A group of veterans from the Mass Effect series are helping build a new space-based action-RPG called Exodus, a project Hasbro is bankrolling as part of a broader push into video games.
Hasbro chief executive Chris Cocks said he sees the game as “effectively D&D in space,” and said the company is betting on a familiar formula. “Yes, it’s a new IP, but it’s not unfamiliar ground to us,” he said. “We’re familiar with role-playing games, and familiar with how to make good ones.”
The project comes from Archetype Entertainment, where several former BioWare developers are working alongside co-founders James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn and Chad Robertson. Ohlen and Karpyshyn both worked on Mass Effect and the first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, giving the studio a pedigree in the kind of story-driven space RPG Hasbro appears to want. Cocks told The Game Business that there is a big need in the market for a BioWare-esque space RPG, and said, “It’s a genre we understand.”
That confidence matters because Exodus is not a small experiment. It is a big-budget space-based action-RPG being used as an early marker of Hasbro’s ambitions beyond its traditional business, and the company is leaning on developers whose résumés already include some of the genre’s most recognizable names. The strategy is straightforward: use talent with proven experience in Mass Effect-style storytelling to build something that can catch players looking for that same mix of combat, choices and space opera.
There is, however, one notable wrinkle. James Ohlen left Archetype Entertainment in late 2025, after helping found the studio. His exit does not change the fact that the game is being built by a team steeped in that earlier BioWare era, but it does show how much of the project’s identity is tied to individual veterans as much as to the company backing it. For Hasbro, the test is whether those credentials can turn into a hit that justifies a larger move into gaming.
Cocks said he has high hopes for Exodus and believes the timing is on Hasbro’s side. If the company is right, the game could do more than revive a familiar kind of space RPG for a new audience. It could also become the first clear sign that Hasbro wants a lasting place in video games, not just a one-off entry.
