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.

 

[Lidgar]

Jeeeeesus.

Steepled!

 

[Undrave]

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.

I know a guy who works for a studio who maintains the Fortnite shop and it's basically an industry secret... so it's not exactly indicative of anything that Magic isn't on their site. Just sayin'. Still looks bad though.

Steepled!

Can we make this a thing? Please let's make 'Steepled' a thing!

 

[Prakriti]

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?

Bioware did it in 1998. They were a small studio with a single (mediocre) game under their belt. The lead developers didn't even have fancy computer science degrees. They had medical degrees and continued to practice medicine while making Baldur's Gate.

Believe it or not, this isn't uncommon in tabletop video game licensing history. It's the small untried studios that license established IPs, not the big proven ones. That's because the big studios make more money by inventing their own IP, and only lose out on the deal by using someone else's (because then they have to pay a license fee, among other things). Larian Studios wanting to make a D&D game is a huge fluke, and not likely to be repeated unless the D&D brand experiences a huge explosion in popularity, putting it on the same level as Marvel and Star Wars.

Until then, it's going to be small untried studios asking for D&D licenses, and WotC has no reason to deny their request, because every now and then the gamble pays off in a huge way (see, again, Baldur's Gate).

 

[darjr]

@Undrave That’s streets ahead!

 

[Parmandur]

Bioware did it in 1998. They were a small studio with a single (mediocre) game under their belt. The lead developers didn't even have fancy computer science degrees. They had medical degrees and continued to practice medicine while making Baldur's Gate.

Believe it or not, this isn't uncommon in tabletop video game licensing history. It's the small untried studios that license established IPs, not the big proven ones. That's because the big studios make more money by inventing their own IP, and only lose out on the deal by using someone else's (because then they have to pay a license fee, among other things). Larian Studios wanting to make a D&D game is a huge fluke, and not likely to be repeated unless the D&D brand experiences a huge explosion in popularity, putting it on the same level as Marvel and Star Wars.

Until then, it's going to be small untried studios asking for D&D licenses, and WotC has no reason to deny their request, because every now and then the gamble pays off in a huge way (see, again, Baldur's Gate).

Well, in this case, the small studio convinced Chris Cock to buy them outright. While skepticism is warranted, comparisons to WotC even five years ago are tenuous, given the changes in leadership.

So, Tuque has a long term goal of being AAA studio, but they haven't said this will be a AAA game out the gate. D&D is an RPG, but this isn't necessarily an RPG in development. Time will tell.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Undrave]

They used to say the best way to lose a lot of money was to invest in a restaurant.

Now, I think it's faster and easier to buy a small video game studio.

To be fair, restaurants are still a risky investment

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[cbwjm]

Cool, I'm looking forward to more DnD games, I've recently run through icewind dale and have now restarted NWN2. I always thought it was a little sad that 4e didn't have a decent game, the mechanics were perfect for a turn based game, but I'm glad 5e is getting a few.

 

[Leatherhead]

I'm incredibly leery of modern AAA titles right now.

The good ones tend to be the exclusives designed to sell systems or software, and I know that Hasbro and especially WotC aren't getting into the console making or game launcher markets any time soon.

edit: A bit of clarity.