The Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), owner of the iconic tabletop and role-playing games such as Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and Baldur's Gate, will be scaling down on its video game-related projects. WOTC has reportedly canceled at least five video game projects and as a result, affected both Boston-based Otherside Entertainment and Bellevue, Washington-based Hidden Path Entertainment.

The report came from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg who says that WOTC is still “committed to using digital games” but has “made some changes to [WOTC's] long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing [WOTC's] existing brands and those which show promise in expanding or engaging [WOTC's] audience in new ways.”

Prior to this report, Wizards of the Coast also canceled a project with the internal code name ‘Jabberwocky' and two other external games that were early in development. As a result of these cancellations, including the most recent ones, fewer than 15 people at WOTC will reportedly go jobless, while Otherside Entertainment and Hidden Path Entertainment will both lose significant business in the cancellation of these projects.

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The move was caused by a variety of factors. First, the critical failure of WOTC's latest video game release – the 2021 title Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, could have dampened the optimism of the company in video games in general. Yet, one of 2023's most anticipated releases is also a Dungeons & Dragons title, Baldur's Gate 3 – which has been received well by critics during its Early Access release in 2022. WOTC also maintains the Magic the Gathering video game MTG: Arena and its older counterpart Magic Online.

Another factor that may have led to this downsizing is the adverse effect of a 2022 downgrade by the Bank of America as a result of Hasbro's aggressive strategy when it comes to Magic the Gathering release schedules. According to the report, Hasbro's quick and successive release of Magic the Gathering products will hurt the brand and the business in the long-term as it floods the market with cards and as a result significantly lower the value of their product in the long run.