Hasbro CEO Insists That D&D Video Games Are A Focus In Spite Of Cancellations
The same week Hasbro pulled the plug on an “early concept” for a D&D video game, its CEO insists that gaming is the future.
Hasbro’s CEO Chris Cocks has been doing the media rounds lately. Though timing, it seems, is everything. The same week that the news broke that Hasbro/WotC was officially “not pursuing” a D&D video game concept from Giant Skull (the same one that it announced last year would be a “definitive moment”), Cocks appeared on the podcast, The Game Business, to speak about how Hasbro and WotC were building games with a focus “largely on Dungeons & Dragons.”
Hasbro To Invest $1 Billion In Games, Cancellations Notwithstanding
On the podcast, Cocks talked about Hasbro’s commitment to gaming and a “$1 billion investment” that should see the development of more single-player games. And one noteworthy, uplifting takeaway from this is that Cocks seems very aware that nobody really wants a games-as-a-service type model.
In fact, Cocks goes so far as to say “there’s always going to be a demand for good games that deliver a nice 40-50 hours worth of content set at a fair price.” Which, referring to the experience of a game as ‘content’ aside, that does seem to echo the direction of some of the more exciting game announcements we’ve seen from WotC.
It’s just unfortunate that those have been cancelled. The Giant Skull RPG/traversal-focused game is one, the game that was once in development from Hidden Path is another. But here’s Cocks talking about the pitfalls of games-as-a-service:
“You can invest $100 million to build a really great mobile or, or, a really great games-as-a-service, like a shooter. And the upside is you make billions and billions. But how many people achieve that upside? It’s very low single-digit percentages, if even that. The downside is you don’t make anything back, and it’s basically a wash.
It all just highlights how difficult it is to make anything. There’s always a thousand different pressures and directions a concept is being pulled in. Perhaps one explanation might be gleaned from a comment Cocks makes in the podcast, talking about how Hasbro/WotC needs to understand “how to make play be relevant” in that realm.
So the future seems like it will eventually have more D&D video games in it. The question is, what form will they take, and will they ultimately be good?
After Dark Alliance’s reboot, I’m glad to see WotC moving away from “live service” gaming!
