SomeNorseGuy
Gold Member
Wizards of the Coast Hires Former Monolith Developers to Work on New Project
Article: There is little doubt that the closure of Monolith Productions by Warner Bros. was one of the worst news of the year in the gaming industry, so it's great to learn that Wizards of the Coast has hired a small team of former developers led by Michael de Plater.
Truth be told, de Plater and his colleagues had been working more recently at Cliffhanger Games on the Black Panther game that was canceled a few months ago by Electronic Arts. Prior to that, though, they had been at Monolith Productions for a long time. de Plater himself worked on both 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the sequel, 2017's Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Wizards of the Coast president John Hight said:
We're super excited to have him as part of the team. We were actually able to bring him and 14 key people that he's worked with there – and many of them at Monolith – to incubate a new game for us. He'll be starting concept development on something very cool and new – and that part I can't tell you yet. We want to give him time. We'll go through a fairly lengthy concept process where they're going to look at a lot of different ideas.
It sounds like it will take quite a lot of time before the public gets any info on the new project, but at least we know it's coming. Hight also said it's going to be a fairly similar process to that seen with Stig Asmussen's Giant Skull, although that team hit the ground running and is already making a D&D action/adventure game.
Wizards of the Coast has been investing heavily in video games lately. About a year ago, then-president Chris Cocks (now CEO at parent company Hasbro) revealed a plan to ship one or two video games each year, starting in late 2025 or early 2026.
Its announced projects, be them internal or external, include a new D&D game from Invoke Studios, a co-op D&D game from Starbreeze, a survival/life simulation/action RPG in development at Gameloft, the digital tabletop adventure DEMEO x DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: BATTLEMARKED, the aforementioned D&D action/adventure game by Giant Skull, the sci-fi RPG Exodus in development at Archetype Entertainment, and a GI Joe game in the making at Atomic Arcade. Another project made at Skeleton Key was reportedly canceled earlier this year.
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A collection of news snippets over the years about WotC moves in the gaming landscape:
https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-dragons-dnd-invoke-tuque-dark-alliance-new-game/ - Invoke Studios lead by Dominic Guay, who's previous work includes Watch Dogs, Far Cry and Splinter Cell (linkedin)
https://wccftech.com/dungeons-and-dragons-co-op-game-in-development-at-starbreeze-for-2026-release/ - Payday devs (homepage)
https://www.gameloft.com/newsroom/gameloft-montreal-dungeons-and-dragons-pc-console - Disney Dreamlight Valley devs
https://wccftech.com/demeo-x-dungeons-dragons-battlemarked-launches-in-late-2025/ - Primarily VR/AR devs (reveal trailer)
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/exodus-archetype-entertainment-bioware-james-ohlen-the-game-award/ - James Ohlen, Chad Robertson & other Bioware vets (trailer)
https://gamerant.com/hasbro-wotc-dragon-age-director-skeleton-key-game/ - Corinne Busche, of Veilguard fame, as Creative Lead (homepage)
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Time will tell if WotC can produce/publish games that lives up to the legacy left by Larians Baldur's Gate 3. I'd hate to work for any studio who's work would be directly compared to that juggernaut.
