Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast’s New Studio is Hiring for a G.I. Joe Game

PC Gamer reports that according to online job listings, a new studio in Raleigh, North Carolina is hiring for projects related to Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. The new Raleigh-Durham Studio has listings for Art Director, Lead Animator, Lead Game Designer, and Technical Director.

Each of the job posts notes that the studio will be “led by industry veterans from WB Games and other AAA studios,” and they are recruiting for an “Action-Adventure Game set in the GI JOE Universe.” According to one posting, they are looking for “Hollywood-caliber visual development,” while another seeks designers with a wealth of game development experience. According to these listings, it will be a multiplatform third-person game. It will be interesting to see if it is closer on the action blockbuster spectrum to The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, or Grand Theft Auto.

The Hasbro franchises have had some extended mainstream nostalgia-fueled success in the last decade and a half. Between 2007 and 2017, five Transformers films were released, before a soft reboot in 2018 with Bumblebee, with a seventh film due to release next year. While critical reception has been mixed to bad, the movies have collectively made almost $5 billion. Two G.I. Joe films released in 2009 and 2013, and this summer saw the release of a soft reboot, the Henry Golding-led Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. While the film was neither a commercial nor critical world-beater, evidently Hasbro believes the franchise has enough cache and staying power with the videogame purchasing public to be worth adding to the crowded collection of AAA action-adventures, of which they are also a part with the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance.