Mattel Is Making a Major Gaming Move — And It Could Mean Even More Ways for Kids and Families to Play

For generations, Mattel’s biggest brands have found their way into toy boxes, playrooms and family game nights. Now, the company is making a major move to ensure those same characters and worlds have an even bigger place on the screens kids are already playing on.

Mattel has officially launched Mattel Game Studios, a new division dedicated to developing, publishing and operating original games based around the company’s massive collection of IP.

And for kids and families, this could open the door to considerably more ways to play with the brands they already know.

The new studio sits under Mattel Digital Studios and represents a larger shift in how the company approaches gaming. Rather than primarily licensing brands such as Hot Wheels, UNO and Barbie to outside developers, Mattel is building greater capabilities to create and publish its own interactive experiences.

That distinction could become increasingly important as the lines between toys, games and digital play continue to blur.

Kids today aren’t necessarily interacting with their favorite brands in just one place. A Hot Wheels fan can race physical cars across a track before picking up a controller or tablet and continuing that play digitally. Barbie can move between dolls and video games, while something as familiar as a family game of UNO can now exist across the kitchen table and a phone.

Mattel Game Studios gives the company greater control over building those connections.

The operation brings together nearly 300 artists, designers, engineers, producers and live-operations specialists across Los Angeles and Hangzhou. It also builds upon Mattel’s acquisition of full ownership of mobile developer Mattel163 earlier this year.

That team already has considerable experience turning traditional family games into digital ones. Its portfolio includes UNO!, UNO Wonder, Phase 10 and Skip-Bo, with its games collectively reaching more than 550 million downloads and approximately 20 million monthly active players.

And more games are already coming.

Following the June launch of Masters of the Universe: Skeletor: Until Next Time!, Mattel Game Studios is developing a slate of free-to-play titles that includes UNO Wild and a new Hot Wheels game.

But mobile devices are only part of the plan.

Mattel Game Studios will also work on experiences across user-generated platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite — spaces where many younger players are already spending their gaming time creating, socializing and discovering entertainment.

For families, the expansion could ultimately mean that familiar Mattel brands follow kids across even more stages and styles of play.

A preschooler who begins with physical toys can eventually encounter those characters through a tablet. Older kids can move into more expansive console or creator-platform experiences. Parents can share digital versions of games they already recognize from their own childhoods.

And Mattel isn’t abandoning its outside gaming partnerships in the process. Mattel Digital Studios will continue overseeing licensed titles, with games including Barbie Rewind, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush and Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction also on the way.

The result is a much larger gaming ecosystem surrounding Mattel’s brands.

For a company whose history has largely been built around physical play, Mattel Game Studios represents another major step toward meeting today’s kids wherever play happens.

The toy box isn’t going anywhere.

It’s just getting a lot more digital