Starbreeze’s Upcoming D&D Video Game Has Been Cancelled
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In December 2023, Wizards of the Coast had announced that a new Dungeons & Dragons video was in the works from Swedish studio Starbreeze (maker of Payday 3 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons). The untitled game was set to be a co-operative multiplayer title for PCs and consoles set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
As of today, however, Starbreeze has announced that the D&D game has been officially discontinued, with the company pivoting instead to a new Payday title. It marks one of many D&D video games to have been cancelled over the past few years, with Wizards of the Coast even going so far as to axe five D&D projects back in January 2023.
So just what does this latest unfinished title mean for the future of D&D video games? Below, we sort through all the wreckage.
What was Starbreeze’s New D&D video game going to be about?
Starbreeze’s now defunct D&D video game (which went under the codename “Project Baxter) was originally described as a “co-op urban crawl” set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons and available for consoles and PC. The game was being developed using Unreal Engine 5 and would have included cross-console play and use a Games as a Service-model, which is designed to monetize the title after release through elements like microtransactions and downloadable content.
The project was launched in 2023, so had several years of development effort, with the company releasing concept art and an official product page, which has since been taken down, but is visible via the WayBackMachine. The game was originally slated for release sometime in 2026, so was likely quite far into the development process.
Why was Starbreeze’s D&D video game cancelled?
In the official press release Starbreeze CEO Adolf Kristjansson states: “Following a strategic review, the Board of Directors and management have concluded that resources are best deployed to accelerate the growth of Starbreeze’s flagship PAYDAY franchise. The decision results in a non-cash impairment of approximately SEK 255 million [$27 million USD] in the third quarter of 2025 related to previously capitalized development costs.”
Reading between the lines, it’s likely Starbreeze was under increasing financial stress and lacking capital or runway to support multiple projects. Being tied to an IP like Dungeons & Dragons probably also carried higher development risks and licensing fees. Cancelling Project Baxter likely allows Starbreeze to free up cash reduce risk and put all their energy into their more established and far more lucrative Payday game franchise. The mention of the “non-cash impairment” (an accounting term for where a company recognizes that an asset is no longer worth as much as they once thought) also suggests the project likely wasn’t going to offer a return on their investment, so they decided to cut losses early.
What D&D Video Games Are in the Works?
While the Starbreeze D&D video game is no more, there are a number of new titles that are in the active stages of development, including:
- 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.
- 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
It’s unfortunately quite common for video games to be cancelled, even in late stages of development, so the news here is unwelcome for D&D fans, but not entirely surprising. That being said, the development of new D&D video games has been a major priority for Wizards of the Coast in the wake of the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, with the company even recently opening a new studio in Montreal.
Whether other D&D games in development meet the same fate as Project Baxter remains to be seen, but it’s likely more than a few will also fail their death saving throw in the months to come.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
