We're all aware by now that Baldur's Gate 3 was a huge success by every metric available. Sadly, it's a standout amid a strategy that's not bringing in many other returns for Hasbro, the company overseeing Dungeons and Dragons and Wizards of the Coast, which is now reporting substantial losses.
The latest earnings report from Hasbro lists an impairment of $56 million on a "refocused Digital Games portfolio for 2028 and beyond." That's a lot of money to watch go down the sink. This comes as the company cancels yet more, unspecified games.
Just a few years ago, in 2022, Hasbro was all about investing in games, helping to hoist up studios and spreading its many lucrative licenses. It spun up GI Joe-related projects in addition to other releases drawing on the Forgotten Realms, as well as original works such as Exodus, the sci-fi RPG headed up by former BioWare devs at new studio Archetype Entertainment.
There are others, too, and while it's a diverse and promising slate, it also involves keeping a lot of teams afloat while hoping their releases eventually bear fruit. And if big public companies hate anything, it's waiting for things. Hasbro now says that "several" entries on its release calendar through 2028 have been cancelled.
No details are forthcoming on what games have gotten the axe, but prior knowledge provides a few clues. Invoke Studios' Warlock, an action-adventure game set in the Forgotten Worlds, is set for release in 2027, as is Exodus. A horror-based game from the studio Skeleton Key also appears to still be happening (thanks, Kotaku).
"We are focusing our digital investment behind the franchises, platforms, and partners where we see the clearest upside and where Hasbro has the strongest right to win," Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro, says in today's accompanying financial call.
Another DnD-based project, from Giant Skull, was already dead in the water since Hasbro preemptively ended its contract with the team, and a game based on Snake Eyes from GI Joe seemingly got cut after its developer, Atomic Arcade, saw heavy layoffs.
It's always a shame when these things happen, because it's the devs on the ground who suffer when company leadership over-invests or abruptly changes goals.
