Corporations all around the world are getting into AI, and you can now count Hasbro among them. Earlier in the week, the publisher of tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering revealed its new partnership with Xplored, the developers behind the digital board game platform Teburu.
In the press release, Hasbro’s gaming senior VP Adam Biehl said its partnership with Xplored would allow the company to “deliver innovative gameplay to our players and fans, limitless digital expansions to physical games, seamless onboarding, and powerful AI-driven game mechanics.” When asked by GamesRadar for more information, Biehl said AI would be used to generate experiences that could react to player decisions right away and potentially streamline rules to make it easier on newer players. The partnership also lets Hasbro study Xplored’s technology, particularly when it comes to Teburu: last year, a virtual tabletop solution for D&D was revealed. As of this past May, outlets like Polygon got to playtest its pre-alpha version.
In GamesRadar’s interview, Biehl danced around the specifics of those AI-driven mechanics, particularly as it relates to tabletop experiences like D&D. He noted that its use would “enrich” Hasbro’s current games and lead to wholly new titles being born, but those ambitions may have already hit a snag. Earlier in the week, the popular online D&D marketplace Dungeon Masters Guild announced it would restrict the sale of “standalone” AI art products, while AI-generated art featured in rulebooks and adventures had to be explicitly tagged as such. And as of tomorrow, July 31, written content that was “primarily” AI-generated wouldn’t be allowed on the platform in any capacity.
Dungeon Masters Guild is the largest third-party digital storefront for Dungeons & Dragons. At time of writing, it’s not known if its stance will change in response to Hasbro’s new relationship with Xplored and its eventual plans to incorporate AI into its tabletop titles. (Similarly, how much Hasbro is impacted by Guild’s decision isn’t presently known.) As noted by Polygon, Hasbro’s earnings call will take place this Thursday, Aug. 3, the first day of the annual tabletop convention GenCon. Presumably, we’ll learn more about the company’s plans then.
Update, 8/1 @ 6:37 p.m. ET: Hasbro emailed io9 stating that its partnership with Xplored was focused on board games, and Dungeons & Dragons would be unaffected.
While “very excited” by the partnership, the company stressed the Xplored relationship would be “centered around future applications within board games and not the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game or its upcoming virtual tabletop.”
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