Hasbro Says Baldur's Gate 3 Proved People "Want Great D&D Games"

thegamer.com:

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.

"We're all super excited by the reaction to [Baldur's Gate 3]," Ayoub told GamesRadar at GDC. "I think it proved for us that people really want great D&D games. We're certainly doing that."

[Baldur's Gate 3] proved for us that people really want great D&D games.

We know that Hasbro has "about 40" games in the works right now, and that it even wants to continue working with Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios directly, but Larian boss Swen Vincke revealed in December that there's "almost nobody left" from the D&D team who helped greenlight Baldur's Gate 3 to begin with.

That's because Hasbro laid off over 1,000 workers last year, equivalent to nearly 20 percent of its staff. "I'm really sorry to hear so many of you were let go," Vincke tweeted. "It's a sad thing to realise that of the people who were in the original meeting room, there's almost nobody left."

Despite this, Ayoub says that Hasbro sees the potential of expanding its video game portfolio and that Baldur's Gate 3 proved three things; one, that "there's going to be an audience" for high-quality D&D games; two, that video games will help people get into the world of tabletop; and three, that there's an "importance of taking time to get it right." That means longer development cycles, rather than rushing games out of the door.

Internally, Hasbro has a Dungeons & Dragons game in the works at its Montreal studio, though it hasn't divulged any details yet. Fans have been calling for everything from a new Neverwinter Nights to a Waterdeep game, taking us to Gale's home city. Maybe those wishes will come true soon enough.

Baldur's Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you