The mountain was perhaps too high for the famous publisher owned by Hasbro, which therefore canceled no less than five video game projects according to information from Bloomberg. All of these titles are undisclosed games and fortunately do not include Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, which is slated for release at least August 2023. On the other hand, doubt is mounting regarding partner studios OtherSide Entertainment and Hidden Path Entertainment, who each work on a D&D stamped project. Warren Spector and Paul Neurath’s studio had announced (without showing it) a multiplayer project called Argos: Riders on the Storm, while Hidden Path Entertainment explains that it is working on a third-person open-world RPG using the Unreal Engine. 5.
The famous strategic realignment
A spokesperson for Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the company has performed “some changes to focus on games that are strategically aligned with the development of our existing brands“, emphasizing that we should still see the group’s products appear in the form of digital games in the months and years to come. In the meantime, the change in strategy of Wizards of the Coast will lead to the layoff of at least 15 people , who will however have the possibility of applying elsewhere within the company, indicates the spokesperson.
Last summer, however, Wizards of the Coast recalled its intention to make a name for itself in video games and founded the Texas studio Skeleton Key headed by Christian Dailey, former general manager of BioWare Austin and executive producer of Dragon Age: The Relentless wolf until his departure announced at the start of 2022. A few months later, we learned of the birth of the Invoke Studios studio in Montreal, again displaying AAA ambitions with the D&D license. The studio is headed by Dominic Guay, veteran of Ubisoft to whom we owe Watch Dogs in particular.
These two promising studios joined a family made up of Tuque Games, Wizards Kids Studio, Archetype Entertainment and Atomic Arcade (which is working on a game G.I. Joe). Based in Montreal, Tuque Games has however been the symbol of the difficulties of Wizards of the Coast with the failure of Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance released in June 2021. As it stands, it is not known to what extent these studios and their games are affected. .