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[Draugoth]

​

Payday maker Starbreeze is developing a Dungeons and Dragons game codenamed Project Baxter, it has announced.

The company said it will “carry the signature Starbreeze game cornerstones of co-operative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through a Games as a Service-model, community engagement and a larger than life experience”.

Produced with Unreal Engine 5 and featuring cross-play support, it’s set to be published by Starbreeze in 2026 for “all major platforms”.

“It is hard to imagine a better pairing than Dungeons & Dragons and Starbreeze – both with their foundation in cooperative and community driven experiences, ‘play it your way’ and infinite replayability,” claimed Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren.

“When looking at prospective IPs for our future projects, Dungeons & Dragons 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 Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure in 2026.”

One of this year’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful video games, Baldur’s Gate 3, is based on the tabletop role-playing system of Dungeons & Dragons.

“Dungeons and Dragons is having an extraordinary year,” commented Eugene Evans, senior VP of digital strategy and licensing at Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. “Our gaming brands, including Dungeons & Dragons, 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 & Dragons, we are confident that they will create an experience that will delight fans worldwide.”

Source

 

[The Cockatrice]

 

[Evil Calvin]

What the fuck is wrong with these publishers and developers?

 

[Kadve]

Sounds to me like WotC is desperate to recreate that Baldurs Gate lightning strike and partnered wit Starbrezze simply because they are willing and able. Doubt its gonna turn out the way they are thinking.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Starbreeze studios isn't the "payday maker", that's overkill software, starbreeze acquired them and are the parent studio/publisher.
The payday dev only has like ~50 employees, all of starbreeze is ~180 and they are specifically hiring more people for this DND game.

 

[Husky]

Holy fuck it's been a decade since these guys made actual games. Just make something interesting again. Port The Darkness to PC. Dorks.

 

[Fake]

What the fuck is wrong with these publishers and developers?

When all they think is money, they don't think right.

 

[ReBurn]

 

[Dazraell]

Meh

 

[Labadal]

Payday 3 is actually playable now, unlike its embarrassing launch. If they can launch a functioning game, maybe people will play it.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

So…how much will a roll multiplier cost? $4.99?

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[mitch1971]

This is what happens when you have to make more money than the year before.

I'm intrigued by what comes after GAAS.

 

[ahtlas7]

This is why we don’t get nice things.
I’d like a proper D&D but won’t touch gaas.

 

[amigastar]

Is Starbreeze related to the gamestudio that Vin Diesel created years ago? Or am i confusing things here?
Edit: I've looked it up and it seems it's the studio that created the Riddick games.

 

[Beer Baelly]

 

[YuLY]

"Payday studio". You guys remember when Starbreeze used to be Riddick and The Darkness studio ? I need to get off the net, it is giving me clinical depression.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I appreciate knowing ahead of time about a game I won't be playing.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

"Payday studio". You guys remember when Starbreeze used to be Riddick and The Darkness studio ? I need to get off the net, it is giving me clinical depression.

I do remember. That studio became Machine Games.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Zero interest in modern D&D.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Wow. Absolutely all interest lost by the time I got to the end of reading the thread title.

 

[CamHostage]

Starbreeze studios isn't the "payday maker", that's overkill software, starbreeze acquired them and are the parent studio/publisher.
The payday dev only has like ~50 employees, all of starbreeze is ~180 and they are specifically hiring more people for this DND game.

Good things to note.

However, I'm going to assume that Starbreeze collaborates on (if only as producers at least) the Payday games, otherwise whatever is left of this development or producing team has been just twiddling its thumbs since 2013's Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. ("Starbreeze Publishing" has put out a bunch of stuff like Inked and RoboQuest, but the internal studios have only had Payday 3 and the misbegotten Overkill's The Walking Dead project and both were actually by Overkill.) (Starbreeze also had that unfortunate moment of buying all in on VR and trying to launch its own hardware, which only resulted in some in-store experiences as far as I recall? Their VR projects also involved other acquired companies.) Starbreeze Studios also lists itself in many places including Steam as "developer" of Payday 3 (although that does happen all the time where the only involvement a publisher has is the money and maybe some notes...) So, it's not clear AFAIK that they will be handling this D&D project all in house with this staff it has/is building up, but perhaps?

The company's own description on the staff page says, "Starbreeze is all about co-creation, both in gameplay and game development," which I supposed is all you could say about the company's development side if it hasn't developed a game in over 10 years, but either way it would make sense for them to bring somebody else in... unless Starbreeze is actually confident in becoming Starbreeze again.

(They don't have any other acquired studios besides Overkill at this point, right? They had acquired a couple companies back when they were trying to get big, but AFAIK everything was fire-sold or liquidated in the financial restructuring a few years ago.)

Announcing this DnD game is a staffing callout, among other things, but also, I wonder if they'll ultimately have a partner developer on production after the Project Baxter docs and designs are in place? Can't really say now since they name no other partners, but again, it considers itself a "co-creation" studio.

 

[StueyDuck]

Can't be any worse than the last one.

That 4 player Hero looter co-op game, can't even remember the name if was that boring

 

[Dirk Benedict]

So, PayDay 3 came out and it's getting shit on worse than a septic tank in Texas. The reviews on Steam are hilarious, lol.

 

[TransTrender]

Why don't they focus on fixing Payday 3?

 

[Labadal]

Why don't they focus on fixing Payday 3?

They are. They recently pushed an update.

It isn't much, but score has gone up from 31% to 42%.

 

[CamHostage]

Why don't they focus on fixing Payday 3?

It's a different development studio making D&D (or at least Overkill, the primary makers of Payday, are not yet known to be a part of this, it's only listed as a Starbreeze production,) and also if Starbreeze doesn't get other things going in addition to fixing Payday 3, they'll never be able to afford to fix Payday 3. Business requires forward momentum, and if Payday 3 itself isn't going to bring in millions/billions in its current state, involved companies need to get busy in a variety of ways.

 

[Boneless]

"live service game"

 

[lh032]

thread title is very depressing

 

[Loomy]

It is hard to imagine a better pairing than Dungeons & Dragons and Starbreeze

Er...I can think of at least 3 better pairing

 

[SJRB]