Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks is poised to merge work and play. A seasoned Microsoft executive, Cocks joined Hasbro in 2016 as president of its Wizards of the Coast division—home to Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons—with a vision to expand these franchises into the video game realm. Under his leadership, the company has been developing new Magic and D&D games to captivate digital audiences.
Cocks assumed the helm in 2022, steering the company through a pandemic-driven surge in sales, only to face a subsequent downturn as children returned to school. This period saw Hasbro implement over 1,000 layoffs. Previously, the company had allocated $1 billion to video game development. In an interview with Bloomberg, Cocks revealed that annual investments of $100-$150 million would be directed towards projects like Exodus, a game being crafted by BioWare. "We aim to engage fans where they prefer to play, and increasingly, that means through digital platforms," Cocks stated.
Hasbro is not only developing its own D&D video game but also has Wizards of the Coast working on a Commander-focused Magic: The Gathering game. Additionally, a GI Joe action-adventure game is in the pre-production stage. D&D games are not a novel concept; TSR collaborated with Black Isle Studios and BioWare over 25 years ago to create the first Baldur's Gate game, set in the Forgotten Realms and using the 2.5 Edition rules. Mattel even produced a D&D game for the Intellivision. Given the immense success of Baldur's Gate 3, revisiting the franchise seems a strategic move.
"What fuels Magic's success will propel Hasbro's future," Cocks emphasized. "It's rooted in play." Cocks has overseen Magic's sales surge to $1.4 billion between 2019 and 2023, attributed to his passion for the game and the introduction of new card packs and the online game Magic: The Gathering Arena. He envisions enhancing Magic's digital collectability, akin to Marvel Snap or Pokemon TCG Pocket, a recent nominee for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards.
Details about these games remain undisclosed, and with Larian Studios concluding its work on Baldur's Gate 3 and opting not to proceed with Baldur's Gate 4, the potential for these new titles is vast.
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