Hasbro has spent nearly $1 billion USD on video games since 2018, and none of them are live service.
This information comes courtesy of The Game Business, who spoke with Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks. Cocks shares that Hasbro has built six game studios and an internal publishing organisation so it can make games that compete with the biggest titles in the industry.
The first of those games will be Exodus from Achetype Entertainment, which is set to release in 2027, published by Wizards of the Coast. “First off, the team at Archetype, founded by James Ohlen, but then Chris King and Jesse Sky… it’s a lot of people from BioWare who made some of my favorite games,” Cocks tells The Game Business. “It’s a new IP, but it’s not unfamiliar ground to us. Exodus is effectively D&D in space. We’re familiar with role-playing games, and familiar with how to make good ones. It’s a genre we understand.”
Also set to release in 2027 is Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons from studio Invoke, which was announced at The Game Awards 2026.
The focus on single-player experience flies in the face of Hasbro’s previous success stories, including the massively profitable Monopoly Go. Despite the clear profit incentive, Cocks and Wizards of the Coast is focusing on a more traditional business model. “[We have] a really broad portfolio. So, where were we going to place our bets versus where we’re not? And we chose core games focused on PC and console, with more traditional business models. It was a safer bet for us,” Cocks explains.
“If you invest a fair amount of money and give a fair amount of time to a talented team to do a more traditional game, you probably won’t make billions, but your chances of at least making your money back is much higher. And even if you fail, you’re probably making 50, 60, 70 cents on the dollar back. So, when we just looked at the risk-reward equation of that and we looked at the design sensibilities we have — frankly the kind of games we like to play, and I’m more of a traditional gamer — we felt that to be the safer route.”
Cocks goes on to explain the ambitions of the new publishing division in the near and long-term future. “We’ll be building games mostly around D&D, Magic [The Gathering], Transformers, maybe some of our other properties, maybe selectively some new stuff. It’ll be very focused on action-adventure and role-playing games for PC and console. And then, we’ll partner with the best in the business on more casual games, mobile games, new and emerging platforms like VR, et cetera,” he continues.
“I think we’re the number one digital games licenser in the world by a fairly large margin. That’s [a] pretty lucrative business. It also really helps us reach a lot of different gamers, and helps to fund those efforts in building out our first-party capabilities.”
