Dungeons & Dragons Announces D&D Direct

Dungeons & Dragons will premiere its first ever D&D Direct, a thirty-minute video that will unveil "upcoming products, along with other announcements, and updates." Wizards of the Coast, the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, did not provide any additional information about the nature of the announcements. The D&D Direct will take place at 12 PM ET on April 21st, and will air on D&D's YouTube and Twitch channels. 

The teaser video for the video showcased a movie script, which hints at a reveal of the Dungeons & Dragons movie of some kind, as well as an Xbox controller, which indicates some sort of video game announcement. A stuffed hamster holding a d20 was also seen, providing another hint at the Spelljammer campaign setting.

Historically, Wizards of the Coast has made multiple major product announcements at D&D Live, an annual streaming event that typically takes place in May. Those announcements usually include the reveal of D&D's annual campaign-length adventure, as well as other products. Last year, Wizards of the Coast revealed its The Wild Beyond the Witchlight adventure focusing on the Feywild, as well as the Magic: The Gathering sourcebook Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. 

If Wizards of the Coast is sticking with its five books per year release schedule, we may already have an idea as to what products will be announced next week. Over the past few months, Wizards of the Coast has released playtests related to the Dragonlance and Spelljammer campaign settings. Additionally, Hasbro accidentally leaked that a new D&D Starter Set is coming later this year, which may feature characters from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. 

The upcoming D&D Direct is just the latest major announcement connected to the popular tabletop roleplaying game. Yesterday, Hasbro announced that it was purchasing the D&D Beyond digital toolset for over $140 million. The toolset has 10 million users and allows players to build D&D characters and keep track of them using a comprehensive digital toolset. Dungeons & Dragons is also preparing to release a new "evolution" of the game in 2024 for the game's 50th anniversary. The new game edition will be backwards compatible with the current 5th Edition ruleset, which has led fans to compare the new ruleset to the popular 3.5 Edition ruleset that updated D&D's 3rd Edition. 

You can watch the D&D Direct on April 21st at 12 PM ET. We'll have a full breakdown of the D&D announcements next week. 

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