An open-world D&D game is being developed by an unexpected studio
Dungeons and development
After the recent boom in popularity for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG franchise, it seems that Baldur's Gate 3 may be getting some competition in the form of a new AAA title currently being developed by Hidden Path Entertainment.
Back in December 2019 it was announced by Wizards of the Coast president Chris Cocks that "seven or eight" videogames based in the world of Dungeons & Dragons were in various stages of development, with two of those titles presumed to be Baldur's Gate 3 and Dark Alliance. With this latest edition to the D&D family, we can likely expect similar game announcements to come.
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Over the past few years, we've seen podcasts, live streams, and now video games helping adventurers to digitally explore the world of Faerun (the fantasy realm in which most D&D books are based), though we certainly raised an eyebrow when we saw what game studio was behind the development.
Hidden Path Entertainment has developed titles such as Defense Grid, a tower defense video game, and co-created Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Valve. While CS:GO is still one of the most popular FPS games to have retained a loyal player base in the nine years since its launch, neither of these game franchises are the open world, third-person genre of its promised D&D offering.
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The cat is finally out of the bag! We are making a AAA, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. That's right, friends, DUNGEONS & DRAGONSMaybe you want to come work with me on that 😉#DnD #dungeonsanddragons https://t.co/jxvIzjsxt1 pic.twitter.com/WdJw5ih6RHMarch 3, 2021
None of this is to say we think Hidden Path Entertainment isn't up to the task, but it's certainly an unusual developer to see working on this. Job listings have been posted on both the developer's Twitter and official website, with roles for a graphics programmer, senior technical artist, lead graphics programmer, and writer currently available.
With Baldur's Gate 3 still in early access and Dark Alliance pushed back to an unspecified 2021 date, we could be waiting a while before we can transfer our love for Dungeons & Dragons from the table to our PCs or consoles.
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Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge.