Wizards of the Coast, publisher of "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering," has canceled at least five of its video games in development, Bloomberg (opens in new tab) reported. The publisher declined to comment on individual games, saying, "We remain committed to using digital games as a cornerstone of our strategy to bring our games to players around the world. We are making some changes to our long-term portfolio, focusing on games that are strategically aligned with developing our existing brand and games that we expect to expand and engage our audience in new ways."

In 2019, Wizards of the Coast announced that "seven to eight" Dungeons & Dragons video games are in the works. These included Baldur's Gate 3, currently in Early Access, and the cooperative brawler Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, which was released in 2021 to positive reviews, but the other games have not yet been released or officially announced. However, not all of these may be in jeopardy. The part of Wizards' statement about focusing on "existing brands" suggests that some D&D-related projects may be safer than others.

We know that Hidden Path Entertainment, creators of the Defense Grid series, have been working on a big-budget open-world D&D game. Their website (opens in new tab) lists five job postings related to this project. Meanwhile, Otherside Entertainment, a developer with immersive sim legends Paul Neurath and Warren Spector as key staff, was working on a game set in the Forgotton Realm, which Spector said last year was "coming along nicely." That job posting has since been removed, but the reference to a "multiplayer gameplay system" and the accompanying photo of a halfling stealing a crime lord's goldfish could be interpreted as an allusion to a heist game.

Wizards of the Coast also has an in-house video game studio; Tuque Games, which developed D&D: Dark Alliance, was acquired by Wizards and renamed Invoke Studios. In a press release (opens in new tab), they declare that they are working on "a AAA game derived from the Dungeons & Dragons universe and developed with the Unreal 5 engine." Skeleton Key Studio has also yet to announce the project it is working on, and Archetype Entertainment, led by James Ohlen and other former BioWare developers, is also working on a narrative RPG "set in a new science fiction world. It would certainly be a shame to lose a sci-fi RPG led by the studio's lead designer of Knights of the Old Republic.

Bloomberg reports that fewer than 15 Wizards of the Coast employees will lose their jobs as a result of these cancellations, and all will be given the opportunity to apply for new roles within the publisher.