Hasbro CEO Explains Why Brand Avoids Live-Service Game Model

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks recently discussed the company’s investment of nearly a billion dollars in its video game business over the past decade. As a brand with a long history, Hasbro has chosen to focus on creating traditional video games rather than following the trends of live-service and mobile games that many other companies have in recent years.

In a recent interview, he explained that many companies could invest $100 million in making such a game, but the likely return on investment is riskier than making a game that follows a more traditional pattern. In his opinion, the demand for that style of game will always be there, and it is the safer route.

Hasbro CEO Says Traditional Games Offer Better ROI Than Live Service

Speaking with The Game Business, Cocks noted that the number of companies that actually make their money back and see tremendous returns on live service ventures is probably in the “very low single-digit percentages, if even that.” However, they are taking a risk with the forthcoming release of Exodus, a new IP set to be a AAA title. Also, he commented on the rising costs of game development and said that, moving forward, Hasbro will have to adapt its strategy to changing market conditions.

“The cost to make those games has gone up quite a bit since 2018 and 2019,” he admits. “That’s something we’ll be thinking about in the next round of games. How do we diversify where our studio locations are? Right now, they’re pretty North America-based, particularly US-based. How do we use great markets like Montreal? We build a lot of RPGs and action-adventure games, and certainly there’s awesome talent in Eastern Europe, so how do we tap into that market? And then how do we use partners? We announced a joint venture with Saber Interactive for a to-be-announced game. We’ll lean into all of the above as we evolve the model.”

The upcoming game, Exodus, is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. However, as a testament to the market’s volatility, the company recently canceled the Dungeons & Dragons game that Stig Asmussen’s Giant Skull studio was developing. Learned more about that at this link.

Do you enjoy it when legacy brands make more traditional-style games? Are you burned out on the live-service model? Sound off about this story and all others in our official Discord server. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.