Rumor: Hasbro’s GI Joe Snake Eyes Game Is Open World, Possibly Even A Sandbox

We now have some new information on what to look forward to with the upcoming GI Joe Snake Eyes game.

OK, but at this point you may be asking, what GI Joe Snake Eyes game? This game was actually announced all the way back in 2022, in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. GamesIndustry.biz interviewed industry veteran Ames Kirchen, who is helming the title as creative director, and studio GM for Atomic Arcade.

Kirchen helped produce many of WB Games’ biggest DC Comics related games in the 2000s, including Batman: Arkham, Injustice, and Lego’s DC Comics games. He joined Wizards of the Coast in 2020, which has been owned by Hasbro since 1999. In this capacity, he was helping make Dungeons & Dragons themed video games. Hasbro eventually decided to expand WOTC’s gaming division, to make games for their other properties. In this capacity, Kirchen got to start his own studio in Atomic Arcade.

Kirchen revealed in the 2022 interview that the GI Joe Snake Eyes game was his idea. He found Hasbro receptive, but they were also worried about the notorious bad reputation of licensed games. Hasbro’s hesitation in making GI Joe games is pretty well known – there is a literal 17 year gap between GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra’s spinoff game, and the GI Joe rail shooter Konami made for the NES. Kirchen pitched Hasbro on this new game, and building a new studio for it, by convincing them they could cater to the now older GI Joe fans who grew up on A Real American Hero. Subsequently, he also pitched them on an entirely original project.

There’s some new tidbits of information on the GI Joe Snake Eyes game. As shared on the GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit by user Lonelyfades, there’s a new job opening at Hasbro’s website, which is for this game. The job listing says this about the game, and Atomic Arcade itself:

“Atomic Arcade is a brand-new video game development studio located in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area led by industry veterans from AAA game and film studios. We are in the process of staffing up our development team with outstanding talent to build our first multi-platform, AAA game – a bold and contemporary new take on the GI JOE Universe starring the legendary character Snake Eyes! This is an excellent opportunity to not only build an outstanding AAA experience but to also help form the core foundations for the studio and team to build upon. We are proud to be part of Wizards of the Coast which is a division of Hasbro.

We are seeing a passionate, experienced, team-oriented World/Level Designer to help us build an outstanding AAA, 3rd Person Action/Adventure game.”

In another section of the job listing, Hasbro says applicants with “Experience working on Open-World and/or Sandbox projects” get Extra Credit.

While it’s mildly shocking that gamers plainly forgot that this game was even in the works, we should certainly be paying attention now. Even if Atomic Arcade is an unproven commodity, bringing the GI Joe IP straight into open world, and maybe even an open sandbox game, is a bold move, demonstrating ambition. And if Kirchen helped realize Batman: Arkham Asylum’s potential, who’s to say that he couldn’t make this new game a similar licensed IP success? Hopefully Hasbro has the good sense to share more about this project soon.