Mattel has launched Mattel Game Studios, a new division intended to develop, publish and run games based on its own brands, including Hot Wheels, UNO and Masters of the Universe. The move matters because it expands Mattel’s direct involvement in video games, allowing it to rely less solely on licensing its intellectual property to external developers.

The studio sits within Mattel Digital Studios and follows Mattel’s full acquisition of mobile developer Mattel163 from NetEase earlier this year. Its first self-published game, “Skeletor: Until Next Time!”, launched in June; “UNO Wild” is in soft launch and a new Hot Wheels game is being developed. Nearly 300 staff across Los Angeles and Hangzhou will work on mobile, free-to-play and creator-platform games, while Mattel163 brings more than 550 million downloads and about 20 million monthly active users.