A Team of EA Devs May Be Working on a New D&D Video Game
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In a recent interview with video game industry website GameIndustry.biz, Wizard of the Coast’s President John Hight revealed that an entire team of 14 developers who were recently laid off from Electronic Arts has joined Wizards of the Coast to start work on a new video game, which may be for Dungeons & Dragons.
The team of developers comes from the EA subsidiary Cliffhanger, which was working on a Black Panther video game that was cancelled in May 2025 resulting in the studio’s closure. The new WotC team is being led by video game industry veteran Michael de Plater, who was a key figure at Monolith Productions and oversaw development on the popular Middle Earth: Shadow of War game before the studio was shuttered by Warner Bros. in February of 2025.
Notably, both Monolith and Cliffhanger were based in the Seattle area, which is also home to Wizards of the Coast, so the transition will likely be relative painless. It’s also worth noting that WotC President John Hight comes from a video game background, having previously worked at Blizzard, Sony and Electronic Arts, so has likely crossed paths with de Plater and the team before.
What will the new team be working on at Wizards of the Coast?
So far, very few details have been released on what Michael de Plater and the former Cliffhanger team will be working on. In the interview, Hight notes they’ll “be starting concept development on something very cool and new – and that part I can’t tell you yet.” He adds that the new project is still in the early design phases. “We want to give him [de Plater] time. We’ll go through a fairly lengthy concept process where they’re going to look at a lot of different ideas.” Dungeons & Dragons, of course, is one of Wizards of the Coast’s most recognizable brands and given the team’s background in action titles, seems like a likely candidate.
Hight also points out that the team’s working relationship will be similar to what Wizards of the Coast has put in place with Stig Asmussen, the director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, whose new studio Giant Skull is working on a new D&D video game. Hight had also previously mentioned that Wizards of the Coast would be creating an in-house art team to be able to quickly create concept materials and digital assets for use by game developers.
What D&D Video Games Are in the Works?
While it’s not clear what upcoming D&D video game de Plater and the former Cliffhanger team will be working on, there are a number of new titles in the works:
- Untitled Hasbro Game: Wizards of the Coast has also indicated that an in-house studio at Hasbro is currently developing a currently unnamed D&D game, although little information has been revealed about what it will consist of.
- Untitled D&D surival sim: In development from Gameloft Montreal, the studio best known for the popular Disney Dreamlight Valley, this new D&D title will be an action-focused survival-life sim set in the Forgotten Realms.
- Project Baxter: In development from Starbreeze Enterainment, who are best known for their shooter Payday 3, little has been revealed about this upcoming D&D game (code named “Project Baxter”) other than that it is a co-operative multiplayer game and slated for release in 2026 for consoles and PC.
- Untitled Saber Interactive game: The developers of the popular Space Marine 2 video game are also working on a new Hasbro title that may be D&D related.
- Battlemarked: is an upcoming co-op virtual reality RPG game set in the world of D&D. The game is built using the Demeo Action Role Playing System, which involves tactical turn-based combat for up to four players.
- Baldur’s Gate 4: Wizards of the Coast has recently confirmed that a BG4 is in the works (although a studio and release date has not yet been announced).
Final Thoughts
This latest news is yet another sign that Wizards of the Coast is going all-in on video games, which isn’t surprising give how lucrative recent titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 have become for the company. It also seems to to make sense given WotC’s shift to a new D&D franchise model that’s all about expanding the reach of the brand.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.
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Jason Volk is the Publisher of Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics and lives in the wilds of Western Canada. He has been playing D&D for over 25 years and is a huge fan of Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. His favorite character of all time was a Necromancer named Neek who spent most of his adventuring career resurrecting the corpses of slain monsters. When he’s not playing TTRPGs, Jason enjoys video games, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40K, watching football and spending time with his wife and adorably nerdy children.
