Wizards of the Coast is expanding by opening a brand-new Montreal studio focused entirely on creating a new Dungeons and Dragons video game.
With over 70% of gaming layoffs and studio closures happening North America, it is refreshing to see some more positive industry news.
Details are still scarce, but the move signals that the iconic tabletop RPG company is gearing up for another big digital push, not long after Baldur’s Gate 3 made such waves in the gaming community.
The studio itself will be led by veterans of the RPG game, and according to early statements, its goal is to capture the depth and the creativity in terms of gameplay that made D&D the big dog for the past 50 years. BG3 proved that CRPGs are still en vogue and the timing couldn’t be better, in our opinion.
Wizards of the Coast Montreal Studio
Montreal has become a hub for game development, with major publishers like Ubisoft, Eidos, and WB Games maintaining large presences in the city. By setting up shop there, Wizards of the Coast is tapping into a massive talent pool of developers familiar with RPGs, narrative-driven projects, and large-scale productions, so they probably hope to feel right at home there from the get-go.
It also places the studio in an environment where creative collaboration across projects is common, allowing Wizards to lean on the expertise of some of the best in the business.
This feels like a full investment in building something that can stand toe-to-toe with modern AAA RPGs – let’s hope the gamble pays off and we’re off to some great D&D adventures sooner rather than later.
What Can We Expect From This New Dungeons and Dragons Game?
Well, this one’s a toughie. There’s no gameplay details as of yet and obviously a release window is even further away, but we can take an educated guess. Baldur’s Gate 3 has been incredibly successful, so the demand for faithful D&D system adaptations isn’t as small as most companies thought it would be.
There’s just one question that won’t be answered until we see an actual reveal, and that is if Wizards of the Coast will go full-on CRPG, go for the always beloved action-RPG model, or try something entirely different and fresh.
Whatever the case may be, the expectations are definitely quite high, D&D is the foundation for almost every RPG system in use today.
