WotC Wizards of the Coast Announces Sci-Fi Video Game with ex-BioWare Developers

Wizards of the Coast announced they are forming a new video game studio called Archetype Entertainment headed by former BioWare developers James Ohlen and Chad Robertson. Ohlen will serve as the Head of Studio while Robertson will take on the title of General Manager. The debut project from the studio will be an original IP, “set in an all-new science fiction universe that will send players on a story-driven epic where choices they make will have real consequences on how their story unfolds.”

Ohlen's credits at BioWare include Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, Anthem, and of course Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, and Neverwinter Nights. Roberts served as Head of Technology for BioWare from 2015 to 2019 and Studio Director from 2017 to 2019. In addition to their video game credits, Ohlen and Robertson also collaborated on the recently released 5e compatible campaign setting book Odyssey of the Dragonlords distributed by Modiphius.

Wizards of the Coast originally announced the formation of this new video game studio in April of last year.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

On their website it says they are still hiring.

We are currently taking applications for the following positions.

• Art Director
• Lead Character Artist
• Lead Environment Artist
• Lead VFX Artist
• Lead Gameplay Engineer
• Senior Gameplay Designer
• Senior Level Designer
• Gameplay Engineer
• Technical Animator

Archetype Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer.

Clearly someone from EN World has to get a job there to leak us info and to influence them so they implement all of our ideas.

 

[Mike Myler]

Maybe WotC looked at this designer's half-a-million-dollars Kickstarter for a tabletop RPG product and said "we should prevent that from being a problem what can we do about this one" and dude said "I'll take one video game studio, please"?

 

[Fenris-77]

Doing a cool game and then a TTRPG isn't a bad way to expand into Sci-Fi at all. Better this than buying some rinky-dink little studio and publishing some random junk game.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We don't know about they have chosen to use the d20 system or their own, but we could bet if the sale are right then we will see the TTRPG adaptation, and then lots of people will use this for their own homebred adaptation of their favorite franchises.

I have said in the past modern technology with d20 system is a challenge for game designers. A sniper from a window works more like surviving a trap than a monster. A psycho-killer with a knife is a nightmare for unnarmed civilians PCs in a survival horror but free XPs in a battlefield campaign where PCs have got heavy weapons and they are one-man-armies like those old action heroes from 80's movies (Rambo, Missing in Action and others). With a remote-control drone you can kill an enemy from other continent, or a vehicle could be used to rune over a horde of zombies.

Today starting from zero is easier than updating old titles (and sci-fi gets old very soon. Today new generations miss normal technology wasn't predicted in older titles, for example genetic engineering or mobiles) , and maybe we could see a spiritual successor of some old title. Do you know? I miss alien PC races from d20 Future, Star Frontiers and Star*Drive.

I wonder about they are going to add mind-transfer tech and digital immortality. Since I bought Eclipse Phase RPG I miss them in the rest of sci-fi TTRPGs.

Have you thought about this title with biotic/psionic powers?

If the new title is space opera, I hope Disney will not see this franchise as a rival for Star Wars. They broke with Mattel because this published "Ever After High", practically a menace for its princesses.

 

[Zardnaar]

Careful now, EnWorld has an active BioWarEA Defense Force. You wouldn't want to trigger them or anything ...

Bioware isn't what it was now. I don't think you'll find to many defenders left.

 

[gyor]

Just a correction - Wizards of the Coast isn't buying this studio. They're creating it, so it's brand new.

WotC also purchased Tuque Games last year, plus they created Wizards Digital Games Studio as an internal department separate from both companies back in 2017. So this is a move that's been a few years in the making at least.

But they licensed work on Baldur's Gate III to Larian Studios, so they're not trying to move everything in-house as that's a major title. If they were wanting to move all video game development in-house, that would be their flagship. So they don't want to pull everything under the WotC umbrella, just...some projects.

Yet. They may someday change that, perhaps buying Larian.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's funny when they get a handful of people from a popular game and use that to market.

Proof is in the pudding so to speak.

 

[Abstruse]

Yet. They may someday change that, perhaps buying Larian.

I don't see that happening since WotC already owns three video game studios right now, only one of which only JUST launched its first game a few months ago. Unless they've got way more capital to throw around than I've seen from the shareholder meeting notes.

I mean, Hasbro definitely does, but not WotC themselves...

 

[Oofta]

Careful now, EnWorld has an active BioWarEA Defense Force. You wouldn't want to trigger them or anything ...

I'm not too worried. Trigger them and they'll probably just glitch or do something so inanely stupid that I'll simply ignore it. Much like (unfortunately) every game they've released lately.

 

[atanakar]

I would really like this computer game to be turned into a sci-fi TTRPG with it's own unique rule system. TSR did that with Star Frontiers and Alternity. If it is an off-shoot of D&D5e I would not buy it. There are a lot of generic systems out there and I feel that everything they do is «average» as opposed to tailored systems that do everything right for their own settings.