Hasbro is a media giant that owns several beloved franchises. Whether it be toys, board games, or shows, many are bound to have come into contact with some of the company's merchandise. Some examples of Hasbro's properties include the classic franchise Transformers and the action figure line of G.I. Joe soldiers. While some adaptations of these properties have had more of a budget behind them than others, Hasbro is now entering the video game space with its own AAA game division and studio.
Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast division is responsible for opening up this new game studio, with it called the New Raleigh-Durham Studio. It is based in North Carolina, and the division will be focused on both console and PC games that are based on Hasbro properties. This new division will also be helmed by veterans of the gaming industry, who have come from big studios like WB Games and have worked on AAA titles like Hitman or the Batman: Arkham series.
Back in February of this year, the company announced that a new Transformers game was in development at Hasbro Investor Day, and this studio is part of that deal. Some of the listed franchises that that will be getting AAA games include Transformers, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, and even Ouija. There's quite a bit of gaming history between the many different Transformers games produced over the years, with G.I. Joe also having a lot of games under its belt, as well as Snake Eyes' appearance in Epic Game's Fortnite.
The first project that is in development by the studio will be focused on the G.I. Joe franchise, and it will be a third-person action adventure title. The studio has some job postings on the Wizards of the Coast website, which include an Art Director, Lead Animator, and other high-level positions. These are all part of building the team that will be creating the studio's first multiplatform game, who are searching for individuals with AAA game development experience. It will reportedly be including third-person shooting mechanics, as well as a robust melee combat system, with this game utilizing the Unreal Engine.
The post closes out with a statement from Wizards of the Coast CEO Chris Cocks, where he says that Hasbro has opened this division and studio in order to cater to the gaming market, along with its own in-house studio. Considering the veterans that are involved and the properties that it's working with, there's already some excitement about this new Hasbro game division.
Sources: Transformer World 2005, HissTank