Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) has pulled the plug on five video game projects. Per Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, the projects (none of which are Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate III) were cancelled as part of changes to WOTC's "long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing our existing brands."
As a result of the cancelled projects, at least 15 WOTC employees have been laid off. Among the cancelled projects were an internal title codenamed "Jabberwocky," and a pair of external games said to be early in development.
Though the tabletop RPG publisher told Bloomberg it remains "committed to using digital games," it appears that WOTC is pulling back on getting into video games.
In 2017, Wizards opened a division specifically focused on creating digital game versions of both D&D and Magic: The Gathering.
The most recent D&D game was 2021's Dark Alliance from Tuque Games (now Invoke Studios). This past October, the developer announced that its next project would be "a triple-A game derived from the Dungeons & Dragons universe."
Beyond that, Wizards has also founded subsidiary studios Skeleton Key and Archetype Entertainment. It's unclear if those studios' projects were connected to D&D or the among the studios whose projects were ended.
Read more on gamedeveloper.com