This year when a lot of other gaming giants are making huge strides toward their ambitious gaming projects.
It looks like Dungeons & Dragons video game maker Wizards of the Coast (A sub-brand of Hasbro), to everyone’s surprise, has shockingly canceled at least five of its upcoming new gaming projects.
Well, that’s what the report from Bloomberg says; the company seems to be on a mission to scale back on the projects soon after entering the year 2023.
The growth at the Wizard of the Coast has simultaneously come alongside the financial problems that its parent company Hasbro has been facing, whose share fell by 40% in 2022 due to higher prices which resulted in poor toy sales.
The company also published a popular card game called Magic: The Gathering. It has been trying to make an indent in the gaming industry have got mixed reactions to date. Wizards of the Coast’s 2021 Dungeon & Dragon – Dark Alliance failed to make an impact on the players that had high hopes for it.
Although Baldur’s Gate 3 is a dragon game in addition to Dungeon & Dragon. The Baldur’s Gate 3 was made by Larian Studios and is slated to be released this year. The early versions game has received a positive response from the gamer community.
The situation right now seems to be in the mist; the company spokesperson has spoken on the rumors and speculation surrounding the matter.
In a statement to Bloomberg, the company’s spokesperson said that the Wizard of the Coast is committed to using digital games and elaborated further that the company is re-vamping its gaming portfolio so that future games can accurately represent the company’s vision.
The Wizard of the Coast spokesperson further said that we made some changes to the long-term portfolio of games that are strategically aligned with developing our existing brand and those which show promise in expanding or engaging our audience in new ways.
With the game’s titles getting canceled and now there’s a question that comes to mind if the Hasbro-owned company was going to lay off the employees that are working on them.
Also, the cancellations of these projects affect not only the future of the company but also the independent gaming studios which were working on the games for the Wizard of the Coast, naming – OtherSide Entertainment & HiddenPath Entertainment.
The Wizard of the Coast came out and said that only 15 employees were getting laid off. However, the company did mention that the employees are free to apply for any other role in the company.
Well, at the moment, the company has canceled the game title, which they internally referred to as Jabberwocky (A claptrap poem written by Lewis Caroll.
In addition to this, two games that were in external development have also been canceled, and two other games have also been sidelined as well.
What are your thoughts on the Wizards of the Coast canceling its upcoming video game projects? Let us know in the comment section below!
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