Hasbro’s AI aspirations expand with a novel digital board game platform

Hasbro, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the GatheringXplored will be partnering with, the makers of Teburu, a digital board gaming platform. The Rhode Island-based company said Monday in a news release that the collaboration would help it explore “the integration of smart-sensing technology, AI, and dynamic multimedia.”

“We envision a future where technology seamlessly integrates into analog gaming experiences,” said Adam Biehl, senior vice president and general manager of Hasbro Gaming, in the news release. “Working with Xplored enables us to deliver innovative gameplay to our players and fans, limitless digital expansions to physical games, seamless onboarding, and powerful AI-driven game mechanics.”

Xplored launched its crowdfunding campaign to launch in 2022, a year before the game’s release date. Bad Karmas & The Curse of the ZodiacA miniature-heavy game, it also featured an early version its Teburu platform. Xplored’s technology was successfully tested in the consumer market using RFID tags, Bluetooth, smart devices such as phones, tablets and TVs. Polygon tested it out last year, and they were a little surprised by its performance. Our feature article:

Attached to the game board is a dongle with two antennas — one that connects to the RFID chips and another for Bluetooth. That’s for the dice, two simple six-sided dice just smart enough to know which side is up, and for other Bluetooth-capable devices like speakers, tablets, and smartphones. The most complicated item is a singular, fancier plinth for larger miniatures — call them boss miniatures — that lights up with a multicolored LED light at four points along its edge. That’s it: [several] mildly intelligent, by today’s standards, peripheral devices all connected to the smartphones everyone keeps in their pockets all day anyway.

This digital kit allows you to do what? It allows for the game to know the exact location of the player on the board. It allows the developers to build enemies and environments with behaviors that are triggered based on your position. In my demo […]Each of the four characters in the game had their own unique footsteps sound. As my character crossed a pit of hot lava I heard the crackles and pops from the rock beneath. I could select the skill that I wanted to use using my smartphone. A small deck of cards appeared on my screen. When I rolled the dice and picked up the six I received, it made an unusual sound. I then hit the boss. That boss’s plinth lit up, indicating that I had dropped its shields on its rear left side. Play then passed to my right, who began his turn with a musical flourish.

While everything in our 2022 demo was pre-generated by developers, with the recent rise in popularity of generative AI it’s easy to see how a program like ChatGPT could be used to expand on existing board games. Hasbro could also choose to leverage the technology in other areas, including with its in-development virtual tabletop solution for Dungeons & Dragons. Hasbro can now take that next step with the help of Xplored, which provides Hasbro hardware and connectivity as well as design expertise.

It’s also important to note that leaders at both of these companies have deep roots in the world of video games. Hasbro’s CEO Chris Cocks was a Microsoft employee. The new President of Wizards of the Coast is Cynthia W. Williams. Xplored’s lead game designer, Riccardo Landi, used to design games for Ubisoft. His company’s website boasts more than 25 years of combined experience in the industry.

Xplored is still working on a number of other projects, such as the Teburu themed board game. Vampire: The Masquerade — Milan UprisingGamefound is currently raising money for the game. Expect to hear more about the partnership at Hasbro’s quarterly earnings call, scheduled for Aug. 3 — the first day of this year’s Gen Con tabletop gaming convention in Indianapolis.