Wizards of the Coast is none other than Hasbro’s video game branch, so there is a lot of cash behind this name, and it seems they are earnest about bringing G.I. Joe to the table (but not in the action figure way…).

Wizards of the Coast opened a new studio that is currently referred to as “New Raleigh-Durham Studio.” The name doesn’t make much sense, so we’ll explain it. Raleigh-Durham is the name of an airport, while Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina (within the United States), which happens to be on the East coast of the US, quickly explaining Wizards of the Coast’s name as well…

According to several job descriptions that Wizards of the Coast have posted, the new studio is “led by industry veterans from WB Games and other AAA studios.” We learned that they would make a new G.I. Joe game in this new studio. It will be a multiplatform “AAA 3rd Person Action/Adventure game”. Four roles (technical director, art director, lead game designer, and lead animator) require experience with the Unreal Engine, and the successful candidates have to know broad videogame elements like “progression” and “exploration mechanics”.

There was a Hasbro investor event earlier this year. Here, Chris Cocks, Wizards of the Coast’s president, talked about “leveraging some perennial Hasbro favourites to develop them digitally.” “We will bring these brands to digital life and develop experiences that resonate with the lifestyle gamer in ways that are new, fresh and provocative,” he added, mentioning the following Hasbro franchises: G.I. Joe, Transformers, Micronauts, and Ouija.

G.I. Joe started life as action figures based on the US Army (Action Soldar – Army; Action Sailor – Navy; Action Pilot – Air Force; Action Marine – Marine Corps). Transformers had a similar origin, although it involves Takara Tomy as well. It’s too early to talk about this multiplatform (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC most likely) game, though.

Source: PCGamer