Wizards of the Coast axes video game projects

Dungeons & Dragons publisher makes some cuts

Wizards of the Coast, best known for publishing role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and card game Magic: The Gathering, canceled several ongoing video game projects according to a Bloomberg report, though no specific titles were named.

It’s known that Wizards of the Coast had up to eight video games in production in 2019, including two titles that have been released since then: Baldur’s Gate 3, forged at Larian Studios, is available in early access at the moment, and Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance came out in 2021. The brawler received only mixed reviews upon launch, but Larian’s RPG is looking strong ahead of its full release this year.

Wizards of the Coast has been working with a number of developers in recent years: Invoke Studios, the team behind Dark Alliance, switched over to an Unreal Engine 5 game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe after shipping the previous title.

Hidden Path Entertainment worked on an open-world title, while Otherside Entertainment tinkered with a project set in the Forgotten Realms, one of D&D’s more established settings.

Skeleton Key Studio’s project is completely unknown, while Archetype Entertainment was known to develop a narrative role-playing game. The studio led by former BioWare members envisioned a sci-fi setting for the title.

It’s not publicly known which – if any – of these projects have been hit by these cancellations. It’s also possible that completely unannounced games have been canned instead. Over a dozen people at Wizards of the Coast will lose their jobs due to this step.