D&D maker Wizards of the Coast has reportedly canceled at last 5 games

Dungeons & DragonsA Bloomberg report claims that Wizards of the Coast, publisher of videogames has cancelled at most five of its projects unannounced.

Publisher, also known as The Gathering is Magic It is part of Hasbro Toy Conglomerate. Hasbro has been open about its desire to be a key player in the video game industry in recent years. In this time, it established and bought development studios and hired creatives. It now seems that it’s scaling back on those plans somewhat.

In a statement to Bloomberg, a Wizards of the Coast spokesperson said it was still “committed to using digital games,” and had “made some changes to our long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing our existing brands and those which show promise in expanding or engaging our audience in new ways.” In other words, only those projects with the best chance of success have survived the cull.

Fewer than 15 people will lose their jobs at Wizards of the Coast, the company said — but Bloomberg said the cancellations could have a bigger impact at external studios working on games for the company.

It’s not clear exactly which projects have been canceled. Bloomberg refers to the two external studios Otherside Entertainment & Hidden Path Entertainment that are working on Wizards of the Coast games, as well as two additional projects, which were both in early development, and two other external projects. However, Hidden Path narrative director Whitney ‘Strix’ Beltrán confirmed in a tweet that the studio’s D&DThe game is in active development.

Polygon asked Wizards of the Coast to comment on his request.

Given the small scale of the layoffs, the cancellations won’t have a major effect on the internal studios Wizards of the Coast has been building to realize its ambitions in video games, some of them with top talent. The company revealed that Tuque Games was the creator of the 2021 game in October 2022. Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, was rebranding as Invoke Studios and working on a “AAA” D&D game.

Wizards of the Coast announced the establishment of Austin’s two new studios over the past two-years. They are both run by two ex-BioWare employees: Archetype Entertainment, and Skeleton Key.

Wizards of the Coast is yet to make any announcements or releases despite the large amount of investment it has made in video gaming. Apart from Dark AllianceThe original version was met with mixed reception. Magic, the only game on the company’s public slate is Baldur’s Gate 3Larian Studios is the developer of Divinity. Sequel to the pair D&DThe late 1990s and the early 2000s are a time when -derived classics were popular. Baldur’s Gate 3It has received positive reviews in its early access and will be released in full in August.