Wizards of the Coast - Publishing Agreement with Giant Skull

[HiddenX]

Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast are working with Giant Skull:

Wizards of the Coast Announces Exclusive Publishing Agreement with Giant Skull

Led by Industry Pioneer Stig Asmussen, Giant Skull to Develop an Original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Action-Adventure Game

Renton, WA, June 2, 2025 – Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), has signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Giant Skull, a studio dedicated to building gameplay-driven, story immersed action-adventure games. This epic, exciting project will be an all-new, single-player action-adventure title set in the world of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and marks a definitive moment in both companies’ gaming ambitions. The game is currently in development for PC and console and more details will be revealed at a later date.

“Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with, and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project,” said John Hight, President of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming at Hasbro. “In our time working together on God of War I got to see firsthand Stig’s artistry and expertise, and he and the Giant Skull team are the perfect fit for our new game. 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. We look forward to revealing more about this brand-new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game in the future.”

“Our talented and experienced team at Giant Skull is built on creativity and curiosity,” said Stig Asmussen, CEO, Giant Skull. “Our goal is to craft a rich new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS universe filled with immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal that players will fully embrace.”

Giant Skull includes star-studded talent from premium studios who have consistently developed and launched award-winning, globally successful franchises. Asmussen was most recently the game director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for Respawn Entertainment and EA. Prior to that, he was the game director on God of War III and the art director for God of War II at Sony Santa Monica. Giant Skull has an elite team, all of whom will be instrumental in shaping this new single-player focused action adventure, utilizing Unreal Engine 5, from the ground-up.

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Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[rjshae]

I don't know why those T$R/WotC folks keep trying to pass off an "action" game as D&D. Usually the only thing they have in common is the setting IP; the whole D&D rule set is built for turn-based.

 

[Couchpotato]

Grognards can complain but I have no problem with Action D&D games being released. Seems the older I get, I'm getting tired of the debate about every RPG should be TB.

The problem is the cheap budgets and the chosen developers release mediocre games.

 

[Stingray]

Not every RPG needs to be TB, but every D&D RPG certainly should be.

 

[JDR13]

TB or RTwP.

I'm fine with them making an action-adventure game based on D&D lore, but don't call it an RPG. I bet they'll still find some way to attach that word to it though.

 

[Stingray]

TB or RTwP.

Yeah that's really what I meant. Something that still at least remotely resembles the actual rules of the game.

 

[Darkheart]

Every RPG should be turn-based. That being said, a D&D action RPG with open world in the style of TES or Witcher would be the bomb. Although, it seems nobody dares to invest some monies into that. So all we get is another mediocre, forgettable hack & slash game.

 

[rjshae]

Every RPG should be turn-based. That being said, a D&D action RPG with open world in the style of TES or Witcher would be the bomb. Although, it seems nobody dares to invest some monies into that. So all we get is another mediocre, forgettable hack & slash game.

Something like that would need to rebalance nearly every aspect of the game. It's tuned for a turn-based (or RTwP) experience, and needs to be heavily modified for an action game. At that point is it even D&D? Maybe some stats can be kept the same.

 

[forgottenlor]

I have the feeling that WOTC is like Games Workshop. Anyone can use their setting if they pay enough for the licence. Which is why there are so many mediocre Warhammer 40k and D&D games.

 

[Couchpotato]

Correct it seems every IP holder just cares about liscening the IP for easy cash to anyone who is interested. It's not just WoTc or Warhammer either, but Pazio as well.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Since 20 years now, everything "adventure" needs to be exclusively an "action"-adventure, according to the big ones in gaming.
Why so much hate against adventures WITHOUT "action" by them ?
I just don't get it.

I must admit, though, that TDE game "Memoria", an adventure game in the traditional non-action way, didn't become a great seller.

 

[sakichop]

Unless I missed it I don't see them using RPG anywhere to describe the game, Just action adventure.

Anyway, I'm all for an action D&D game. TBH, The ruleset is the last thing that I like about D&D. The setting, lore, monsters and weapons are what I'm interested in. The ruleset isn't great for CRPG's imo. I like to level up and allocate stat points and skills and that's just few and far between in D&D. Also the power curve is just busted. It starts out as a great challenge then at level 5 when everyone gets their 2nd attack it get much much easier and by level 10 and beyond you turn godlike. There was a time when I loved the D&D ruleset but over the years and experiencing many different rulesets in CRPG's specifically it's lost it's shine.

 

[JDR13]

Unless I missed it I don't see them using RPG anywhere to describe the game, Just action adventure.

I think people are referring to the fact that D&D itself is a RPG.

By using the D&D label on an action-adventure title, they're making a game that's going to be something less than the source material.

That doesn't mean it can't still be good, but I'm skeptical considering what we've received in the past as far as action-oriented D&D games.

 

[NFLed]

I'm hyped. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is one of my favorite games ever, probably best ever per hour of gameplay (it's not a long game).

Action-adventure is in my view a good catch-all phrase. Just using the word adventure would make me think of a point-and-click game like Myst with no time-important clicking at all, and that'd only be something which would interest me if it were also an RPG such as BG3 or maybe a strategy game such as Frosthaven.

I wouldn't be offended if they made a real-time action game and called it D&D, even though I think of D&D as turn-based or maybe real time with pause.

 

[Carnifex]

I'm hoping something good will come out of this union.

 

[Morrandir]

Looking forward to it.

They're promoting it as D&D, which (as an action game) doesn't make sense. However I can understand it from a business perspective. The popular brand is "D&D", while the name of the thing that made it popular, the campaign setting "Forgotten Realms", is not that well known.

So yeah, I'll be happy to throw around Fireballs even if it's not one per turn, but one after every cooldown or something.

I hope we get some companions for a classic Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard party.

 

[bjon045]

I'm okay with action D&D games they just have to be good!!

I loved (and still love) the D&D beat em up games Shadows over Mystara and Tower of Doom. I thought Al-Quadim: The Genies Curse was okay and that was a pure action game. Dark Alliance 1&2 were good. Hillsfar I enjoyed back in the day on my c64 but it hasn't aged well.

The rest are pretty woeful though sadly Dragons of Flame and Heroes of the Lance were just crap. The 2021 Dark Alliance game and the earlier Daggerdale were just plain bad when compared with the first 2 entries.

Demonstone is one of the worst games I have ever played.

 

[Carnifex]

I prefer turn based myself yet if the story, exploration and combat system is decent enough, I'm game for almost anything. And, of course, which ruleset will they adhere to? I'm partial to the classics myself.

 

[fadedc]

I'm mostly fine with everything and I like a good variety (though I also feel like there haven't been as many good TB rpgs as I'd like lately).

I do feel that the D&D ruleset as written is meant for TB and that it doesn't work well with other formats. But I'm fine with a D&D inspired game using their own modified ruleset to support something else. And ultimately, pen and paper rules systems are intended for pen and paper play. Almost any computer adaption will benefit from changing a few things around regardless of the style of game.

 

[Couchpotato]

They are literally dozens of TB games announced on Steam every month, and Owlcst has embraced TB for almost every future game they will release. So not true.

As brought up I wouldn't mind an open world D&D action game like GTA.

Problem is no one has the balls to fund one, and the fans are to obsessed about every game needing to stick to the ruleset, and of course it has to be TB only.

Just look at the RTwP vs TB threads about BG3.