Coinciding with Bitta’s hiring, James Ohlen, co-founder of Exodus developer Archetype Entertainment, will be stepping aside from his position. Hasbro’s vice president of corporate communications Abby Hodes said in a statement that Ohlen’s work felt complete, and that he stepped aside so he could hand off the leadership position to the rest of the team. She also noted that Ohlen had “asked to shift his creative focus” on the tabletop RPG products at Wizards of the Coast, namely Dungeons & Dragons.

“At this stage, James felt his work on the game was complete and that the polishing and tuning were in great hands with the team,” said Hodes.

Hasbro has been hoping to push further into the video games industry following the massive success of 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3. While there had been plenty of games based on the properties of Wizards of the Coast in the past, Baldur’s Gate 3 had hit sales milestones that hadn’t previously been seen by games based on Dungeons & Dragons. Since then, the company has announced many deals with various developers to work on brand new titles.

While some of these titles are slated to be part of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, which includes the recently-announced Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons as well as the unnamed project in the works at Stig Asmussen’s studio Giant Skull, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro have also been casting a wider net. One of the bigger games in development right now has nothing to do with Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering—Exodus.

Exodus has been in the works for quite some time, and got a brand new trailer during The Game Awards 2025. The sci-fi RPG’s developers have spoken about all of the different games they were inspired by, which includes the Mass Effect series, as well as Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise and even Nintendo’s Metroid Prime.

As for Giant Skull’s title, Hight had confirmed back in August that, while there might be a new Baldur’s Gate game made in the future, Asmussen’s team is working on a different project.

“Baldur’s Gate is an incredible game,” said Hight. “And of course, we’re going to do a successor. This is not the successor to that game. We go to Stig [Asmussen] and his team to tell an incredible story and bring D&D to a very broad audience. Ideally, the game will appeal to D&D players because it will help them realise their imagination. But it’s also going to hopefully appeal to people that love playing action games, that love the Jedi games, that love God of War games.”

“D&D, as Stig said, it’s a playground and it really is for everyone. Hundreds of millions of people have either played D&D or been aware of D&D, and we want to perpetuate that for the next 50 years.”

“Obviously one that comes up all the time is Mass Effect,” said King when asked about the projects that inspired Archetype Entertainment to make Exodus. “We obviously share some DNA. The epic space opera, the mega choices that carry over from game to game. Combat, we have a lot of stuff come up. Mass Effect, Horizon is probably another one we’ve drawn some inspiration from.”

While the Mass Effect inspiration might seem like a no-brainer for those aware of the development team behind Exodus and having seen its trailers, Horizon getting a shout-out might be more interesting. Robertson explained that Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series helped the studio figure out how to make elemental damage work in combat, as well as how to force players to make decisions about the things they are fighting.

“With Horizon, it’s that elemental aspect of combat, where you’ve got to make decisions based on the construction of the things that you’re fighting, and be smart about the tools that you use against it,” he explained. “There’s some cool things that we think we’ve pulled in from that.”

Interestingly, King also gives a shout out to seminal first-person metroidvania title Metroid Prime, noting that its focus on exploration helped the studio in how it structured out the worlds that players will get to explore in Exodus. “One of the things that really resonates is just like the exploration, hopping on a spaceship, kind of being out in the middle of nowhere. I kind of like the loneliness in that game. It just makes the environments really interesting.”

Exodus is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release some time in 2026. The release window had been confirmed thanks to Archetype Entertainment’s parent company Hasbro making a note of it in its quarterly earnings report back in February. In the report, CEO Chris Cocks also said that Exodus will be the start of Hasbro’s push into self-publishing games.

“We have been investing in video games for over seven years through our portfolio of over a dozen projects in various stages of development coupled with 100+ licensing partnerships,” said Cocks. “I’m excited to show off our first project, Exodus, to the world when we launch it in 2026.”

In the meantime, check out details about one of the alien species that players will encounter during their time in Exodus – the Arkavir. In the game’s story, the Arkavir were designed to be the primary workforce for the Celestials in the Centauri Cluster while also being able to handle harsh and hostile environments. The Arkavir can also change up their physical form in order to make themselves more suited for specific harsh environments, from intense heat and unfathomable cold, to flesh-melting acid rain.

While previous collaborations have focused on skins for characters, this one could focus primarily on weapon skins. There have been more Mythic skins over the past several seasons, primarily for Reaper, Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Mercy, Ana, Ashe and Widowmaker. As such, they’re prime candidates for the new NERF skins.

Overwatch 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It’s had a resurgence of sorts following the launch of Stadium in Season 16, and Blizzard has recently added Zenyatta, Sigma, and Junkrat in Season 17.

As for later in the season, a limited-time trial will become available for the next hero, Wuyang. With Overwatch 2 slated to appear at Gamescom during the Xbox broadcast, perhaps we’ll receive a new trailer. Time will tell, so stay tuned.

“We’re experts at melee combat, so that’s something that John got to see and it translates very well to D&D,” said Asmussen, referring to Wizards of the Coast president John Hight who previously worked with him on God of War 3. “There’s probably still legacy debt that’s in the Jedi games from bad decisions that we made early on. Some of those bad decisions were based on momentum because we don’t get stuck. We just want to keep on moving forward.”

It is worth noting that Asmussen’s team at Respawn Entertainment had worked on Unreal Engine 4 to develop Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. In this interview, he spoke about how Giant Skull is trying to avoid tech debt by making sure that it doesn’t bring over any of the bad decisions that were made with the Jedi games by starting with “vanilla Unreal”. Ultimately, this clean slate allowed the studio to make a “motion model” that ends up being much faster and smoother than what we saw in the two Star Wars Jedi titles.

“When we started Giant Skull and we started with vanilla Unreal, we couldn’t take what we did with the Jedi games over to a new company. So, all of those mistakes that we had made before weren’t there. We had a clean slate and we were able to build very quickly based on all of our learnings over the years before. That’s allowed us to create a motion model that’s so much faster now, so much more fluid. And it doesn’t have points where you get blocked because you don’t understand how to fix jank. It’s buttery smooth.”

While no other details about this Dungeons & Dragons title developed by Giant Skull have been revealed so far, this emphasis on having high-quality animations for melee combat would indicate that it will be a hack-and-slash game. When the title was announced, some of the words used to describe it were “immersive storytelling”, “heroic combat”, and “exhilarating traversal”. Asmussen noted in the interview that traversal would be a major part of the upcoming title’s gameplay.

“Traversal is really important to us,” he explained. “Giving the player a suite of different ways to probe and interact with the environment, and eventually build their character up to a point where they’re dominating the environment. It all has to feel silky smooth.”

The new title is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, and will likely come to PC and modern consoles.

“We’re kind of working out our plans for the future and what we’re going to be doing with that. And actually, in pretty short order, we’re going to have some stuff to talk about around that,” said Ayoub.

For some context, Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast – the company in charge of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, alongside other properties like trading card game Magic: The Gathering. While Ayoub didn’t expand too much on what kind of future plans were in store for Baldur’s Gate as a franchise, he did mention that a sequel to Larian’s RPG is something he would like to see.

“It’s somewhat of an unenviable position,” said Ayoub. “I mean, we’re not in a hurry. Right? That’s the thing, we’re going to take a very measured approach… We’ve got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We’re starting to think about, okay, yeah, we’re ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point, we’re going to have some other things to talk about around that.”

Ayoub also spoke about how Hasbro would keep the momentum that Dungeons & Dragons as a property got from the release of Baldur’s Gate 3. Wizards of the Coast, for example, recently kicked off its refresh of the fifth edition rules for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG.

“I’m never one to shy down from a challenge,” he said. “And I think anything that forces us to raise our creative bar, and developers love to have a high bar to go after, and I think we’ve actually seen the team push some really interesting ideas that they’re like, ‘Okay, we need to raise our bar. We need to go bigger on this.’ And things like that. So, I think that’s our hope, right? We would keep raising the bar and everyone just tries to go a little higher.”

Ayoub’s statements are a reflection of similar ones made by Hasbro’s SVP of Digital Strategy and Licensing Eugene Evans, who spoke about the company talking to partners about the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise back in April 2024. He Evans also spoke about the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 showing back up in future games down the line, since they were beloved by players.

“Larian created a much loved cast of characters, who were even celebrated by their nominations, the voice actors behind them and the talent behind them was celebrated at the [BAFTAS], and they are now essentially part of D&D canon,” said Evans. “I think it’s too early to express specifics and I think that there’s a much bigger question about how we approach Baldur’s Gate in the future. But I would like to think that all of those characters, for the sake of the fans, could potentially appear in future products.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

Hasbro announced during its recent quarterly earnings briefing that it has partnered with Saber Interactive for a AAA project based on one of its IP, to be developed by the Space Marine 2 team. Hasbro owns several major properties, including Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers, Magic: The Gathering, G.I. Joe, and others.

According to Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, the Saber title will be based on one of Hasbro’s “tentpole IPs”, and will use the Swarm engine, which was utilized for Space Marine 2’s development as well.

“We have many new digital collaborations in the works, but I am especially excited to announce this one today as a personal fan of many of this team’s games,” Cocks said. “Hasbro and Saber Interactive will be collaborating on an all-new videogame partnership developed by the team behind 2024’s mega-hit,
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Combining high-octane single-player action and amazing multi-play with Saber’s Swarm tech, this new AAA title based on one of our tentpole IPs is sure to be a hit.”

What we do not know yet is which IP Saber and Hasbro have chosen to work on together. Cocks did confirm, however, that the game will be co-published by the two companies.

Saber Interactive currently has a couple other AAA licensed titles in development as well, including Jurassic Park: Survival and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake.

“Today, we have some very difficult news to share. The decision has been made to end development of Transformers: Reactivate,” said the studio in its announcement.

Splash Damage seeks to scale down its operations and focus on other projects. While details on these projects have not been given, the studio has also mentioned that this cancellation may lead to some layoffs.

“This means we will be scaling down to refocus our efforts on other projects,” it continued. “Unfortunately, despite every effort, several roles across the studio are now potentially at risk of redundancy.”

“Hasbro was an incredible and supportive partner throughout, and we hope to work with them again. To the many fans, your excitement and support helped keep us going.”

Development on Transformers: Reactivate had been going on for quite some time since the game was originally announced back in 2022. Since then, the studio has been quiet about it, with no new trailers released. Transformers: Reactivate was going to be an action game featuring co-op multiplayer for up to four players. Unfortunately, no other details about the game had been revealed, aside from its announcement trailer.

Splash Damage is a storied studio, having worked on various titles across various genres. The developer originally got started with shooters, with titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Brink, and Dirty Bomb. The studio would then go on to team up with Microsoft to work on Gears of War Ultimate Edition in collaboration with The Coalition, as well as turn-based tactics game Gears Tactics.

An update on Transformers: Reactivate. pic.twitter.com/jGkzZ0begd

— Splash Damage (@splashdamage) January 8, 2025

Tapping into the studio’s experience with working on classic titles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will feature an old-school aesthetic, complete with 2D animated cutscenes and genre changes depending on the level, with some levels being inspired by classic shoot ’em ups.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will also tap into the Power Rangers live-action TV series, pulling in fan-favourite characters and enemies that players will be able to take on. Power Rangers fans will also be happy to know that all of the original Dinozords can be piloted.

On the story side of things, the Power Rangers will find themselves facing off against a robotic reincarnation of Rita Repulsa, who has seemingly used a portal to send herself back in time to form an alliance with her younger self.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind features online and offline multiplayer for up to 5 players.

Atomic Arcade, an internal Hasbro AAA studio based in North Carolina, is currently working on a G.I. Joe game that Ayoub says is “not your daddy’s G.I. Joe“, starring the character Snake Eyes. As per Ayoub, Hasbro is hoping the game will be a “shot in the arm to the G.I. Joe franchise.”

“With Snake Eyes, while it’s not a new IP, it’s hopefully going to be a shot in the arm to the G.I. Joe franchise and we can do some new things and express it in different ways in video games than we have traditionally,” he said.

Interestingly, Atomic Arcade is being led by former Rocksteady developers who worked on Batman: Arkham Asylum. In fact, Ayoub says that with its Snake Eyes game, the studio is attempting to do “something similar” for the G.I. Joe IP as what Arkham Asylum did for Batman.

“A common theme you’re going to see amongst all of these studios is leadership and teams that have kind of done something that we’re trying to do before,” said Ayoub.

Whether that means the game is going to be a similar type of experience to the 2009 title in terms of its gameplay and design approach is unclear- though a game focused on Snake Eyes as its protagonist would certainly lend itself well to a combat and stealth-centric experience.

How long it’ll be before Atomic Arcade’s Snake Eyes game is formally unveiled remains to be seen, but given the track record of the studio’s leadership, it’s safe to say that many are going to have their eyes on it.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Eugene Evans, senior vice president of Digital Strategy and Licensing for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, revealed that the company is currently in the process of “talking to a lot of partners” – which includes being approached by several potential partners – about what the future holds for Baldur’s Gate, and though nothing is set in stone just yet, Evans says it’s unlikely that we’ll be waiting another two-and-a-half decades for the series’ next mainline instalment.

“We’re now talking to lots of partners and being approached by a lot of partners who are embracing the challenge of, what does the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise look like?” he said. “So we certainly hope that it’s not another 25 years, as it was from Baldur’s Gate 2 to 3, before we answer that. But we’re going to take our time and find the right partner, the right approach, and the right product that could represent the future of Baldur’s Gate. We take that very, very seriously, as we do with all of our decisions around our portfolio. We don’t rush into decisions as to who to partner with on products or what products we should be considering.”

Interestingly, Evans added that the characters created by Larian Studios for Baldur’s Gate 3 who have gone on to be received with widespread acclaim from fans have a good chance of appearing in future games and stories- which means we likely haven’t seen the last of the likes of Shadowheart and Astarion just yet.

“Larian created a much loved cast of characters, who were even celebrated by their nominations, the voice actors behind them and the talent behind them was celebrated at the [BAFTAS], and they are now essentially part of D&D canon,” he said. “I think it’s too early to express specifics and I think that there’s a much bigger question about how we approach Baldur’s Gate in the future. But I would like to think that all of those characters, for the sake of the fans, could potentially appear in future products.”

As for Larian Studios itself, it’s unknown as of yet what exactly the studio intends to work on next (but we do know it won’t be Divinity: Original Sin 3). Either way, it’ll be a while before the developer is ready to talk about its next game- but whenever it launches, Larian is likely to release it in early access first once again, just as it has done with its past titles, Baldur’s Gate 3 included.