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

lowkey13 · Oct 29, 2019

*Deleted by user*

jaycrockett · Oct 29, 2019

I have Livelock, it's an ok sci fi twin stick shooter. Maybe they'll go for a diablo type game? Of course that was already tried with the wretched Daggerdale. We'll see.

Ruin Explorer · Oct 29, 2019

Uh-oh.

Looks like we might be back to the Bad Old Days of WotC digital decision-making. It seems like this might prove that the smart decisions on D&D Beyond, and deciding to work with Larian might be a fluke, as WotC once again links up with a total no-name developer with no experience of RPGs and no particularly impressive games under their belt.

Press Release said:
"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,"

Jeeeeesus. Really? You've picked a studio with 55 people, one mediocre game under their belt, and you're expecting them to deliver a "complex AAA game"? Seriously?

This is exactly what is wrong with WotC and their digital strategy. It's been wrong for most of a decade now, and I thought maybe they'd learned. Maybe picking Larian showed them smartening up. Apparently not. They're going to have to at a minimum double, and probably nearly quadruple the size of the studio to have a team large enough to deliver an actual AAA game. That's going to cost millions if not over ten million, just to upscale the studio. And then to actually work on an AAA game? $20-40m minimum. That's bananas. There's literally no way this is going to be more profitable than licensing out the D&D license to someone who knows what they're doing, and is willing to let WotC take a cut.

I mean, I hope to god I'm wrong, but nothing about this sounds like a smart move. Even if they'd at least picked a studio with some experience and success under their belt, or a sensible number of employees, this might make some basic sense. We'll be lucky - very lucky - if this studio delivers anything at all before getting shuttered. Most likely they'll deliver some total junk like Sword Coast Legends, then WotC will divest them, having dumped $30m+ of profit into them.

I'm sorry to be a downer, I was expecting an exciting announcement like them acquiring, I dunno, a studio that had at least made an RPG, but this is perverse. What next, they buy a small studio, which has made one dubious TV movie or short-lived show, and give them tens of millions to make D&D TV, instead of say, working with established studios and so on?

Doctor Futurity · Oct 29, 2019

Well, Livelock was okay but my son and I both lost interest quickly. On the plus side, it shows that Tuque Games can make and complete a video game, so .....yayyyyy?

That said, world-weary pessimism aside, I am excited at the notion of another D&D video game! I mean, if we can have 1,000 spin off Warhammer 40K games, I can only look on with envy at those 40K fans and their cornucopia of products to pick from. Sure, I bet 90% of them are stinkers, but that still leaves like 100 good prospects.....

lowkey13 · Oct 29, 2019

*Deleted by user*

Ruin Explorer · Oct 29, 2019

Doctor Futurity said:
Well, Livelock was okay but my son and I both lost interest quickly. On the plus side, it shows that Tuque Games can make and complete a video game, so .....yayyyyy?

That seems to be what WotC are going for - it's like employing someone on the basis "Do you have a pulse? Are physically capable of arriving at work? Yes and yes? YOU'RE HIRED! No, no put your CV away, we don't need to an interview!". I mean I suspect this was a "Is your studio incredibly cheap?" like, they probably bought them for next-to-nothing, but that's so short-sighted, because it's going to cost many millions to just get them up to AAA numbers, and tens of millions more to actually make an AAA game, and it doesn't look like anyone at Tuque has ever made an AAA game.

I mean god, it looks like they didn't even have a website prior to this announcement (surely this cannot be true, but there's nothing from before it!).

Looking through their LinkedIn (a surprising number of them are distantly linked to me, that's weird!) it looks like they have maybe three people who have LinkedIn up and visible who have AAA experience - and none of it is particularly lengthy. One of them was an Executive Producer at THQ for a year and a bit. Another was the Lead Writer on Batman: Arkham Origins (no idea how the writing was on that). That's about it.

I was expecting some kind of gaming superstar to be in there to warrant WotC's confidence, but er, I guess not.

Beleriphon · Oct 29, 2019

Ruin Explorer said:
I was expecting some kind of gaming superstar to be in there to warrant WotC's confidence, but er, I guess not.

Or, you know they're doing additional development for Magic: The Gathering games, and D&D games are a side effect. WotC does make more than D&D, and it is very likely the studio was purchased on the basis that they work primarily on Magic projects, such as maintaining or updating whatever online version is available now.

Ruin Explorer · Oct 29, 2019

Beleriphon said:
Or, you know they're doing additional development for Magic: The Gathering games, and D&D games are a side effect. WotC does make more than D&D, and it is very likely the studio was purchased on the basis that they work primarily on Magic projects, such as maintaining or updating whatever online version is available now.

Nope, buddy, sorry, their website has "D&D" mentioned frequently, and never just "WotC products" and Magic isn't mentioned at all. So that's definitely not the case.

Tuque Games

A new adventure awaits...

www.tuquegames.com

Dungeons & Dragons Video Game by AAA developer Tuque Games | Tuque Games

Well met! We're working on a new D&D Game!

www.tuquegames.com

Building a new AAA game studio from scratch | Tuque Games

Building a new AAA game studio from scratch

www.tuquegames.com

I don't think it gets any clearer than that. Also

@ the fact that they're already calling themselves an AAA developer. It's like, guys, until you have AAA numbers, and maybe an AAA game under your belt, you aren't actually an AAA developer.

Oh christ and I see they had 12 (!!!) employees last year, so the 55 they are currently at is a massive expansion. And given they're going to have to get to around 100, at a minimum, they're going to have grown in size by like 800% in a year or so. That's definitely not going to create an unstable environment where no-one knows anyone and teams have trouble working together and so on!

This is such a WotC thing to happen.

Demetrios1453 · Oct 29, 2019

lowkey13 said:
"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."

Steepled? Really?

Does no one proofread anymore?*

Insert obligatory "Take me to church" joke here. Seriously though, STEEPED. Steeped in classic lore. Not steepled.

*Yes, I checked the website, and it's in the original.

Pehaps it's a very cleric-centric game?