Baldur's Gate III var en kæmpe succes for Hasbro, og det lader til at spillet har formet deres bredere tilgang til spiludvikling, et projekt de kaster mange, mange hundrede millioner efter over det næste lange stykke tid.
I et interview med The Game Business siger CEO Chris Cocks, at de simpelthen ikke vil investere i live service-spil nu, men vil være et sted hvor "core gamers" kan finde dybe RPG'er og mere traditionelle spiltitler til konsol og PC - dette ønsker de at bevise med spillene Exodus og Warlock:
"We've got some big marquee brands, more casual games like Monopoly and Clue, and then our entertainment brands like My Little Pony, Peppa Pig, and then we have some more core brands like D&D and Magic: The Gathering. Maybe Transformers and G.I. Joe I'd throw into that camp," Cocks said. " That's a really broad portfolio. So, where were we going to place our bets versus where we're not? And we chose core games focused on PC and console, with more traditional business models. It was a safer bet for us. You can invest $100 million to build a really great mobile game, or a really great games-as-a-service, like a shooter. And the upside is you make billions and billions. But how many people achieve that upside? It's very low single-digit percentages, if even that. The downside is you don't make anything back, and it's basically a wash."
Det sjove er, at Cocks her anerkender noget de fleste forbrugere har skreget efter de største udgivere i mange, mange år nu - at live service-markedet er mættet, og at nåleøjet for reel succes er så lille, at de bør satse andetsteds, eller bare anderledes.
Han slutter af med lidt af et statement:
"I think there's always going to be demand for good games that deliver a nice 40 to 50-hours worth of content set at a fair price."
Tror du at Hasbo har fat i den lange ende?