Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks is ready to get work and play. A Microsoft veteran who joined Hasbro in 2016 as president of its Wizards of the Coast division–which includes Magic: The Gathering and all things Dungeons and Dragons–and wants to double down on bringing those worlds to the hands of video game players with new Magic and D&D games in the works.
Cocks took the reins of the company in 2022 and saw an initial boom under his leadership during the pandemic, but as kids went back to school, sales slumped, and the company issued over 1,000 layoffs since. Hasbro had previously dedicated $1 billion to video game development. Speaking to Bloomberg about this focus, Cocks indicated that $100-$150 million a year would be spent on games like Exodus, which will be developed by BioWare.
“We want to reach fans where they want to play, and increasingly that is through digital expressions of their favorite brands,” Cocks explained. The CEO also confirmed that Hasbro was developing its own D&D video game as well as the Wizards branch working on a video game focused on the Commander format for Magic: The Gathering. That’s on top of a GI Joe action-adventure game that’s already in pre-production.
D&D games are nothing new with TSR working with Black Isle Studios and BioWare more than 25 years ago on the first Baldur’s Gate game, which was set in the Forgotten Realms campaign and used the 2.5 Edition rules. There was even a video game for the Intellivision by Mattel. However, with the white-hot popularity of last year’s Baldur’s Gate 3, taking another stab at the franchise seems like a logical solution.
“What makes Magic so successful is what will drive Hasbro’s future success,” Cocks added. “It’s grounded in play.”
Cocks oversaw the sales growth of Magic leap to $1.4 billion between 2019 and 2023. That number has been attributed to Cocks’ love for the game as he introduced new card packs for Magic and an online video game version called Magic: The Gathering Arena. He wants Hasbro to find a way to add more digital collectability to Magic, similar to Marvel Snap or, the recent Game Award nominee for Best Mobile Game, Pokemon TCG Pocket.
No information about either game was revealed, and with Larian Studios winding down its Baldur’s Gate 3 work, and the decision to not continue with Baldur’s Gate 4, the possibilities feel limitless as to what these new games could look and play like.
