that ordinary, non-sickos can play. But this modern interest in D&D? Shockingly, no one at Wizards or Hasbro is willing to admit that this is all thanks to Netflix and Matthew Mercer. That's why Wizards continues to kick the can about offering a proper new revision to 5th Edition. This new community of supporters has never lived through a true revision transition, and they don't have as much control over them as they'd like. That and the people still leading D&D remember getting burned on 4th Edition. By the way, the specter of 4th Edition yet again raises concerns about whether current D&D players want more gamification of D&D in the first place. They learned as much during the Open Game License debacle, but many people playing D&D today are just tabletop gamers.

So, this is a looming disaster. Having very few good studios they can pay to do their bidding and lacking business acumen in the video game industry seems immediately disqualifying. And if you want a final case of Hasbro not correctly understanding the value of what they own, let's explore the world of Power Rangers. After Saban sold Power Rangers to Hasbro after losing millions on a "meh" Power Rangers movie, Hasbro announced they would do fans of Power Rangers a favor! They would sell all of the original props and costumes in an open auction! They purchased the entire brand for $522 million in 2018 and dumped 30 years of history in the form of props, suits, and other materials to Heritage Auctions. This month, Hasbro announced how much they netted from this auction, and it was... $3,310,99! Japan has a Super Sentai museum; in the States, Hasbro sold everything for less than $4 million. They sold OG Yellow's costume for less than $24K. But, hey, Hasbro still owns Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Monopoly, so they might still be fine. Nonetheless, has a company ever repeatedly put all its eggs in one basket and gotten away with it as often as Hasbro?

Tangent: Everyone Reporting That Musk Is Going To Buy D&D is Full Of Shit

Here I was, thinking this would be a quick and short research exercise about Hasbro and Wizards in the video game industry, and then, minutes before I hit the publish button, I got a whopper of a news update. After Elon Musk posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "How much is Hasbro?" after engaging in a circle-jerk echo chamber conversation with a noted piece of shit, Grummz, multiple media outlets are now publishing your expected clickbait positing "Musk to buy D&D from Hasbro?" or "Musk to become the CEO of Wizards of the Coast?" Honestly, it was infuriating to see. Seriously, Google "Musk and D&D" and be genuinely shocked at how many respectable outlets are reporting on this as a factual attempt by Musk to pry D&D from Hasbro. And I cannot emphasize enough that this situation started after Musk responded to Grummz in support of the latter's bullshit claims that current-day Wizards are trying to "erase" the legacy of Gary Gygax. My dude, D&D was purging Gygax's heinous edge lord shit, especially his penchant for encouraging slavery and depicting women as sexual objects and nothing else, in his player manuals even during the TSR days, but that's not why I'm writing this new sectional in my blog.

Can Musk buy D&D from Hasbro or Hasbro outright? As you might expect, the answer is NO. Regarding D&D, it and Magic have been carrying the entire company as the market for physical toys for kids continues to shrink. Yes, Musk is correct to point out that Hasbro has been struggling with revenue for the past two to three years, but that highlights more than anything else why they would absolutely never want to part with D&D even if Musk waves at them forty or fifty billion dollars. Likewise, Hasbro is a glorified private company even if it trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange as four investment firms or individuals hold 40% of its equity. There are not enough public shares for Musk to buy to make a move unless he puts a blanket bid for the entire thing or just D&D, and that's not happening. On top of that, two of Hasbro's board members are former executives and employees of Paypal, and both have been public about hating Elon's guts. So, no, Elon's not buying D&D, and he DEFINITELY is not buying Hasbro. Unlike his new position leading the Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump White House, there are adequate checks and balances to keep him at bay and far away from running shit directly into the ground.

Well, thanks for jumpscaring me with that last section. I agree that it's an unrealistic scenario but boy did I not ever need that thought in my head.

5e-2 or whatever the hell I'm supposed to call it is the first time in over 25 years that I've had no desire to pick up a new edition of D&D. I actually enjoyed 4e (but would never suggest it was close to as good as the editions that surround it), and all of the playtest material I reviewed just made me think what a waste of time and money it was. Considering that my playing cadence has slowed to the point where last weekend was the first time in 3 years I was able to play a full session of D&D with friends, I feel zero compulsion to make a sideways change. Austin Walker also gives me lots of interesting alternatives via his Friends at the Table podcast, so when I want something different, I don't lack for options. The entire "6e" effort felt fatally compromised from the moment it was announced under a different name than "6e".

Lastly, this seems like the only time to air this particular grievance because you mentioned Vecna: Eve of Ruin. I read the module cover to cover because the idea of a level 10-20 premade campaign is very enticing to me, and the highest I've taken my player characters is level 6 (not counting BG3). I won't spoil its plot, but it has one of the most asinine twists central to its story that I've ever read. The module is deadset on removing player agency for the sake of delivering a couple of setpieces that are not nearly as cool as any DM I know would dream up. This extends to more than just the main plot; there are numerous instances of thwarting teleportation just because they want to put the PCs on a given path. What's the point of being able to cast 9th level spells if the campaign takes away a number of options depending on what arena you happen to be in? I'm still considering getting it through roll20 someday and making HEAVY modifications to it myself, but realistically that day is several years away at least. Overuse of Vecna aside, it's a thoroughly disappointing campaign after a streak of misses (as you observed).

Finally, the best part of Dark Alliance is how we egged on Jeff Gerstmann to uninstall the game during its Quick Look.