Roll for cooperation.
Starbreeze Studios is trading in its crime masks for dice. The Payday developer will be developing and self-publishing a game based on Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons, with a planned release window of 2026.
Currently known as Project Baxter, the game will be a co-op live-service game running on Unreal Engine 5. Interestingly, Starbreeze says it'll release on "all major platforms," potentially leaving the room open for it being a cross-generation title down the line.
"When looking at prospective IPs for our future projects, Dungeons & Dragons was always at the top of our list," wrote Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren. "Development of the game is in full swing, and we are excited to deliver an amazing Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure in 2026."
The success and acclaim of Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3has clearly invigorated Wizards and its prospects for D&D games. At the start of the year, it was reported the TTRPG published canceled a number of D&D game projects, at least two of which were from external developers.
Baldur's Gate 3 was just one game, but Starbreeze specializes in creating games with a surprisingly long tail. By keeping Payday 2 going for a decade, it kept itself afloat and is now in a position to work on (and publish) multiple projects.
A co-op D&D game was previously attempted with Invoke Studios' Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. After the release of an expansion in 2022, support for it appears to have effectively ended. Invoke is making another D&D title, though it's currently unclear if it'll be co-op again.
More than anything, the true question surrounding Baxter is what the state of live service games will look like by the time 2026 comes around.
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