Chris Cocks, chief executive officer of Wizards of the Coast’s parent company Hasbro, has once again told press that generative AI tools aren’t used to make products for D&D. He says it’s because the game’s audience and its creators don’t want the technology involved in its production – despite Cocks himself being an enthusiastic AI user.
Speaking to The Verge editor Nilay Patel in an episode of the site’s Decoder podcast released on Monday, Cocks confirms that Hasbro is equipping the whole company, including its design teams, with a range of AI tools to try and drive up productivity. He reportedly expects that to make each employee around 1-5% more productive as a result, though his longer term hopes are higher.
But he tells The Verge these tools are not being used in creative work for D&D, Magic: The Gathering, or videogames, because the games’ audience and creators are opposed to it.
Wizards of the Coast banned its artists from using generative AI tools in their creative process in August 2023, after a fan backlash over AI altered imagery in D&D sourcebook Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. A similar uproar over AI use in a Magic ad a few months later resulted in an official apology.
Cocks himself, however, has consistently spoken out in favor of AI tools‘ potential in Hasbro, including for D&D. He told a Goldman Sachs conference audience in September 2024 that Wizards should be embracing AI tools, adding that out of the “30 or 40 people” he roleplays with regularly, not one of them “doesn’t use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas”.
He reiterates that in this week’s Verge interview, too, telling Nilay Patel that, while Hasbro doesn’t use AI for its D&D products, his own laptop is full of AI generated material he uses in his own games. And he says that, outside of Wizards, Hasbro does use AI tools extensively for creative work.
In the toymaking side of the business, Hasbro has reportedly coded Peppa Pig and Optimus Prime chatbots, which Cocks says help human design new products by advising them on the authenticity of certain ideas in their respective IPs.
Cocks’ comments about GenAI, and its relationship with Dungeons and Dragons audiences and creators, come just weeks after another major tabletop publisher came out strongly against the technology.
In Warhammer 40k maker Games Workshop’s newest half year financial report, published in February, CEO Kevin Rountree says very clearly that his $7.7 billion company is “currently very cautious” about AI tech, and “[does] not allow AI generated content or AI to be used in our design processes”.
Rountree told investors GW has a commitment to “respect our human creators”, explaining that a few senior managers had been allowed to “continue be inquisitive” about AI tech, but that, as yet, none of them were “that excited about it”.
The question of if, how, and when generative AI should be used in making tabletop games seems to be giving a lot of industry bosses a headache at the moment. In February, former chief operating officer of board games publisher AEG Ryan Dancey lost his job after he said publicly on LinkedIn that AI could have “come up with” games as good as popular titles Tiny Towns and Flip 7. He spoke in more depth on his AI views in an interview with Wargamer last week.
What’s your take on Cocks’ comments, and AI use in tabletop games in general? Does an AI disclosure immediately turn you off any product, or would you love to have an AI Peppa Pig of your very own, to tell you what the young people are into these days? Come join the discussion in the free Wargamer Discord, where we discuss D&D, MTG, Warhammer, and the tabletop world 24/7 (and where bots get the boot, always).