Last year was a massive one for Hasbro’s video game business, with Monopoly Go and Baldur’s Gate 3 providing the toy maker with two of its biggest hits in games to date.
But those games were licensing deals, externally developed by Scopely and Larian Studios, respectively. And despite the success of those partnerships, Hasbro is actually investing considerably in building out its own internal development. That’s something Dan Ayoub, head of digital product development at Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast brand, is keen to emphasize when we speak with him at the Game Developers Conference.
“The biggest thing to takeaway, which is honestly a little surprise to a lot of people, is that Hasbro is in fact making video games,” Ayoub says. “And we have a considerable investment in our studio structure; we’ve got over $1 billion in games right now being developed.”
