Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks participated in a new episode of The Verge's Decoder podcast, where he discussed the company's future projects, the state of the gaming industry, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on game development.
One of the main topics was the science fiction role-playing action game Exodus, which is being developed by Archetype Entertainment, founded by several former BioWare developers. According to Cocks, the team has been working on the project since 2019, and the release is planned for the first half of 2027. The head noted that he has already played an early version and is very optimistic.
The head of the company also touched upon the problems of the modern gaming industry. He noted that the market continues to grow, but not as fast as before — by about a few percent per year. At the same time, the cost of developing AAA projects has increased significantly: creating such a game may require more than a thousand man-years of work.
In this regard, publishers are increasingly considering cooperation with studios in regions with lower costs, including Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. According to Cocks, such partnerships allow combining local teams that understand the market well with talented developers from other regions.
Separately, he commented on the topic of artificial intelligence. Cocks believes that many players are still negative about the use of AI in games, but over time, developers will be able to find a way to use it in a way that improves the gameplay and makes the games more interesting.
At the same time, he clarified that Exodus, as well as projects for brands such as Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, do not currently use AI in the video game development process.