Hasbro’s AI aspirations include a partnership with a novel digital board game platform

polygon.com:

Hasbro, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and dozens of classic board games, will partner with Xplored, makers of the Teburu digital board game platform. The Rhode Island-based company said Monday in a news release that the collaboration would help it explore “the integration of smart-sensing technology, AI, and dynamic multimedia.”

“We envision a future where technology seamlessly integrates into analog gaming experiences,” said Adam Biehl, senior vice president and general manager of Hasbro Gaming, in the news release. “Working with Xplored enables us to deliver innovative gameplay to our players and fans, limitless digital expansions to physical games, seamless onboarding, and powerful AI-driven game mechanics.”

Xplored leapt onto the tabletop scene in 2022 with its crowdfunding campaign for The Bad Karmas and the Curse of the Zodiac, a miniatures-heavy board game that also included an early version of its novel Teburu platform. Using RFID tags, bluetooth, and smart devices like phones, tablets, and televisions, Xplored successfully proved out its technology in the consumer space. Polygon gave it a test drive last year and was a bit taken aback by how well it worked. From our feature story:

Attached to the game board is a dongle with two antennas — one that connects to the RFID chips and another for Bluetooth. That’s for the dice, two simple six-sided dice just smart enough to know which side is up, and for other Bluetooth-capable devices like speakers, tablets, and smartphones. The most complicated item is a singular, fancier plinth for larger miniatures — call them boss miniatures — that lights up with a multicolored LED light at four points along its edge. That’s it: [several] mildly