Larian is out of the D&D game and that's left Wizards of the Coast scrambling a little bit to figure out how to follow it up. Today the studio revealed at least one of its plans for a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world: A publishing deal with Giant Skull for "an all-new singleplayer action-adventure title set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons."
You may recall Giant Skull as the studio founded in 2024 by Stig Asmussen, the director of Star Wars Jedi: games, who left Respawn in 2023 "to pursue other adventures." Well, a change is as good as a rest, I suppose, even if it's just a change of scenery.
In any event, Asmussen brought in veterans of other studios including Riot, Epic Games, and Rocksteady for his new thing, and now we've got... well, not much of a look at what's cooking, really, except that it's D&D.
"Our talented and experienced team at Giant Skull is built on creativity and curiosity," Asmussen said. "Our goal is to craft a rich new Dungeons and Dragons universe filled with immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal that players will fully embrace."
Not a whole lot to go on there, and before anyone asks, no, I don't know what "exhilarating traversal" means. I do still get a bit of a tingle when I hear the words "you must gather your party before venturing forth," but that's probably not the same thing.
Wizards of the Coast president John Hight, who previously worked with Asmussen on the God of War series, was equally not-informative, saying that "worldbuilding and storytelling is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our evolution and commitment to our Playing to Win Strategy, building a stronger presence in digital play."
Carefully crafted corporate statements that expend a whole lot of words to say not much of anything always make me a little itchy, and following up on a monster success like Baldur's Gate 3 is no small task. That said, Asmussen has a pretty solid track record for this sort of thing: Prior to the Star Wars Jedi games, he served as game director on the acclaimed God of War 3. Even if Giant Skull's D&D game doesn't deliver a bigger and better experience than BG3 (and I don't think anyone reasonably assumes it will), I'm still hopeful it'll be quite good.
Giant Skull's D&D game is being developed for PC and consoles in Unreal Engine 5. More information will be revealed at some point in the future.
