Dungeons and Dragons Co-Op Game in Development at Starbreeze for 2026 Release

04.12.2023 - 19:39 / wccftech.com / Tobias Sjögren / Game In / Co-Op Game

Today, Starbreeze announced it has partnered with Wizards of the Coast to create a Dungeons and Dragons cooperative game. The title, powered by Unreal Engine 5 technology, will be released in 2026 on all major platforms (which likely means PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and possibly even Nintendo Switch 2) with cross-play functionality.

Tobias Sjögren, CEO of Starbreeze, said in a statement:

It is hard to imagine a better pairing than Dungeons and Dragons and Starbreeze – both with their foundation in cooperative and community-driven experiences, ‘play it your way’ and infinite replayability. When looking at prospective IPs for our future projects, D&D was always at the top of our list and I’m incredibly happy to announce this license. I want to thank Wizards of the Coast for being such a great partner. Development of the game is in full swing, and we are excited to deliver an amazing D&D action-adventure in 2026.

Eugene Evans, SVP of Digital Strategy and Licensing at Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, added:

Dungeons and Dragons is having an extraordinary year. Our gaming brands, including D&D, continue to attract great partners as we execute our plan to grow our digital games portfolio through licensing and development. Our collaboration with Starbreeze is a prime illustration of this strategy. Given their impressive games and passion for Dungeons and Dragons, we are confident that they will create an experience that will delight fans worldwide.

Some details of the title (codenamed Project Baxter) have been revealed in an interview with GamesBeat. The Dungeons and Dragons game will be action-focused with 'similarities' to Payday, the main series Starbreeze is known for, albeit with differences in the pacing.

Creative Director Leif Westerholm said:

The inspiration really came to me because I knew the game. D&D is awesome. But what is it that makes it awesome? I started analyzing that and how we could extrapolate it to a video game format. Four-player co-op. I haven’t seen this on the market. It’s going to be heavily inspired by D&D, but it won’t be dice-rolling. It won’t be turn-based. It’s action-oriented theater.

We want to talk about cooperation. We want to get to that. And that’s what we’re sort of trying to double down on. When you have a group of adventurers, a party of adventurers, working together, it’s very important that it’s not a hack-and-slash game. It’s more than that. It’s trying to look at what makes D&D special. And to me, it’s not rolling the 20 Miss/Hit. It’s more than that. It’s the connection between the players, how they overcome enemies that seem to be beyond us.

There are definitely similarities between this and Payday. But Payday is a lot more high octane, high tempo.