Wizards of the Coast has announced Skeleton Key, a brand new AAA studio based in Austin, Texas. The studio will be headed up by former Dragon Age executive producer Christian Dailey and is currently working on a new AAA video game project.
What do we know about this new Wizards of the Coast studio?
Until this February, Christian Dailey was serving as the executive producer for the Dragon Age franchise at EA, where he presumably oversaw development on what we now know to be Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. After leaving the studio and claiming that Dragon Age was in "great hands", it seems Dailey has ended up at Wizards of the Coast, where he's now heading up a new studio for the tabletop giant. Skeleton Key is based in Austin, Texas, and is currently hiring staffers like art and cinematics directors for an as-yet unannounced AAA project, according to its newly-created official website.
What could Skeleton Key's first game be?
We don't yet know what Skeleton Key's first game could be, but we can make a few educated guesses. According to a Hasbro investor call, Wizards of the Coast generated $419.8 million in revenue for Hasbro in Q2 2022, with Magic: The Gathering contributing heavily to a 15% increase in tabletop revenue on last quarter. Magic represents about 70-80% of Wizards of the Coast's total business revenue, so it would stand to reason that the company could be looking to create more games in the Magic universe, so we could be looking at a new Magic video game. Of course, this is just speculation; we don't yet know what Wizards is planning for Skeleton Key for sure. One thing we do know, however, is that Magic: The Gathering Arena, which is Wizards of the Coast's most successful video game, is heading to Steam and consoles later this year, according to Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks. If you're a Magic fan, there's plenty to look forward to this year even if Skeleton Key's inaugural project doesn't turn out to be Magic-related.
All told, it's a pretty good time to be Hasbro right now. Earlier this year, the company bought Dungeons and Dragons resource platform D&D Beyond, a step it could afford to take given its excellent financial performance in the last few quarters. Of course, that hasn't stopped the company ratcheting up prices on popular products like Magic and Dungeons and Dragons. Still, if some of that money goes towards creating new studios and working on new games, then that's something, I guess. We'll bring you more on Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, and Skeleton Key as soon as we get it.