New games for Dungeons & Dragons are highly anticipated by fans. However, a promising title is now apparently history, despite the publisher being a big player.
Which game is it about? The subsidiary of Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, which primarily handles the company’s video games, has now canceled a game related to Dungeons & Dragons.
At first, everything sounded good. The development studio Giant Skull received the green light for the title last year and got to work. The studio is relatively new and was founded by developer Stig Asmussen, who oversaw games like God of War III and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
At the start of the collaboration a year ago, it was said: “A decisive moment for the gaming ambitions of both companies.” But despite all ambitions and good signs, the project is now at an end.
No new game for D&D, but …
Why was the game stopped? A year after the ceremonial launch of the new D&D game, it is already over again. As Bloomberg News reports, the company that provided the financial resources has withdrawn from the project.
A spokesperson for Wizards of the Coast said: “We evaluate concepts at every development stage,” but emphasized at the same time that they are not ending the partnership with the company itself, just this project.
“Even though we decided not to pursue an early concept from Giant Skull, we have great respect for Stig Asmussen and his team and appreciate our existing collaboration,” said the spokesperson.
What does the company behind Monopoly have to do with video games? Anyone who only thinks of the box of the Monopoly packaging when it comes to Hasbro has not followed the company in recent years. Since 2018, Hasbro has reportedly invested almost one billion US dollars (about 862 million euros) in the development of video games, according to TheGameBusiness.
The company is trying to establish itself as broadly as possible and not chase after that one magical AAA game that could rake in billions. As Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks explains:
You can invest 100 million dollars to develop a really great mobile game or a really great games-as-a-service game, like a shooter. The advantage is that you can earn billions and billions. But how many achieve that success? It concerns a very low single-digit percentage, if at all. The downside is that you get nothing back, and it’s basically a zero-sum game.
If we look at it statistically – and that is dangerous because it is a creative endeavor – if you invest a reasonable amount of money and give a talented team enough time to develop a more traditional game, you’re likely not to make billions, but the chances of at least recouping the money invested are much higher.
Chris Cock, CEO of Hasbro at TheGameBusiness
It seems that Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast are still satisfied with Stig Asmussen’s studio and that there will be new projects there in the future. For fans of D&D, however, the cancellation is still disappointing. D&D is fun even without friends: I have been playing D&D without friends for over a year and couldn’t be happier
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