On the Hasbro Digital side of things, Ayoub will oversee the development of Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons and Archetype Entertainments’ Exodus. Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks spoke about Ayoub’s qualifications that make him the ideal leader for these divisions.

“Dan has the passion and leadership caliber to take Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games into its next chapter. He understands what our games mean to the people who play them and what it takes to build great teams and experiences. His promotion reflects one of my top priorities: developing our people. I couldn’t think of a better match to lead these businesses and I’m excited for the future with him at the helm.”

Ayoub’s new role comes following his recent stint as the senior vice president of Dungeons & Dragons, where he was in charge of leading the franchise as a whole. In its press release, Hasbro has given Ayoub some credit for the tabletop RPG’s surge in popularity over the last several years. Ayoub had joined the company back in 2022, and has even served as the senior vice president of Digital Games at one point.

Before that, Ayoub had spent 11 years at Microsoft in a number of roles, including as an executive producer and studio head of 343 Industries. He would eventually serve a stint as vice president and general manager of Certain Affinity.

“I’m honored to lead Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, and grateful to Chris and the leadership team for this opportunity,” said Ayoub in a statement. “Magic and D&D have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and the teams behind them are among the best in the world. We’ll put fans first, respect the artists and creators who make these worlds come alive, and set an ambitious course for growth across tabletop and digital. I can’t wait to get started.”

What this means for Hasbro’s two upcoming games – Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons and Exodus – remains to be seen. Archetype Entertainment, however, had recently showcased a new trailer for its sci-fi RPG Exodus, giving us our first look at how the team has improved the character model for protagonist Jun Aslan. The team also noted that it has been paying attention to feedback from fans following the release of various trailers. Exodus is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 7th.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, on the other hand, doesn’t yet have a release date. The title is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and the team has spoken about how it wants to ensure that its magic system makes players feel overpowered.

Anyone who’s spent any time with Dungeons and Dragons will know that there are some very broken spells like Simulacrum and Silvery Barbs. And while it prompted a “That’s too powerful,” response, Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay told EDGE magazine (transcription via GamesRadar) that, “At some point we had to say, ‘No. Make it OP first, make it fun, and then we’ll balance it.'”

One example is how Black Tentacles won’t do much to restrain an ogre, but it can work wonders when cast on its weapon since it’s too preoccupied with freeing it to notice all the harm you’re inflicting. Guay also revealed that you won’t choose spells from a list, but rather combine different button presses to perform them. “Once you get the hang of it, you’re able to chain melee attacks, spell, spell, spell, and think on the fly. We always wanted that real-time expression of magic instead of something that feels a bit slower.”

It also captures the protagonist, Kaatri’s personal growth. “The player will learn to be a warlock at the same time as the character. You’ll gain more spells pretty fast on your journey, but you need that onboarding because we’re doing things differently on the controller than some other games.”

While much of this may sound familiar to your average action-adventure fan, Invoke previously confirmed Warlock wouldn’t feature any waypoints to encourage exploration. Considering how controversial excessive handholding has been in video games, more recently exploding due to Marvel’s Wolverine, it’s a welcome move. Don’t expect a branching story like Baldur’s Gate 3, however.

Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

“We’re being very clear on that. Kaatri is a written character, so it’s not like you can play evil or good Kaatri. Nothing like that. The main narrative moments you’re going to go through are written down, and you’re going to go through the same moment as someone else.”

Another way Invoke hopes to set its RPG apart from Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3 is with its focus on a single character rather than an ensemble crew. Guay explained that, while there are “definitely allies you’ll make along the way, kind of [Kaatri’s] found family,” the core focus will remain on Kaatri and her imp – Skev. Further discussing the imp, Guay said that he is “his own character with his own motivation”, and there will even be “an ongoing story there of how their relationship grows.”

When it comes to gameplay, Guay reiterated that Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons won’t feature in-game waypoints. Rather, the onus will be on the player to explore the world in the ways they see fit.

“We wanted to really make the game, first and foremost, about exploring a world instead of just following a waypoint around. We want the player to truly go out there, visit places, be curious, uncover secrets.” And while the in-game world of Darkon is “pretty large”, it won’t be as big as other open-world games like Crimson Desert.

“We don’t want you to have to travel for 15 minutes to find a new location. We want you to be always within like a minute, a minute and a half, of another cool place.”

Guay had previously spoken about this design ethos of letting the player go on their own adventure rather than guiding them with waypoints. “We wanted them to engage with the world, to figure things out and feel that when they found things, it was based on their actions and not just blindly trusting a waypoint.” The fact that the development team has prior experience in making more guided experiences in open-world games also helped, since the team wanted to focus on player agency in Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons.

“The core team on this game have worked on other open-world games before, and we’ve done the, let’s say, the heavy-handed guiding approach before. What ends up happening at some point — and it’s normal — a lot of players will just follow blindly the waypoint, and then you lose that agency, you lose that feeling of curiosity because you’re like, well, why even bother? And so, we didn’t want to go there. We wanted the player to explore.”

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2027.

Speaking to IGN, the studio’s general manager Dominic Guay spoke about how the team wanted to encourage exploration in Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons. “We wanted them to engage with the world, to figure things out and feel that when they found things, it was based on their actions and not just blindly trusting a waypoint.” He went on to speak about the development team’s experience with working on other open-world games, and how the inclusion of waypoints ultimately leads to players blindly following them at a certain point, and in the process, giving up their agency to satisfy curiosity that can arise from exploration.

“The core team on this game have worked on other open-world games before, and we’ve done the, let’s say, the heavy-handed guiding approach before. What ends up happening at some point — and it’s normal — a lot of players will just follow blindly the waypoint, and then you lose that agency, you lose that feeling of curiosity because you’re like, well, why even bother? And so, we didn’t want to go there. We wanted the player to explore.”

To further tie into this, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons will feature a “Mystery” system that involves players slowly uncovering mysteries throughout their time exploring the world. This could happen when the players talk to NPCs in towns, or even accidentally stumble into a new area while exploring. These mysteries will tell their own small stories, and can be of varying length and depth.

“There are multiple entry points. They’re kind of harder for us to do in that way, but we love that challenge. Not only are there multiple entry points, but depending on how you stumble upon them, it might change how you interact with them, meaning that maybe you could have found actually you can chance upon that Mystery from a completely different place, and then it’ll lead you toward that settlement, and you’ll know before coming in there’s something fishy going on here. So, then you’ll approach that settlement differently than in this case where you learn it from within.

“Some [Mysteries] are a little bit more straightforward, some are a little bit more deep and require more engagement and exploration, but that’s really how they’re built.”

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release in 2027. Invoke gave us our first look at the action RPG during Gamescom with a trailer introducing some of its characters, as well as an extended look at gameplay. Interestingly, this trailer may have given us our first look at the Mystery system, which involved the protagonist investigating a cellar that is seemingly filled with hostile enemies.

The trailer starts off quite ominously, with the Warlock having a conversation with a character that appears to be her patron. While the protagonist wants their otherworldly patron to do more, the patron is more interested in maintaining their control over the Warlock, casting a spell that turns her right eye purple.

The trailer then cuts to gameplay from the open-world game, with the Warlock being tasked with finding more magic. We get our first look at how spellcasting will work in Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, with the protagonist casting spells to get rid of some obstacles before she can walk up to the nearby town. On reaching there, she is met with quite a bit of derision from the townsfolk, who decide to ring the local alarm bell to warn people of her arrival.

We then get our look at a quest that seems to involve innocent people being brutally dragged into the cellar of a building. On investigating, we get to see that the cellar is a much more complex structure with several floors available for exploration. We also get a look at some more magic, like telekinesis and the ability to stick platforms to walls.

When we get to the lower levels, we get to see some of the free-form combat that melds melee combat with magical abilities. The real-time combat system also seems to give the protagonist plenty of freedom in how she can use her various spells, at one point showing off a position-swapping ability.

On returning to the surface, we get to see a larger-scale conflict brewing, with Drow teaming up with a larger creature to take over the nearby farms. The bloody and brutal combat system seems to have quite a bit of heft to it, and the warlock has to be careful about how she deals with the large enemy.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release in 2027.

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.”

Developed by Montreal-based Invoke Studios, the game casts players as Kaatri, a veteran warrior who enters into a dangerous pact to wield otherworldly magic against encroaching dark powers. The character is brought to life through full performance capture by actor Tricia Helfer, known for role in Battlestar Galactica.

Magic sits at the core of Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons’ design. Every spell is pitched as a tool for both exploration and combat, unlocking new paths across a beautiful yet unsettling world, while also combining with melee attacks to create encounters that are meant to feel both tactical and visceral.

Invoke general manager Dominic Guay says the partnership with Wizards of the Coast and the richness of the D&D brand have allowed the studio to pursue an ambitious open-world experience. “Working with our colleagues at Wizards of the Coast on a brand as rich as D&D has given the team the creative freedom and support to build a new ambitious open-world experience for players. We’re excited to finally announce Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons and looking forward to sharing gameplay details in the future,” said Guay.

Wizards of the Coast president John Hight highlights the double-edged nature of warlock magic, framing the game’s world as one of “dangerous wonder” where Kaatri’s growing power always comes with a cost.

Further details, including the first gameplay reveal, are planned for summer 2026, with Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons targeting a full launch in 2027 .