D&D Going All in On Unreal Engine 5, Says WotC Boss
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In a recent interview with video game industry news website The Game Business, Wizard of the Coast’s president John Hight revealed that the company will be heavily invested in the Unreal Engine 5 and has plans to integrate the software with numerous upcoming Dungeons & Dragons video games. The goal is to be able to share digital assets between different developers in order to get games made more quickly.
The strategy makes sense given that Hight comes from a video game background, having previously held leadership roles at Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Atari and Sony. Hight’s bullish approach to Unreal Engine 5, however, also comes hot on the heels of the disastrous Sigil VTT, which was made using UE5 and which Wizards of the Coast essentially scrapped, despite several years of intensive and costly development efforts.
So just what does this news mean for the future of D&D video games and the brand as a whole? Below, we dig into all the details.
How will future D&D video games be using Unreal Engine 5?
In the recent interview with The Game Business, WotC CEO John Hight revealed an upcoming D&D video game from Giant Skull would be built using UE5. That studio is being led by industry veteran Stig Asmussen, who previously worked on the God of War and Star Wars: Jedi video games series.
In the interview, Hight notes: “One thing we’re doing with our premium games is they’re actually all built on Unreal 5. And we’re establishing a content creation team to help service teams. So, you know, hey, we make fantasy games. We make sci-fi games. We’re going to have a team of artists and world builders that can help out and step in if Stig [CEO of Giant Skull] wants to use them during that time when we’re in full production.”
In other words, Wizards of the Coast will essentially be running a digital art team who can create new assets for video game projects within Unreal Engine 5.
What is Unreal Engine 5?
Unreal Engine 5 (also known as UE5) is the latest version of the popular Unreal Engine game development platform created by Epic Games. The platform allows developers to create highly realistic, large-scale interactive experiences that can then be ported over to video games. UE5 was released in 2022 as the successor to the Unreal Engine 4 platform, and features a number of major improvements, including the ability to create film-quality digital assets, more realistic characters and integration with animation.
Since its release, Unreal Engine 5 has been used for a number of major AAA video game titles, including Fortnite, Borderlands 4, Dead by Daylight and Mafia: The Old Country. It is also being used for a number of major upcoming action RPG releases, including Cyberpunk 2 and The Witcher 4.
What other D&D Video Games Are in the Works?
While it’s not clear what upcoming D&D video games will be using Unreal Engine 5, there are a number of new titles in the works:
- Untitled D&D surival sim: In development from Gameloft Montreal, the studio best known for the popular Disney Dreamlight Valley, this new D&D title will be an action-focused survival-life sim set in the Forgotten Realms.
- Project Baxter: In development from Starbreeze Enterainment, who are best known for their shooter Payday 3, little has been revealed about this upcoming D&D game (code named “Project Baxter”) other than that it is a co-operative multiplayer game and slated for release in 2026 for consoles and PC.
- Untitled Hasbro Game: Wizards of the Coast has also indicated that an in-house studio at Hasbro is currently developing a currently unnamed D&D game, although little information has been revealed about what it will consist of. Some have speculated that this may be BG3 (although it seems unlikely).
- Untitled Saber Interactive game: The developers of the popular Space Marine 2 video game are also working on a new Hasbro title that may be D&D related.
- Battlemarked: is an upcoming co-op virtual reality RPG game set in the world of D&D. The game is built using the Demeo Action Role Playing System, which involves tactical turn-based combat for up to four players.
- Baldur’s Gate 4: Wizards of the Coast has recently confirmed that a BG4 is in the works (although a studio and release date has not yet been announced).
Final Thoughts
With the financial and critical success of Baldur’s Gate 3 (which incidentally ,was not built using Unreal Engine 5), Wizards of the Coast is clearly betting big on future D&D video games. Yet it’s hard to overlook the last time they attempted to create something using UE5, it resulted in the complete collapse of the Sigil VTT.
Regardless, the strategy of sharing digital assets across multiple games, is an intriguing one, in that it could allow fans to get their hands on new D&D video games much quicker than we’ve seen in the past, and with a consistent quality and look to assets. It also seems to dovetail with WotC’s shift towards more of a franchise model for D&D. Whether it pays off, however, remains to be seen.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available. Below is also the video interview with Wizards of the Coast President John Hight and Giant Skull head Stig Asmussen discussing upcoming D&D games and the use of the Unreal Engine 5.
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