Hasbro News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Hasbro, owner of Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast, is looking for potential partners to work on the future of Baldur's Gate.

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.

Transformers introduced us to a level of tech we could only dream of in the 1980s because, well, Autobots and Decepticons are fictional beings from a faraway planet. While there sadly may never be a time when a sentient Optimus Prime walks among us, Hasbro and Robosen Robotics showed off the next best thing this week. A robotic Megatron that can transform from its bipedal form into a tank and back again whenever you command it to do so, joining a growing range of robotic Transformers and becoming the first Decepticon to join the line-up.

Magic: The Gathering’s recent set of Fallout-themed cards is the franchise’s “best-performing Commander set ever” said Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks. The announcement, made Wednesday during an earnings call with investors, brings attention to the potential of the trading card games’ ambitious Universes Beyond initiative. But it also highlights the risks of working with IP licensed from other companies.

The Baldur's Gate 3 team has expressed a feeling of "closure" after the juggernaut game completed its victory lap. 

The president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, Cynthia Williams, will soon be stepping down from her position in the company. Hasbro is yet to decide on who will replace her as head of Wizards of the Coast.

It has been announced that Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming president Cynthia Williams will be stepping down at the end of the month, officially leaving her role at both companies on April 26. Williams apparently announced her resignation to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming on April 15, according to an SEC filing from Hasbro.

Hasbro has announced new Star Wars figures based on several droids from The Mandalorian. The models are planned to be released as part of a bundle, which Star Wars collectors will be able to get from just one retail chain in summer 2024.

Baldur’s Gate fans have had to wait an exceptionally long time for the beloved series to make its long-awaited comeback. After BioWare developed its duology of Baldur’s Gate titles, we had to wait 23 years before Larian Studios came out with the widely acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 3. But with Larian having confirmed that its next game isn’t going to be Baldur’s Gate 4 (or connected to Dungeons and Dragons at all, for that matter), what does the future of the franchise look like? Well, apparently, Hasbro – parent company of Dungeons and Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast – is already looking into where to take things from here- and more importantly, with whom.

With Larian leaving Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons behind to work on a brand new game, the future of the series and the characters the developer brought to life is up in the air. But for Hasbro, owner of Dungeons & Dragons operator Wizards of the Coast, the hope is fans won’t have to wait as long for the next Baldur’s Gate game as they did for Baldur’s Gate 3.

Larian Studios confirmed earlier this year that it will not be involved in Baldur's Gate 4. The studio is moving away from Dungeons & Dragons to focus on its own projects, whatever they may be. But that doesn't mean the series is over.

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are moving forward with plans for a sequel to Baldur's Gate 3. The news comes following the reveal that Larian Studios, developer of Baldur's Gate 3, is stepping back from the series following the award-winning game's launch.

Hasbro, the IP holder of Dungeons & Dragons, says there are early conversations being held about another Baldur's Gate sequel.

Last month, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vinckke went on record to halt any speculation about the development of Baldur’s Gate 4, instead clarifying that the studio was moving on to something new. While this may be true, Hasbro isn’t as ready to let the Baldur’s Gate train grind to a halt.

Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap, fresh off multiple Academy Award nominations for its blockbuster hit, Barbie, is taking on a new challenge — a film based on the board game Monopoly. The announcement was made Wednesday at CinemaCon. But unlike Barbie, where the climax centered around the toy’s original female creator as embodied by the diminutive Rhea Perlman, the circumstances behind the creation of Monopoly are fraught for an entirely different reason. Will LuckyChap rise to the occasion with another feel-good hit that opens the door to forgotten history, or will it work to further obscure the game’s origins?

Having had a few days to sit with the news that Larian Studios, creators of 2023's breakout RPG, Baldur's Gate 3, has scrapped plans for DLC and will not be developing the inevitable next game in the series, we can't help but feel the move was a deeply-baller one. Going out on the highest possible note, outdoing even BioWare's iconic earlier entries, it's time to move on for Larian, and we'll gladly follow. Parent company Hasbro, however, wasted no time, threatening still-in-shock audiences that more D&D games are on the way: «Watch this space.»

Following a few days of speculation after Larian boss Swen Vincke announced that the studio’s next game will not be Baldur’s Gate 4, he has clarified that the reason for this new direction was all about Larian wanting to take a new direction, and not because of changes at D&D owner Wizards of the Coast.

Following Larian’s shock decision to move on from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons, some fans have pointed the finger at Wizards of the Coast — but, according to Swen Vincke, the Hasbro-owned company is not to blame.

Larian has announced that it will not be sticking with Baldur's Gate 3 for an expansion or a sequel, but that doesn't mean we won't ever see our favourite party members again. This was just confirmed by Larian CEO Swen Vincke, making it clear that the studio doesn't own the characters it created, as they instead belong to the D&D rights holder, Wizards of the Coast.

Hasbro teased more video games based on Dungeonsand Dragons are in the works from the company's developers, following Larian Studios' recent announcement about its future. As one of the most iconic tabletop RPGs in gaming, the beloved franchise from Wizards of the Coast has welcomed a variety of different games to its library. The Forgotten Realms have been home to many video games, ranging from the Baldur's Gate franchise to Gameloft's newly announced Dungeons and Dragons survival RPG. Now, following Baldur's Gate 3's success, Hasbro reportedly has more on the way.

Larian Studios is officially finished with Baldur's Gate. Director Swen Vincke revealed the news at GDC, confirming that the studio has scrapped its DLC plans and won't be making Baldur's Gate 4. In a statement sent to IGN, a Hasbro spokesperson responded by calling Larian "an incredible partner," but offered little insight into what's coming next.

Baldur's Gate 3 is arguably the biggest surprise hit of the past decade, establishing developer Larian Studios as one of the best in the business and opening up the world of Baldur's Gate to millions of people. Not even the most optimistic of the game's earliest adopters expected the widespread popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, and even Larian itself was only really hoping before launch that the game would just break even.

Now that Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a huge success both critically and financially, people are looking forward to what’s next for developer Larian Studios. However, according to studio founder Swen Vincke, the future doesn’t lie with the Baldur’s Gatefranchise or Dungeons & Dragons as a whole.

Hasbro's head of game studios Dan Ayoub says that Baldur's Gate 3 has proven that there's an appetite for more Dungeons & Dragons games, and that the company, which owns Wizards of the Coast and by extension D&D, is pushing for just that.

The BEYBLADE X toy line officially launches today as can exclusively reveal the Hasbro Generation 4 products that release this year in celebration of BEYBLADE's 25th anniversary.

Hasbro is upbeat on video games after the success of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Hasbro, the now longtime owner of Dungeons & Dragons maker Wizards of the Coast, is cooking up some big plans in the video game space, and the stunning success of Baldur's Gate 3 has proved to the company that the world wants more digital D&D adaptations.

Tilda Swinton is the sort of actor whose presence on screen makes a film a little more beguiling. Whether she’s playing someone otherworldly, like the vampire burnout Eve in Only Lovers Left Alive,or someone more grounded, like the academic Alithea in Three Thousand Years of Longing, there’s something ethereal about the way she inhabits a character, as if she’s always been there, waiting for the story to show up around her.

Following the massive success of Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro and Wizard's of the Coast have approved Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft Montreal to work on a brand new Dungeons and Dragons survival-RPG. The 2023 Game of the Year Baldur's Gate 3 was seen by many as a return to form for Dungeons and Dragons video games, and the IP's owners are keen to keep the momentum rolling with another upcoming title based on the classic franchise.

Scopely's Monopoly Go has amassed $2 billion in revenue

Gameloft has announced a partnership with Hasbro to publish a new Dungeons & Dragons game for consoles and PC developed by Gameloft Montreal, which previously developed Disney Dreamlight Valley, LEGO Star Wars Castaways, and several Dungeon Hunter series games.

Outright Games announced on Tuesday that, in collaboration with Hasbro and developer Drakhar Studio, they are releasing, a brand new, open world adventure game based on the iconic franchise.

There's no denying that Baldur's Gate 3 was and continues to be massively successful, and with that in mind, it's not surprising that Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons owner Hasbro has expressed that it wants to "continue to work" with developer Larian Studios going forward. 

Hasbro and Magic: The Gathering/Dungeons & Dragons parent company Wizards of the Coast announced that it has "about 40" video games in the works and that it hopes to collaborate with Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios again as it pushes further into the medium.

A streamer has answered the question we've all been wondering - what food is best for generating electricity to run Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

Altered, the novel new trading card game from startup Equinox Studio, has broken records with its inaugural crowdfunding campaign. With nearly $7 million earned from nearly 15,000 backers, it becomes the single most-funded TCG ever run on Kickstarter. The new card game, which will enter a crowded marketplace alongside games like Magic: The Gathering and Disney Lorcana, is expected to release on Aug. 26, 2024

MTG Arena is adding a brand-new card from the Karlov Manor set called Juggle the Performance next week, teasing the long-awaited Commander format.

Award-winning board game designer Eric Lang, whose Viking-themed Blood Rage is a fixture on Polygon’s list of the best modern board games, has something new to share — a tile-laying strategy game called Life in Reterra. This time, instead of partnering with hot young publishers like CMON or Steamforged Games, he and co-designer Ken Gruhl (Happy Salmon) have gone with the granddaddy of them all, 100-year-old Hasbro. And while we don’t know everything yet about how the game works yet, we do know Lang himself considers it among his “strongest designs ever,” and that’s enough right there to get me interested.

Larian Studios' massive fantasy RPG Baldur's Gate 3 has made waves once again by surpassing the massive milestone of 10 million copies sold. Larian is also working on growing Baldur's Gate 3 further with additional patching and support for additional content.

Hasbro, the parent company that owns the Dungeons & Dragons license, has raked in $90 million in royalty fees since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, according to a Bloomberg report. The 2023 Game of the Year for many outlets has been a massive success with a 96% review rating from over 500,000 Steam gamers.

Hasbro has made $90 million off of Baldur’s Gate 3 since the hit RPG’s release in August 2023. Though it did not make Baldur’s Gate 3 directly, Hasbro has cashed in on its success via a licensing deal between Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast.

During a Hasbro investor's call, the American toy and game company revealed that Baldur's Gate 3 has earned it $90 million since the RPG's official release last year, thanks to a licensing deal.

 Baldur's Gate 3, last year's most critically acclaimed video game, has brought in about $90 million since its August release for parent company Hasbro Inc. through a licensing deal. 

Baldur's Gate 3 is a bright spot in an altogether down financial report from Wizards of the Coast owner Hasbro, which says Larian's "mega hit" RPG, having driven around $90 million in revenue in the last year, is a good sign for more video games to come from the D&D license. 

Magic: the Gathering will get two major crossovers a year starting in 2025, on the same scale as Tales of Middle-earth. The first two to kick it all off will be Marvel and Final Fantasy, both of which have already been announcedfor 2025.

Magic: The Gatheringfansshould expect more and bigger Universes Beyond sets in the future. Following the success of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, CEO Chris Cocks told investors Tuesday morning that the game and toy manufacturer expects two equivalently-sized sets to launch every calendar year beginning in 2025. First out of the gate will be a collaboration with Square Enix on a Final Fantasy set, and then multiple Marvel-themed sets after that.

Dungeons and Dragons just revealed the release dates of a half dozen new books it has planned over the next year. These six new Dungeons and Dragons books include the revised Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual, which will be released as a part of the One D&D project.

Margaret Weis, who with Tracy Hickman is responsible for the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles series of Dungeons & Dragons novels, has confirmed to Polygon that a secretive project to create a streaming television series set in the world of Krynn will not move forward. The news broke Wendesday at ComicBook.com, and included an emotional interview with its champion, actor Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Justice League).

Wizards of the Coast and Resolution Games have announced their collaboration to bring Dungeons & Dragons to virtual reality.

Demeo developer Resolution Games has announced an officially-licensed Dungeons and Dragons VR game, partnering with Wizards of the Coast for its adaptation of the iconic franchise. The massively popular role-playing game has long been one of the most recognizable franchises in tabletop gaming, spawning a media empire that ranges from novels and video games to web series and more. The game has been particularly prominent in recent years, following the success of spinoffs like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Baldur's Gate 3.

Today, Resolution Games and Wizards of the Coast announced a collaboration on the world's first D&D virtual reality game, now in production for a future release.

We've got an exclusive first look at the latest Star Wars Vintage Collection action figures, including when they'll be available to join your collection.

Surgeon Simulator and Lost Skies developer Bossa Studios has become the latest affected by the sweeping lay-offs hitting the video game industry.

Hasbro is giving the venerable board game Trivial Pursuit a modern shot in the arm with a new daily, Wordle-inspired version called Trivial Pursuit Infinite. Like Wordle, Trivial Pursuit Infinite will be a daily challenge — in this case, players answer six rapid-fire trivia questions and, in theory, share their results with friends and family.

Some Super Smash Bros Ultimate amiibo are back in stock at Best Buy.

It's been a rough year for the games industry. An estimated 9,000 people have been laid off in the industry this year, affecting employees at companies like Embracer Group, Epic Games, Amazon Games, Ubisoft, Activision, Bungie, Frontier, Codemasters, BioWare, Paradox, and many more. We've also seen the shuttering of numerous studios, including Volition, Free Radical, and Shadow Gambit creators Mimimi Games. Layoffs have also affected companies adjacent to video games, like Hasbro, which laid of 1,100 people two weeks before Christmas.

You might remember Larian CEO and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke giving a short speech while accepting the Game of the Year Award for BG3. Now he’s taken a second pass online, and delivered a moving statement on behalf of everyone behind the game.

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Earlier this week, Hasbro announced that it would be laying off approximately 1,100 employees two weeks before Christmas, as per an internal memo. At the time, I pointed out that the memo announced «the majority of the notifications will happen over the next six months, with the balance occurring over the next year.» While it doesn't directly contradict this statement, many layoffs are happening right now.

Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has taken to Twitter today and—in a thread celebrating both Baldur's Gate 3's numerous awards and runaway success—mentions the recent layoffs occurring at Dungeons & Dragons. He reveals that, «of the people who were in the original meeting room, there’s almost nobody left.»

Game and toy maker Hasbro announced it will cut roughly 1,100 jobs on Monday. When added to the 800 layoffs made earlier this year, the total amounts to just less than one-third of the company’s entire labor force. The news comes exactly two weeks ahead of Christmas, traditionally the biggest holiday of the year for game and toy sales.

Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering owner Hasbro is laying off 1,100 employees.

Hasbro, the parent company behind Wizards of the Coast, which itself is responsible for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, is laying off 1100 employees, as reported by Dicebreaker and The Wall Street Journal. The company, which is also behind the Transformers franchise (toys and other media),  announced this decision yesterday, on December 11. 

Hasbro is laying off 1,100 employees, according to anSEC filing. The company behind franchises like Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers, Hasbro already laid off 800 employees in January. While some employees will find out about the fate of their jobs on Tuesday, others will be cut in the coming year. By 2025, Hasbro told shareholders, the company hopes to save about $350 million to $400 million in costs.

The newest Magic: The Gathering set will feature beloved characters solving a murder in Murders at Karlov Manor. Even more murder mystery-themed cards will be added through a collaboration with Hasbro’s iconic board game, Clue, in Ravnica: Clue Edition. Simply who has the time to focus on taking out your opponent when you should be busy solving a murder mystery?

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze Entertainment has announced that it's teaming up with Wizards of the Coast to create a cooperative multiplayer game based on the popular Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Starbreeze hasn't announced a name for the title just yet, but they have revealed that it's being developed under the name Project Baxter and will be released at some point in 2026.

PayDay 3 developers Starbreeze have announced a new game based on the Dungeons & Dragons IP. The title, currently codenamed Project Baxter, will launch in 2026 on all major platforms and is being built with the Unreal 5 engine.

Today, Starbreeze announced it has partnered with Wizards of the Coast to create a Dungeons and Dragons cooperative game. The title, powered by Unreal Engine 5 technology, will be released in 2026 on all major platforms (which likely means PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and possibly even Nintendo Switch 2) with cross-play functionality.

Starbreeze Entertainment is working on a new action-adventure game based on Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons property. Codenamed Project Baxter, it will launch in 2026 for “all major platforms” with cross-play. Check out the first two pieces of concept art below.

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Starbreeze, the developer of the Payday series of games, has announced an officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons game due out at some point in 2026.

In 2013, Hasbro sent a cease-and-desist letter to the creators of a My Little Pony fangame called Fighting is Magic (it began as a fanart project called «Marevel vs. Clopcom»). While the creators, Mane6, accepted the cease and desist, they kept the basic idea and mechanics and used them to create an original game called Them's Fightin' Herds. Lauren Faust, producer of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show, agreed to create a new cast of hoofed mammal fighters for the game and came up with the basics of a setting and story as well. Following an Indiegogo campaign that raised $586,346, Them's Fightin' Herds was released on Steam in early access.

Magic: The Gathering is having a banner year, helping Hasbro pull itself up by its bootstraps with blockbuster sets like The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. That massive sales volume means that quite a lot of overstock is sitting around after the year’s best sets blazed a trail through your local game store. We’ve scanned all the Black Friday deals on Amazon, compared them to available price histories online, and narrowed things down to find the very best deals on Magic cards this holiday.

Scopely announced that Monopoly Go has emerged as the biggest mobile game launch of 2023, surpassing $1 billion in annual revenue.

In the late 1980s, toy company Hasbro was adding to its slew of entertainment offerings with games like Battleship. Video games were still treated with suspicion by much of the general public, but Hasbro started pursuing a different kind of interactive experience: a movie that could be influenced by audience decisions. In the process, while attempting to make a nonviolent family game that could be enjoyed by nearly everyone, Hasbro helped create some of the creepiest vampires in video games — and the star of the 1993 U.S. Senate hearings meant to address violence and video games.

The success of Baldur’s Gate 3 has done more than just boost the reputation of developer Larian Studios. Caught by TweakTown, the latest Q3 earnings figures for Hasbro—the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, which owns Dungeons & Dragons—indicates that the RPG also led to more sales of the tabletop game.

Dungeons & Dragons has a new book coming out—but you'll have to wait a while longer for the physical copy. The release of The Deck of Many Things core rulebook has been delayed thanks to a streak of bad luck (or poor manufacturing, depending on how charitable you're willing to be). On October 28, the official D&D Twitter account made the following post: 

Baldur's Gate 3 has well and truly established itself as one of the biggest surprise hits of the last decade, touted as one of the best RPGs ever made and a shoe-in to win every single award going at this year's Game Awards showcase. With that kind of reputation, and the constantly rising popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, it's safe to assume that the game has brought home the bacon for Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro.

PDP unveiled a range of controllers earlier this year with miniature versions of various characters in the handle. Sonic and other characters from the series were the first to be encased in plastic, starting with the blue blur, and pre-orders for Tails and Knuckles controllers have followed suit. Pikmin was the next series to get the Realmz treatment, a tiny red Pikmin in the handle that's probably close to actual size. Now the previously promised Transformers controller is up for pre-order.