D&D Open World RPG from Hidden Path Is Officially Paused as Developer Lays Off 44 Employees

09.02.2024 - 11:06 / wccftech.com / Alessio Palumbo / Lay Off / Lays Off

The previously announced D&D open world roleplaying game in development at Hidden Path Entertainment has now been officially paused by the studio based in Bellevue, Washington.

Hidden Path Founder and Creative Director Michael Austin shared the unfortunate news over LinkedIn, revealing that the studio had tried to find funding for over half a year but did not succeed. As a result, it had to lay off 44 of its employees (only the latest round in a massive amount of layoffs happened since 2024 began).

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For over six months, our team at Hidden Path Entertainment has been in numerous active discussions to find replacement funding for an exciting RPG project. In the face of a challenging environment, we now have no choice but to pause development on that project and reduce the company size until we have an opportunity to return to it.

Because of this, we have had to make the painful decision to release 44 amazing game developers from our studio. Those who are impacted have played key roles in the development of a number of awesome projects. Their creativity, passion, and commitment has left an indelible mark on Hidden Path. We are determined to do what we can to support these talented professionals so that they can resume their careers elsewhere, all while hoping we can work with them again soon.

The D&D project is not officially named, but it is doubtful Hidden Path was working on two exciting RPG projects at the same time. Truth be told, it seemed like the D&D open world RPG had been axed when Bloomberg reported as much in January 2023 as part of a wider round of game project cancelations by license holder Wizards of the Coast. However, at the time, Hidden Path officially denied the cancelation with a brief Twitter message:

Hey everyone, just wanted to set the record straight:
Our epic D&D project with Wizards is still happening! In fact, we're currently hiring and looking for talented people to join our team.

It's worth noting that Whitney Beltrán, who was a Narrative Director on the game, left Hidden Path in April 2023. She is now a co-founder and studio head at the mobile team Dawon Entertainment.

It sounds like Hidden Path may want to return to the D&D open world RPG at some point. It would certainly have been an interesting proposition, not to mention one that's never been done before.

In the meantime, Dungeons and Dragons fans can look forward to a new game from Tuque (the developer of Dark Alliance), a co-op title from Starbreeze, and a freshly announced VR game from Resolution Games.