WotC Brand New D&D Video Game from WotC's New Acquisition Tuque Games

Tuque Games has announced it's working on a brand new D&/D video game. "We're developing a brand-new game based in the widely celebrated, enduring, and immensely popular Dungeons & Dragons universe. This yet to be announced title is steepled in classic D&D lore. We aspire to push this game to new heights for the genre. It’s an honour and a privilege to begin a new chapter for Dungeons & Dragons video games."

Not only that, but the company has been purchased by WotC! The press release went out earlier today:

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RENTON, Wash., Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced that it has acquired Tuque Games, a digital game development studio based in Montreal. Tuque is led by veterans of the game industry with experience working for leading publishers. Tuque will continue the development of games for Wizards of the Coast's best-known brands, beginning with Dungeons & Dragons.

"At Wizards, we're continuing our commitment to creating new ways to bring our fan favorite brands to life," said Chris Cocks, President, Wizards of the Coast. "Our unique approach of connecting fans around the tabletop as well as through our expanding portfolio of digital games is redefining what it means to be a games company."

Founded in 2012 by Jeff Hattem, Tuque Games released their first title, Livelock, to critical acclaim in 2016. Now with over 55 full-time employees, Tuque will focus on the development of digital games based on the popular Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

"Tuque is thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the Wizards of the Coast team," said Jeff Hattem, Founder, Tuque Games. "By working more closely together, we can accelerate our joint vision and bring to life new games, characters and worlds in Wizards of the Coast's roster of franchises."

"In Tuque, we believe we have found a unique partner that pairs the nimbleness of an indie studio with the veteran leadership and scale required to deliver complex AAA games for our largest franchises," said David Schwartz, VP of Digital Publishing, Wizards of the Coast. "We are excited to bring Jeff and the Tuque team to the Wizards of the Coast family, which we believe will allow us to continue to meet the needs of our fans while enabling us to scale our digital games development capabilities even faster."

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It seems there's a bit of a D&D video game renaissance going on. Baldur's Gate 3 is coming, as is Solasta: Crown of the Magister.

 

[GreenTengu]

The last 4 video games based on Dungeons and Dragons I played have been absolutely crap clicker or mobile games that were crap and greedy even for those genres. I am convinced that D&D is more than happy to greenlight any crap that wants to use the D&D license. So, no, just announcing that a company is making a game using the D&D license is nothing to get excited about.
Maybe if there were some actual details about what sort of game they intend to create, there would be reason to hope it wouldn't be some cash-grab crap.

 

[Dire Bare]

The last 4 video games based on Dungeons and Dragons I played have been absolutely crap clicker or mobile games that were crap and greedy even for those genres. I am convinced that D&D is more than happy to greenlight any crap that wants to use the D&D license. So, no, just announcing that a company is making a game using the D&D license is nothing to get excited about.
Maybe if there were some actual details about what sort of game they intend to create, there would be reason to hope it wouldn't be some cash-grab crap.

People are playing and enjoying those games. Like you, I'm not excited by them, and I'm cautious about this new game until we get some details. But remember, crap is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[Parmandur]

People are playing and enjoying those games. Like you, I'm not excited by them, and I'm cautious about this new game until we get some details. But remember, crap is in the eye of the beholder!

This, and what games have been made in the past isn't indicative of everything that can possibly be made...

 

[Dire Bare]

It has always been kind of astonishing that most successful MMOs are inspired, directly or indirectly, by D&D*, but D&D itself has never been able to get a decent MMO going. DDO was surprisingly close to 3E's rules, but was terrible game, in part as a result (staying close to the rules doesn't work for an MMO), and in part because of bizarre decisions like setting it in Xen'Drik (I love Xen'Drik but man what). The new NWN was basically "Generic Cryptic MMO" (it's pretty much the same thing as STO's in-person sections) with an loose and unexciting 4E-inspired set of powers on top.

I think if you wanted a D&D MMO to work now, you'd have to concentrate on the "D&D experience" first and foremost, not the rules, and avoiding generic MMO conventions. Make it so tools, skills, and so on can actually be used. This would be a huge investment, though - probably $100m+, and not something I could see WotC getting into.

And D&D's brand isn't yet big enough that it another publisher would find it worth investing part/all of the $100m+ to make "The D&D MMO". I do think that could, eventually happen, with the way D&D continues to grow in popularity and general awareness, and to be a sort of "cool thing". But probably not for 5+ years, at a minimum. I wouldn't be surprised to see some VR MMO in 2029 or something which was "The D&D MMO".

* = The biggest two now being WoW, which has both direct D&D - and Warhammer - inspiration, and indirect via the direct inspiration on EverQuest, and FFXIV, which also has heavy indirect inspiration because the early FF games were directly inspired by D&D.

I've played both D&D Online and Neverwinter, and while I enjoyed my time and had fun, neither game held my interest for long. I would love to see a D&D MMORPG at the quality level of World of Warcraft!

But I'm impressed by both games as, despite their flaws (as I see them), they both have active player bases today. Neither game is a failure, and while not blockbusters, they have been very successful. Lots of people are still playing them and having fun, and the companies behind them are still making a profit (otherwise, the games would be shut down).

It's important to remember that because we don't like something, doesn't actually make it crap. Just means that you don't like it, and that's about it.

 

[Dire Bare]

This will probably be some kind of D&D branded action game, not a real CRPG.

If its good, I'd be okay with that.

I LOVED the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance console games, and the D&D Heroes console game. They had the trappings of an RPG, but weren't really, they were action titles. And fun!

 

[Ashrym]

If its good, I'd be okay with that.

I LOVED the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance console games, and the D&D Heroes console game. They had the trappings of an RPG, but weren't really, they were action titles. And fun!

I loved Dungeons of Daggorath. It was an innovation of it's time in 1982 so maybe a D&D branded version.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Do you think Hasbro will buy more companies? I think about someone or two, but I know it is only speculation. Let's say if it happens in a future I wouldn't be too surprised.

The future of many IPs is in the videogame industry, but let's take care with the (economic) bubbles.

And today some videogames studios could work for the streaming media services, with interactive visual novels, something like the cartoon version of gamebooks. If Internet allows this, why not to use it?

Hasbro has to notice some studios can produce "spiritual successors" of Baldruc Gate or Neverwinter Nights, or even adaptations of setting by 3rd Party publishers, and there is a lot.

Not only titles as "Fallout" or "the outer worlds" but more studios are creating hybrids mixing ARPG and shooters. This means WotC should hurry to not lose the train and the d20 system not be used only for sword & sorcery fantasy but also other genres.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's important to remember that because we don't like something, doesn't actually make it crap. Just means that you don't like it, and that's about it.

Both of them are really low-quality MMOs by any remotely objective standard.

I say that as someone who has played MMOs since EQ in 1999. Both of them are deeply flawed in different ways. Further, DDO was not a success. It was a pretty serious failure, for the era. DDO was a sub-based game, and lost pretty close to 100% of it's subscribers within what, six months? Three? Something like that. That they retooled it and have a few thousand players doesn't mean anything. Utterly dreadful K-grinder RPGs which are literally pay-to-win have dozens of times more players than DDO. By your logic here, nothing which retains any players is "bad", which is ridiculous beyond belief. On the contrary, DDO is proof that a pretty awful MMORPG can retain a player-base sufficient to keep some cheap servers online. Most RPGs that shut down aren't shut down due to lack of money, note, but licensing issues or the like. Presumably DDO has a generous license and is thus not a victim of that.

NWN is a microtransaction-heavy game with demonstrably poor gameplay that is repetitive and grindy even by MMORPG standards, and which removed the one unique and cool feature it had, and the one reason it could be justified to call itself Neverwinter Nights - player-created dungeons. And it removed them, because they were insufficiently profitable - not because they were unbalanced or the like, but they didn't drive microtransactions and so on, and they did require some staff to keep an eye on them, so out they went. It has a playerbase because of the D&D/FR branding, and because it's basically pay-to-win.

 

[Parmandur]

Both of them are really low-quality MMOs by any remotely objective standard.

I say that as someone who has played MMOs since EQ in 1999. Both of them are deeply flawed in different ways. Further, DDO was not a success. It was a pretty serious failure, for the era. DDO was a sub-based game, and lost pretty close to 100% of it's subscribers within what, six months? Three? Something like that. That they retooled it and have a few thousand players doesn't mean anything. Utterly dreadful K-grinder RPGs which are literally pay-to-win have dozens of times more players than DDO. By your logic here, nothing which retains any players is "bad", which is ridiculous beyond belief. On the contrary, DDO is proof that a pretty awful MMORPG can retain a player-base sufficient to keep some cheap servers online. Most RPGs that shut down aren't shut down due to lack of money, note, but licensing issues or the like. Presumably DDO has a generous license and is thus not a victim of that.

NWN is a microtransaction-heavy game with demonstrably poor gameplay that is repetitive and grindy even by MMORPG standards, and which removed the one unique and cool feature it had, and the one reason it could be justified to call itself Neverwinter Nights - player-created dungeons. And it removed them, because they were insufficiently profitable - not because they were unbalanced or the like, but they didn't drive microtransactions and so on, and they did require some staff to keep an eye on them, so out they went. It has a playerbase because of the D&D/FR branding, and because it's basically pay-to-win.

Not wrong, but they have longevity and success. It does make it more likely that someone might want to make a good MMO for D&D, if mediocre ones can be so successful. And that seems like a good task for an internal developer...

 

[GreenTengu]

People are playing and enjoying those games. Like you, I'm not excited by them, and I'm cautious about this new game until we get some details. But remember, crap is in the eye of the beholder!

Defending Idle Champions of Forgotten Reals or Warriors of Waterdeep is pretty ridiculous. They used very dirty and parasitic tactic in order to cash-grab while producing nothing that can be called gameplay. If anyone is still playing either, I feel deeply sorry for them. They are trapped in shallow skinner boxes designed to milk them for as much money as they possibly can.