D&D General 'Project Sigil' 3D Virtual Tabletop Finally Laid To Rest

After 'sunsetting' the active development of Dungeons & Dragons' ambitious 3D virtual tabletop back in March, when 90%--about 30 people--of the team was laid off, Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that development on Project Sigil is ending permanently.

In a message on D&D Beyond, WotC thanked users for their support. Those who have used a Master Tier subscription in the last 6 months will gain a 6-month credit. Sigil will still be available to use until the end of October 2026.

We have made the difficult decision to end development on Sigil. This was not a decision made lightly, and it followed months of reflection with all teams involved. We’re deeply grateful to everyone who explored Sigil with us and shared in its journey. Your passion and feedback meant the world.

At Wizards of the Coast, our goal is to create experiences that help you tell incredible stories together, whether at the table, online, or anywhere you gather to play.

When we introduced Sigil, we imagined a powerful 3D virtual tabletop where you could share maps, minis, and environments with your friends and fellow players. While that vision inspired thousands of players and creators, we couldn't sustain the level of ongoing development support that Sigil—or our community—deserved. That’s on us. What we’ve learned from Sigil, and from your feedback, will guide how we approach future digital tools. We’ll take the time to do it right in pursuit of developing the best D&D experiences possible.

To everyone who built and played in Sigil—developers, DMs, players, and creators alike—thank you. Your time, creativity, and feedback made Sigil what it was. We know this decision hurts, especially for everyone who built campaigns, shared feedback, and believed in Sigil’s future. You deserve clarity about what happens next.

 

[Tretchbolt]

I wish the developers luck, unfortunately projects shutting down like this is all too common. I thought the idea had some potential, but it was always a gamble especially when Maps and other company's products do the majority of what most people actually need.

The aesthetic was nice, but I think I still would have stayed with Talespire.

 

[Retreater]

I'm glad they finally admitted it and can cut off the expectations to focus on more achievable goals. To me, from the beginning, it seemed like something that was too ambitious while being out of step with how many players enjoyed the game.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Utterly predicatable.

 

[CM]

I never even tried this, because as a DM, I would rather spend my time developing NPC plots and encounters than spending hours learning the tools and setting up the perfect 3d alley scene for that 2-hour combat encounter.

 

[OB1]

Wonder if there is any consideration of pivoting this project to something else. Give what's been done to a developer to use as the foundation of a squad based game. Create 10-12 pre made encounters, then set up online rooms that pair 4 PCs against 1-2 DMs for a single battle in the encounter space. DMs split the monsters between them, players pick individual hereos. Players get to pick from premade PCs at the appropriate level for the encounter. Then let the whole thing be modded for people to create their own encounter/monster set ups. The idea is, instead of tyring to convert D&D players to the game, try and get non TTRPG players involved with D&D and the combat encounter system. Nont TTRPGers loved combat in BG3, this is stripping out all the story for squad based turn by turn encounters.

 

[Nylanfs]

Yeah. This is why I don't like really built-up VTTs. Gimme something that's a digital white board with a die roller. The ability to import images and maps is a plus but not required. Paying for system modules or adventures that are locked into someone else's business, servers, etc just seems like it's asking to be screwed over.

I'm only getting my feet wet GMing, and we've been using D&D Beyond with Owlbear Rodeo for maps, but I did get subs for some of the other big players in case I want to try new systems. However I feel like with the dice in Owlbear Rodeo and a spreadsheet, I could probably be fine 90% of the time. Even being a clumsy first time DM I did my first few sessions literal pen & paper with Owlbear Rodeo and it went not terrible.

This is one of the reasons I'm a fan of Fantasy Grounds, you can use a digital pre-made adventure, physical one (you find the map images), or just wing things. And all your data stays on your system, which you then have to back up (Remember the 3-2-1 rule people).

 

[Nylanfs]

He's not wrong though. Talespire was released in 2021, arkenforge 2017, foundry 2018, owlbear rodeo 2020, and roll20 in 2012 based on Google results. Those are all big names in the vtt market with a dedicated niche use case they have been actively serving for years prior to sigil being announced & users of those shouting into the wind that they don't need or want high spec gaming computer needing 3dvtt just because wotc was planning to include some features that the existing vtt market already supports.

And FG in 2004.

 

[môrgondír]

Talespire was released in 2021, Arkenforge 2017, Foundry 2018, Owlbear Rodeo 2020, Roll20 in 2012, Fantasy Grounds in 2004

If there's one conclusion to be drawn from the above, it's that there's obviously room for more VTT environments for different aesthetic tastes/hardware specs - I'd enjoy seeing Sigil continue to grow & take shape in under a different oversight/management arrangement: private (sold), crowd-sourced, opensource, or otherwise.

 

[tetrasodium]

If there's one conclusion to be drawn from the above, it's that there's obviously room for more VTT environments for different aesthetic tastes/hardware

Yes there is & that was the general conseti got from the vtt community at the time until red flags kept showing up more frequently in hype than I any actual details.

"Hardware" is not specific enough. Take the 4e surface table vtt tech demo back in the day. It got lost in the dustbin of a horrible tragedy, but even if that never happened I doubt it could have accomplished much given that the surface table was the result of Microsoft doing blue sky research into touch interfaces and had a price tag somewhere near what you could buy a car at the time. The table of bleeding edge top end Alienware gaming laptops being used for sigil ironically were probably priced even deeper into car price ranges when we saw those.

"Reasonable hardware" or "hardware found regularly enough in the wild to plausibly call a market" are much better benchmarks

specs - I'd enjoy seeing Sigil continue to grow & take shape in under a different oversight/management arrangement: private (sold), crowd-sourced, opensource, or otherwise.

They might be able to open source it, but too much was spent on irrelivant eye catching features & graphics excess over actual vtt needs, I suspect that such a plan would place it alongside hardware benchmark tools like the 2007 game crysis that overshot hardware specs of the day to such an extreme degree that it's still used as a graphics card benchmarking tool with modern hardware. At the end of the day though, 3d maps are a ton more work for the gm than 2d, and if you're using it for flight, 2d vtts already handle the z axis with things like tags & the gm choosing between levels functionality style features or by making use of what is often equivalent to an Infinitely sized battlemap.

 

[jayoungr]

I always thought this was a terrible idea from the moment I heard it was going to be super-detailed graphically. It just seems to work against the imagination element of D&D. But I have sympathy for those who were excited about it.