That was quick. Hasbro has reportedly cancelled the single-player Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure being made by Star Wars Jedi director Stig Asmussen, less than a year after it was announced.
We didn’t know much about the D&D game other than that it was in development at Asmussen’s newish studio Giant Skull, which he set up after leaving Respawn Entertainment in 2023. Asmussen had used the phrases “immersive storytelling”, “heroic combat” and “exhilarating traversal” when describing his ambitions for the game.
However, Bloomberg has now reported Wizards of the Coast pulled the plug on the project earlier this year. “We assess concepts at every stage of development,” said a spokesperson for Wizards, in a staement since sent to Eurogamer. “While we decided not to pursue an early concept from Giant Skull, we have great respect for Stig Asmussen and his team and value our ongoing relationship.”
Wizards is apparently still taking game pitches from the Giant Skull team, according to Bloomberg, and Asmussen said he was talking to other companies about potential publishing deals. “Things are good at Giant Skull,” he said.
The Giant Skull D&D project was one of a few video games Hasbro has in development. The most notable of these are the Mass Effect-like Exodus, in development at Wizards-owned studio Archetype Entertainment, and the darker-themed Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure Warlock, in development at Invoke, another Wizards-owned studio. Perhaps Stig Asmussen’s game clashed with Warlock as it sounds mechanically similar. Both Exodus and Warlock are due for release in 2027.
These games are part of a billion-dollar push by Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast, to establish a successful video game business of its own, beyond the successful Magic: The Gathering digital game Arena, and external D&D collaborations like Baldur’s Gate 3.
However, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have tried this before, most notably with 2021’s ropey Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance revival Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. That game’s developer, Tuque Games, rebranded as Invoke – the studio behind Warlock – in late 2022. When I attended a briefing for Warlock’s announcement last year, though, Invoke was at pains to distance itself from its previous project, insisting this game was being made by a completely different team.
